More than a third of Canadians aren’t confident they’ll reach their financial goal for retirement, according to a new survey by the Royal Bank of Canada.
The bank, which surveyed 2,000 non-retired Canadians, found 16 per cent are very confident, 45 per cent felt somewhat confident and 39 per cent aren’t confident they’ll ever reach their retirement savings goal.
Two-thirds (66 per cent) of respondents said they have a higher priority — being debt-free. Still, Canadians hope they’ll be able to save for retirement. The national average savings goal for a comfortable retirement is $787,000, according to the survey.
Read: Women more worried about financial security in retirement than men: survey
Residents in British Columbia had the highest retirement goal ($1.07 million) and residents in Quebec had the lowest goal ($427,000). On average, residents of Alberta set a retirement goal of $916,000, followed by Saskatchewan and Manitoba ($907,000), Ontario ($872,000) and Atlantic Canada ($774,000).
The survey also found men had a higher retirement savings target ($942,000) than women ($650,000).
Survey respondents also noted certain actions they’d be willing to take to save for retirement, including spending less on non-essentials (74 per cent), eating out less (59 per cent), postponing major purchases (45 per cent) and cutting back on travel (34 per cent).