About a third of Canadians intend to make 2013 the year they get their finances under control, according to the RBC Canadian Consumer Outlook.
Released on Tuesday, the poll found that 31% of those people surveyed intend to make debt reduction a priority in 2013. As well, 25 to 26% of Canadians intend to either save or invest more, or to simply spend less in the upcoming year.
Many Canadians intend to meet those financial goals by thinking small. According to the poll, 44% of Canadians intend to spend less on big items such as cars, household appliances or vacations.
Overall however, Canadians are optimistic about their finances and the country with 37% of survey respondents saying they expect their financial situation to improve in the coming year compared with 32% last year. As well, more people are optimistic about the Canadian economy with 29% of survey respondents expecting it to improve in 2013. However, Canadians aren’t feeling so confident about their hometown economies. Of those surveyed only 16% expect their local economies to improve in the next year.
Benchmarked as of November 2009 to a baseline of 100, the RBC survey is conducted online via Ipsos Reid’s national I-Say Consumer Panel to 3,375 Canadians across Canada. Data collection was October 1 to 10. The poll is accurate to within ±1.9 percentage points of the entire Canadian population.