Supporting adult children takes its toll on boomers’ retirement plans: survey
As baby boomers approach retirement while their children look for financial help, many are feeling the financial strain.
A new TD survey found 62 per cent of boomers can’t save enough for retirement because they’re supporting adult children or grandchildren. Those kids, however, aren’t taking that money obliviously: 44 per cent of millennials who rely on their parents’ or grandparents’ support said they know that help means fewer retirement savings, and 43 per cent said they’d cut costs rather than asking for financial help.
Read: Canadians postpone retirement to support children
“As a parent or grandparent it’s natural to want to help our kids and grandkids who may be facing financial challenges such as finding full-time employment or paying their day-to-day expenses,” Rowena Chan, senior vice-president at TD Wealth Financial Planning, said in a news release. “It’s important that this desire to help is balanced with the goals you have when it comes to retirement.” Read more 
Retirement – Are you Prepared?
Whether you are decades away from retirement or if it is just around the corner, being aware of the planning opportunities will take the fear and uncertainty out of this major life event.
Blue sky your retirement plans to get clarity
As you approach retirement, preparation and planning become extremely important to help ensure that this period of your life will be as comfortable as possible. If you are like most, you have spent considerable time contemplating the type of retirement you wish for yourself.
- Is extensive travel your dream?
- Do you have an expensive hobby or two you want to take up?
- Will you stop working totally or continue to do some work on your own terms using your life experience and skills to supplement your income.
- Will you remain in your house or will you downsize to smaller, easier to care for premises? Or perhaps housing that will be more compatible with the challenges of aging?
Three trends that will drive Canada’s economy in 2017
There are three trends that will guide the Canadian economy in 2017. Those are:
- the strength, or lack thereof, of oil prices;
- domestic housing developments; and
- whether the U.S. economy continues to improve.
So says Russell Investments’ 2017 Global Market Outlook, which calls for modest growth in the coming year for Canada.
“Moderate improvement in the price of oil and reasonable growth of the U.S. economy are weighed down by debt-laden households,” says Shailesh Kshatriya, director of Canadian strategies at Russell Investments Canada Limited. “We expect domestic equities to be positive, but without the exuberance of 2016. However, domestic bonds likely will be challenged as lacklustre fundamentals may be partially offset by rising yields in the U.S. […] On balance, we see 2017 economic growth in the range of 1.6% to 2%.”
Time to invest in emerging markets?
Equities are looking up in Brazil, Russia and Turkey
by Bryan Borzykowski for Moneysense
There may have been no worse place to invest over the last few years than in emerging markets. Between 2011 and 2015, the MSCI Emerging Market Index was down about 32%—our own troubled market only fell by about 3.2% over that same time period. But if there’s one thing to know about developing nations, it’s that things can go from bad to good seemingly overnight. Since Jan. 21, when global markets began to rise after their post New Years correction, the index is up 31%. Read more
