ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — A large number of seniors in Atlantic Canada are worried they will outlive their retirement savings.
A survey published last week by financial services company Sun Life found 47 per cent of the 2,901 Canadian seniors surveyed worry they won’t have enough money to last through their retirement. In Atlantic Canada, 43 per cent share the concern.
The survey also found that 73 per cent of respondents in Atlantic Canada will work past age 66 because they need to.
Seniors advocate Susanne Brake says she’s heard similar concerns from seniors in the province since she was appointed seniors advocate in 2017.
Brake says during her office’s initial consultations with seniors across the province, a number of people came forward with concerns about retirement savings.
“Their savings, their nest egg, what they had put away for their retirement, they could see that it was not going to last. So, they want to supplement it and make that last longer,” said Brake.
Sun Life recommended that people meet with an adviser to make a tangible retirement plan to make sure retirement savings can go as far as they need to.
Brake says one of the keys she has observed is for seniors to do what they can to have as little debt as possible when it’s time to retire.
“Number one is to have no debt. To work towards a time when you retire that you don’t have a mortgage, you don’t have debt,” she said.
“The second piece to think about (is that) economists say that if you have 70 per cent of your after-tax income of what you had when you were working, then you should be able to manage fine. I take that with a grain of salt, a bit, because it all depends on who you are, what your lifestyle is. If you’re going to retire, don’t wait until a year ahead or two years ahead of when you think you might retire. Start thinking about it early on.”
Brake says it’s a new reality where seniors are increasingly staying in the workforce past their retirement age. She says in those cases, employers need to be conscious of what seniors need to be as productive as possible.
“People want to work longer, but they don’t want, necessarily, to work in the same workplace. Or if they do, they want changes made, accommodation made to make things easier, in terms of how they can work part time, or share a job, or have accommodations in terms of computers,” she said.
“They believe they have a lot to offer, a lot to continue to support our workforce and our economy. But they need accommodations to do that.”
Both Sun Life and Brake agree on advice for young people: if you have the chance to contribute to a retirement savings plan, do it, and the earlier the better.
“Canadians are missing out on billions of dollars of potential retirement savings each year by not taking full advantage of matching contributions by their employer,” reads the Sun Life report.
