Senior man in driver's seat of car
rmarmion/123RF

A Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) poll released on Thursday finds Canadian boomers aged 50+ are concerned they’re not saving enough for retirement.

While boomers across the country worry they’re falling short of their goals, the amount of that shortfall differs depending on their investable assets and where they live.

RBC found that boomers with more than $100,000 in investable assets had a goal of saving $949,000, on average, but were falling short by an average of $275,000.

Boomers with less than $100,000 in investable assets hoped to save $574,000, on average, but were falling short by an average of $500,000, RBC found.

Boomers in Alberta thought they would need the most money to retire — $1.1 million, on average — while boomers in Atlantic Canada had the most modest retirement goal of $788,000. Both of these groups fell short of these goals, with Albertans reporting they had saved an average of $821,000 to date, and Atlantic Canadians saying they’d saved an average of $331,000.

RBC found that respondents were considering a number of options to make up for their perceived savings shortfalls, including downsizing/moving (52%), working in retirement (41%), borrowing against home equity (25%), relying on an expected inheritance (21%) and hoping to win the lottery (3%).

Alberta women concerned about retirement savings

A report, also released on Thursday, from ATB Wealth, the wealth management division of ATB Financial, found that women in Alberta were particularly concerned about their retirement savings.

The report found that only 30% of women in the province were confident they were saving enough to retire comfortably.

ATB also found that women and men in Alberta differ noticeably in their investment knowledge and risk tolerance.

Forty-one per cent of women said they were inexperienced when it came to investment knowledge, compared to 26% of men. Fifty-three per cent of women said their risk tolerance was very low or low, compared to 35% of men.

Fifty-four per cent of Albertans — both male and female — said they prefer to talk to professionals about investment decisions, and 36% said it was worth the cost. Forty-seven per cent of respondents worried that advisors were not looking out for their best interests.

Read the survey from RBC and the report from ATB Wealth.