When it comes to financial planning, seniors don’t get enough attention, according to a local independent debt counsellor.
Quayside resident Brian Pybus says retirement is coming later and later to many seniors who are bogged down by the heavy weight of personal debt, and the issue isn’t getting enough ink.
“Seniors have fewer options than any other demographic,” Pybus said. “Most of them have limited income. Most retirees have an income that drops to about 70 per cent of their pre-retirement income, and if they’re still carrying debt they’re in trouble.”
More and more seniors are relying on their credit cards, their lines of credit and their overdrafts to get by, said 62-year-old Pybus, who specializes in helping seniors pay down debt and find financial freedom in their golden years. “And that’s a dangerous trend,” he warned.
According to Ipsos Reid’s Canadian Financial Monitor, Canadians who are 65 and older owed $24,700 in 2012 on average, up from $21,000 in 2011, Jana Schilder wrote in an article for the Toronto Star. Debt for those 65 and over rose 18 per cent from 2011 levels, while debt among other age groups remained stable or contracted. Canadians aged 44 to 64 showed an above-average tendency to accumulate debt, suggesting that holding debt later in life may be a new trend, Schilder wrote.
“This debt figure is exclusive of mortgage debt. In other words, it can be considered personal or consumer debt, the kind of debt that I specialize in helping people in trouble resolve,” Pybus said.
For Canada’s seniors, several economic factors have come together to form a perfect financial storm, Pybus wrote on his blog. Those reasons he cites are the decline in manufacturing jobs, record low interest paid on savings and low rates of personal savings, an increase in consumption taxes and user fees, stock market volatility, a move away from defined benefit pension plans, creeping inflation, a steadily increasing cost-of-living year over year, pension fund deficits, increasing personal debt, and virtually no growth in personal income.
Pybus said he can help seniors find a way out of the debt. He charges a flat fee of $225 for his services. He previously worked in the banking industry and at Revenue Canada. He is a board member on the Seniors’ Services Society, which is based in New Westminster, and a member of the City of New Westminster seniors’ advisory committee.
