A Bank of Montreal study[i] released on February 7, 2014 says that today’s young adults and teens are overly confident about facing life’s major financial milestones. A clear understanding of what the future may hold is a good reason to begin preparing for it NOW.
Young adults and teens need to realize that they will be facing big personal financial challenges in the future. Voting for Liberals and NDPs – who believe in nanny-state big government funded by ever-increasing taxes – will make their situation worse! According to BMO’s 13-page report:
* 65% of Gen Xs and 72% of Gen Ys feel confident that they’ll be able to buy a house at some point.
Reality check: The average home now costs almost 8 times the average pre-tax, full-time yearly salary. In 1997, the average Canadian home only cost 5 times the average salary.
* 70% of Gen Xs and Gen Ys who want to start a family think they’ll be able to pay for their kids’ post-secondary education.
Reality check: Younger Canadians are choosing to have children at an older age. Therefore, many Gen Xs and Gen Ys should expect to become “parenshioners”, i.e. retirees with limited income who have children still pursuing post-secondary education, which BMO says could be as high as $140,000 for a child born in 2013.
* 65% of Gen Xs and Gen Ys expect to retire “comfortably” when they choose to do so. A majority also plan on retiring around age 61 — two years earlier than the average Baby Boomer.
Reality checks:
1. Many Gen Xs and Gen Ys have not even started to save for retirement.
2. There are fewer jobs with employee-sponsored pension plans.
3. Canadians are living longer and having longer retirements.
The BMO study concludes that “Generation X and Generation Y will have to save more efficiently and work more years than the Baby Boomers did.”
Saving efficiently is strongly impacted by the amount of taxes you have to pay. The higher your taxes, the less money you have to save. Conservatives believe in less government and lower taxes. We do not share the Liberals’ and NDP’s desire for nanny-state big government funded by ever-increasing taxes.
The best hope that Gen Xs and Ys have for a prosperous future is to VOTE CONSERVATIVE!
[i]Generation Xs are currently in their mid-30s to late 40s while Generation Ys are currently in their late teens to early 30s. The study’s findings were based on an online survey done between Nov. 6 to Nov. 11, 2013 with 842 Canadians in these two age groups.
