A new survey came out by Scotia Bank suggesting that One Third of Canadians do not have a savings plan. I was asked to comment on this story on Alberta Primetime and my first response was is this really a surprise to anyone?
I was asked why Canadians might be having such a tough time saving so here is my take at the topic.
1. Financial Education.
For anyone that knows me, you know that I am very vocal about the importance and need for more financial education and literacy. The statistics are alarming when it comes to debt, savings and fiscal responsibility. One of the reasons for this is the lack of formal financial education.
2. Consumption attitude.
We live in a society that loves to spend. It starts with a government that believes spending drives the economy and for the past few decades, governments have encouraged spending even if it means spending money we do not have. We live in a world of delayed consequence over delayed gratification and unfortunately we are facing those consequences today. I’m not an economist but common sense says there are huge problems in overspending in this manner. We live in a consumption society.
3. Too much debt.
The data on debts are staggering. I found this data on an economist blog so I am not sure how credible the data is but the numbers are scary:
- Credit Card Balances up 458% in 11 years to $55 Billion
- Residential mortgages up 242% to $965 billion
- Personal lines of Credit up 820% to $205 Billion
- Total household debt is over $1.5 Trillion
- Debt to disposable income is over 155%
How can you save money when Canadians have this much debt? With these kinds of increases in debt, the amount of income that goes to service this debt has increased accordingly. The root of the problem is financial institutions figured out that debt is big business and it is extremely profitable too. Debt has become a marketed product in and of itself.
4. Complexity of the financial market.
The financial marketplace has gotten extremely complex and as a result, investors are more confused than ever. More choices has paralyzed investors from making decisions. Think about it. With over 9000 mutual funds, how can you possibly go through that many funds.
5. Rewards are not there.
Interest rates play a role in savings. The higher the interest rates, the more likely people are to save. This can be seen back in the 1980′s when savings rates were at their highest. Remember that was when interest rates were double digits 10 to 21%. It’s much more rewarding to save when interest rates are not less than 1%. Beyond interest rates, the markets and mutual funds have also not been overly generous to investors in the past decade. It’s not been the most favourable time to invest.
Should people be saving more money?
The obvious answer to this question should be yes but there may be merit in foregoing the savings and paying down debt first. It makes no sense to have money in savings earning 1% or less when you have debt costing you 5% or more. Every day you have this scenario, you are going backwards financially. Paying down debts might be the best form of savings and investing.
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[...] It’s tough to save because no one has much of a support group. More people are encouraging you to spend as opposed to save. Chilton says “there are only three Canadians that want you to set aside some money – your future, your financial advisor and me.” [...]