Retirement wealth and the value of primary residences are the primary sources of this growth, he said, with around 70% of all wealth made up of these two categories of assets. He characterized wealth growth across all income and wealth quintiles as quite steady.
This significant rise in wealth should make it simpler for those approaching retirement to maintain their level of life in retirement, he argued, especially when real median family incomes increased by just 1.2 times during that time span.
He pointed to to Statistics Canada’s most recent Survey of Financial Security, which indicated many people’s retirement incomes will improve.
But he emphasized that a simple comparison of wealth and income growth offers an exaggerated view of retirement earnings improvement that should be expected expect.
Two factors have pushed up the cost of a dollar of safe retirement income from 1999 to 2019, Baldwin said. Over that time span, interest rates have fallen, and life expectancy has risen.
