The Canadian economy may be improving, but consumers in the Great White North aren’t that confident about their own personal finances, says a new poll released by CIBC on Monday.
According to the survey, 65 percent of Canadians ended 2014 feeling confident about reaching their financial goals in the upcoming year. Although this may initially seem high, this is significantly down from last year’s 76 percent and 2013’s 74 percent. In fact, this is the lowest level in five years.
Canadians between the ages of 45 and 54 were the least confident this year as only 58 percent reported to be confident about meeting their financial objectives in 2015. This too is a substantial decline from 77 percent a year ago. The most confident of age demographics were those aged 25 to 44, with 75 percent feeling confident, which is pretty much the same from a year ago.
Positivity is another description about one’s personal finances that has dropped off this year. The poll discovered that 63 percent were confident about their monetary situation, a decline from 70 percent last year.
“This decline in confidence among boomers is the most significant we’ve seen in five years,” said Christina Kramer, Executive Vice President, Retail and Business Banking of CIBC, in a statement. “As each year goes by and boomers increasingly focus on debt reduction as an immediate priority, they also get closer to retirement without a long term plan in place that will deliver the retirement they are looking for.”
We reported last week of another CIBC poll that noted paying down debt is the No. 1 priority for Canadian consumers. The survey found that 22 percent of consumers wanted to pay off their debt, while 12 percent aimed to build their savings. Reducing debt levels has been the primary goal for Canadians for five consecutive years.
The latest CIBC telephone poll was conducted with 1,014 Canadians between Nov. 13 and 17. It contains a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points.