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Lunny says the first step Canadians need to do to get a hold of their finances is figure out where they are spending their money. “It’s incredible how buying a $4 latte everyday will impact their expenses,” he adds.

For a significant number of Canadians, the plan seems to be dip into their home equity to fund retirement. About 25 per cent of homeowners in their 50s expect home equity will make up 80 per cent of their wealth at retirement. That mentality might find itself at cross purposes with another finding of the survey, which indicated 70 per cent of respondents prefer to own and live in their current home for the first few years of retirement.

There are ways to access equity in your home without selling, such as borrowing against the equity or getting a reverse mortgage, but it’s not a financial strategy every Canadian will embrace.

“There may be some communities where you’ve built up equity in your home because of an inflationary real estate market but there’s many that haven’t done that,” said Lunny, adding it’s not sound financial planning to count on your home to finance your retirement.

Scott Hannah, chief executive of the Vancouver-based Credit Counselling Society, said the survey results surprised him because the debt picture is a lot uglier. He thinks at least half of Canadians get into trouble every month and it’s a lot worse for people in the 20- to 45-year-old segment of society.

“We just see how close people live up to ends of their paycheque and beyond,” Hannah said. “What happens is they extend themselves out further with the hopes they’ll get ahead of this at one point in time. We see so many people who get help from families because they can’t just stay ahead. Some of them have to go to part-time jobs or businesses to make ends meet.”

gmarr@nationalpost.com

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