In a poll conducted in November 2018, RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) found that the average British Columbian believes they need a $1.07 million nest egg to comfortably retire.
The poll collected responses from roughly 2,000 Canadians across the country, and categorized the results by age, race, and geographic locations to reflect the adult population according to Census data.
British Columbians reported the largest life savings required for retirement, with the next highest coming from Alberta, where residents say they need $916,000 to retire comfortably.
Nationally the overall average for a desired retirement fund comes in at roughly $787,000.
When poll respondents were asked about how confident they were in being able to save up for their desired nest egg, 16% of BC residents said they were “very confident”, 33% said they were “somewhat confident”, and the majority 51% said they would “never build their nest egg up enough”.
To help save, the poll asked what steps respondents were willing to take to add to their retirement goals.
The vast majority of British Columbians said they would spend less on non-essentials (76%), nearly two-thirds said they’d eat out less (62%), about half said they’d postpone major purchases (52%), and (37%) said they’d be willing to cut back on travel.
Meanwhile, RBC found that the top motivator for saving in BC and across the country was “being debt free”.
“Debt is a huge motivator for most Canadians – they’re telling us they don’t want to live with debt now and they don’t want to retire with debt in future,” said Richa Hingorani, Senior Director, of Digital Strategy in the poll.
In BC, 69% of respondents said they wanted to be debt free for retirement. Nationally, 66% agreed.
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