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I agree with his assessment that people should set up automatic savings programs, but 47 per cent of Canadian Gen Xers complain their income is too low to save anything, and 29 per cent say their expenses are too high (46 per cent have a mortgage, 28 per cent rent).

Gen X may also not be as lucky as the baby boomers (aged 53 to 71) who enjoyed corporate pensions and bought relatively affordable houses that they can now sell at much higher prices. Even so, the survey found 20 per cent of unretired baby boomers haven’t saved anything for retirement either.

Williams said he was most struck by the finding that two in five (41 per cent) pre-retiree women are still worried about running out of money, compared to just 15 per cent of already-retired women.

The survey didn’t drill down on what ages the generations hope to retire by. “The short answer for the millennials is that retirement won’t necessarily be an event,” Williams said, “They will go through gradations of retirement.”

Retirement was more of an event for boomers (typically at the traditional retirement age of 65, especially for blue-collar workers), while he said the typical Gen Xer retirement will be “somewhere between” an event and a gradual exit.

Among not-yet-retired boomers 40 per cent expect CPP/OAS will be their primary or second source of retirement income, versus only 19 per cent of millennials. Workplace pensions are also a big factor in retiring: already-retired boomers are almost twice as likely to rely on employer pensions (39 per cent of them do) than non-retired boomers (21 per cent).

The online survey of 2,009 Canadians and 2,002 Americans was conducted in January by ORC International’s Online CARAVAN, not affiliated with Franklin Templeton.

Jonathan Chevreau is founder of theFinancial Independence Hub, author ofFindependence Dayand co-author of Victory Lap Retirement. He can be reached atjonathan@findependencehub.com