Financial Friday #149: Financial Wellness Proving to be an Elusive Goal

What is making Canadians so financially unwell?

High levels of debt: As mentioned earlier, Canadians have some of the highest levels of household debt in the world. This debt is primarily driven by mortgage debt, but Canadians also carry significant amounts of credit card debt, car loans, lines of credit (often secured by home equity), and student loan debt. The average non-mortgage debt in 2020 was around $23,000.

Income inequality: Income inequality is a significant issue in Canada, with a widening gap between the richest and poorest Canadians. This can make it more difficult for lower-income Canadians to achieve financial stability and security.

Housing affordability: Housing affordability is a major concern in many Canadian cities, with rising housing costs making it difficult to purchase homes or afford rental housing.

Lack of financial literacy: Many Canadians lack basic financial literacy skills in the areas of budgeting, saving, and investing for their future. This makes it difficult to effectively manage your financial life and leads to financial instability and plenty of stress. We don't believe financial knowledge by itself will solve all your money issues, but we have seen over and over again how even a little pre-emptive knowledge can make a huge difference. For example, understanding the benefits of a TFSA and starting from a younger age.... or investing in a low-fee all-in-one ETF instead of letting cash pile up for years in an RRSP with minimal interest rates.

What are the costs of poor financial wellness?
Poor financial wellness has significant costs with stress and anxiety topping the list by a mile. It can also affect your job performance, and personal or family relationships, and limit opportunities for education, career advancement, and other life goals.
Improving your financial wellness will require a number of changes — bettering your financial knowledge and skills would be a great start, but you will also have to stay motivated and your mental outlook and attitude toward money may also need to undergo some change.
A lot of us already know a few areas where we could cut back, but we often let procrastination, wavering motivation, and a YOLO attitude continue to adversely affect our financial life.

Resources:

What would happen if a Canadian bank failed?
The collapse of SVB in California and a bailout of international banking giant Credit Suisse have led many of us to wonder about how secure our money is in a Canadian bank or credit union and what sort of protections are in place.

Financial stress costing employers billions
Our money worries aren't staying in the home and are now seriously affecting our productivity at work, which has sent employers scrambling for solutions.

17 Canadian household debt statistics to Consider
If you are wondering how your situation stacks up to your fellow Canadians on credit card debt, mortgages, credit scores, and lots of other interesting debt factoids check out this article for the latest 2023 figures.

Emotional investing: How to make better decisions with your money
You don't need a news article to tell you money issues cause stress, but how can you manage the emotions that go along with that stress and make better financial decisions?

Food inflation In Canada: What you need to know
While you may see the headline inflation rate is dropping, food inflation in January 2023 was up 11.4% from 2022... are grocery stores taking us to the cleaners and more importantly, is there any relief in sight?