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| WHAT: | When it comes to retirement planning, boomers in B.C. face a challenging predicament: they want to enjoy a long retirement, but they aren't taking the necessary steps to ensure they can afford it.
According to previous BMO Financial Group/Ipsos Reid retirement studies, almost one in four (23%) B.C. boomers intend to spend more than 20 years in retirement with another 19 per cent expecting their retirement to last between 15 and 20 years*. However, more than half don't have a written financial plan, with 27 per cent indicating that their plans are “in their heads”, while 30 per cent admitted that they don't have a plan at all. In fact, close to one in three boomers in B.C. (28%) said they are “hoping for the best”. Although the situation may seem dire for these boomers, more than two-thirds (72%) said they are willing to make sacrifices in order to retire. Of the B.C. boomers who identified that they were willing to make changes, more than half (56%) said they would refinance or downsize their homes to maintain a comfortable lifestyle, while a third (34%) would give up their cars. |
| WHO: | BMO Financial Group has local experts who can provide tips to help British Columbians build their retirement plans. They can discuss:
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*Based on online surveys conducted by Ipsos Reid for BMO Financial Group in 2006 among a randomly selected sample of more than 1,000 respondents aged 45-60. The first survey included 152 respondents in British Columbia, while the second included 213. With samples of this size, the margins of error would be 8.0% and 6.7% respectively, 19 times out of 20.
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