WATCH: Personal finance expert Preet Banerjee discusses a report that says Canadians are less likely to leave an inheritance to their kids.
Already confronting a tougher job market than their parents did, and perhaps anchored to more debt because of student loans, many millennials won’t likely appreciate the findings in a new poll that suggests more than a few parents aren’t planning to leave their offspring a dime when their time is up.
“Canadians are some of the most likely to want to spend it all before they go,” a new survey from HSBC published Wednesday said. Just how pervasive is this plan to leave the financial tank on empty?
“When asked about their attitude towards spending and saving, 27 per cent of working-age Canadians say ‘spend all your money and let your children create their own wealth,’” the survey said.
It gets worse. Far from be relied on to chip in for a down payment for a home or help out with a new vehicle, the vast majority of workers polled said their kids shouldn’t bank on any financial support in adulthood. A meagre one in 10 said they were prepared to help provide financial support to adult children.
‘Spend all your money and let your children create their own wealth.’
The HSBC survey was conducted with 16,000 people globally, including 1,000 Canadian respondents.
Other findings:
- Big spenders: Canadians some of the most likely to want to spend it all before they go. When asked about their attitude toward spending and saving, 27 per cent of working-age Canadians say “spend all your money and let your children create their own wealth.”
- Daring to dream: Canadian retirees significantly more likely to reach their later-in-life goals. Forty-four per cent of Canadian retirees have reached “at least one of their retirement hopes and aspirations,” placing them well above the global average (24%).
- Mixed sentiments on semi-retirement: Canadian retirees are among the most likely to feel forced into semi-retirement, but almost half of today’s workers are planning for it. Only 17 per cent of today’s fully-retired Canadians say they semi-retired first, whereas 45 per cent of working-age respondents say they plan to semi-retire before taking full retirement.
- Canadians’ ‘Bank of mom and dad’ likely closed: Canadians are among the least likely to financially support adult children. Only 11 per cent of Canadian pre-retirees surveyed say they provide financial support to grown-up children – making Canadians among the least likely of all their peers globally to be providing financial support to their adult children, and placing them well below the global average (21%).
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