Freedom 68: Canadians feel retirement dreams fading

The findings echo a recent Conference Board of Canada survey which showed one in five respondents have been forced to delay their retirement by at least a year.

“For most, the dream of retiring at 55 is over, squashed by the effects of the recession,” said Pedro Antunes, director of national forecasts at the Conference Board, in a recent blog post. “The baby-boom generation, a huge cohort that is currently entering its prime retirement age, was hard hit in the portfolio by the Great Recession. They may have to delay their golden years – at least for a while.”

Freedom 55, it seems, is dead. The phrase was coined in a mid-1980s advertising campaign for London Life Insurance Co. The idea – having sufficient financial freedom to travel the world and sip wine at sunset – mirrored an age of booming stock markets and relative job security.

Nowadays – even though Canada’s economy is comparably stable – people are worried about global turmoil, including instability in Libya, Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and the U.S. jobless rate.

Investors were “blindsided” by the financial crisis and are now much more risk-averse, said Peter Drake, vice-president of retirement and eco research at Fidelity Investment. That means they’re opting for more secure, but lower-return, investments and making other adjustments such as working longer.

For employers, that means there is a growing need to offer flexible work hours and adapt training programs to older workers, he said.

Reasons to keep working

68

Age at which the average Canadian now expects to retire, up from 65 in last year’s survey.

68

Percentage of people earning less than $50,000 who say a main reason to work past 65 is to earn enough for basic living expenses.

71

Percentage of people making more than $100,000 who say a main reason to work past 65 is to stay mentally active.

1

Priority ranking given for paying down debt, including loans and credit cards (outranks other priorities such as saving for a home or retirement).

Source: Sun Life Financial’s 2011 Canadian Unretirement Index

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Keywords: retirement, work