One in two have lost sleep over money, and one in three have experienced mental challenges from it
Canadians are more stressed about their money than anything else, FP Canada’s latest financial stress index reveals for the sixth year in a row. Money woes once more beat out personal health, relationships, and work-related concerns in 2023.
FP Canada found that elevated inflation, higher gas prices, and higher cost of groceries were significant contributors to stress, while matters like paying the bills, saving for retirement, and saving for a major planned purchase caused stress for roughly one-third of all Canadians.
FP Canada’s financial stress index polls over 2,000 Canadians through Leger. Apart from asking respondents what they consider sources of stress in their lives, the survey records how financial stress affects people, and whether having a financial planner does anything to uplift them.
Forty percent of Canadians expressed that money was the biggest source of stress for them. Nearly one in two (48%) experienced losing sleep over financial concerns, and one in three Canadians (36%) admitted to facing mental health challenges – including anxiety and depression – as a result of financial stress.
This year, FP Canada identified the top contributors of Canadians’ financial stress:
- Rising grocery prices (69%)
- Cost of inflation (63%)
- Elevated gas prices (49%)
In addition, almost one in two (48%) said they had less disposable income than the previous year, compared to the one in five respondents (18%) who said their disposable income grew.
In 2022, only 39% of the respondents said they had less yearly disposable income, CTVNews.ca reported.
Despite their shrinking disposable income, 68% of respondents planned to make a significant purchase within the next year or had a significant expense ahead of them, including:
- Paying off their credit card debt (21%),
- Taking an extended vacation (18%), and
- Donating to a charitable cause (13%).
Apart from paying the bills (35%), saving enough for retirement (35%), and saving for a major purchase (32%), FP Canada’s financial stress survey found that Canadians were most stressed by debt (29%), beating out income-stability concerns (22%) and their own lack of control (17%).
David Christianson, a certified financial planner at National Bank Financial Wealth Management, pointed out in an interview with CTVNews.ca that many Canadians were in “piles of debt”, including those with on variable interest credit lines forced to pay “much, much higher rates of interest and much, much higher debt payments” than they had to the years before.
“People really got in the habit of having almost free money,” Christianson said. “They had a good credit rating and collateral. And now that's not the case anymore.”
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