IMAGINE LIVING IN THE FIRST WORLD WITHOUT VACATIONS AND FINE DINING? IT’S ALREADY HAPPENING....
While on a recent road trip through British Columbia, I was astounded to learn some unsettling facts about Canadian Culture and what people are doing nowadays to get debt free based on a recent survey conducted by Capital One and Credit Canada Debt Solutions prepared for Credit Education Week.
Here’s what’s going on: 76 percent of Canadians have already missed out on special experiences in order to save money, including vacations (53 percent), expensive dinners (44 percent) and personal grooming (36 percent). Over 56 percent said they are willing to make drastic sacrifices to become debt free, including never traveling or vacationing again (23 percent), not eating out (21 percent), and even embracing a no-spend diet (20 percent). Now after reading these stats, could you make some or all of those changes to your life to get debt free? Are you already living that way?
According to the Money Mindfulness survey, 30 percent of Canadians cite financial stress as a larger worry than their overall health. Additionally, on average, Canadians said they spend 7 hours per week worrying about their finances – meaning the average Canadian is wasting 365 hours per year. However, what’s even more concerning is that those who cite financial stress as their largest day-to-day worry spends on average 16 hours a week stressing about it, amounting to 832 hours of lost time per year. All that time— wasted!
So, what is it gonna take to stop worrying about finances as much as we eat food? Education, sound money management and using the financial tools that are readily available and many people have access to.
Each year, Credit Education Week aims to generate awareness around the many effective ways to manage one’s finances, making available a host of resources. The goal is to help Canadians proactively plan and manage their finances, and ease the stress that comes with it. If we can remember when and what to eat, we can certainly treat our finances with the same attention. Plus, who doesn’t want to eat out, especially while on a great vacation?
To learn more about how you can ease any financial stress or burdens, please visit cewc.ca. Once there, you can read about additional survey stats, regional results and consumer tips on healthy money management, and more.
