Vancouver BC city and harbor with Canadian flag (Photo: Shutterstock)

Working Canadians continue to have a lower level of financial well-being than they did before the pandemic, according to a new report from LifeWorks.

"Canadians are still feeling the impact of the pandemic on their financial situation," said Idan Shlesinger, executive vice president of LifeWorks. "While some Canadians have successfully managed their finances during the pandemic, better education is needed to help them plan for the future and overcome the financial challenges they may be facing due to the pandemic. The first step of helping Canadians to improve their financial health is to provide reliable sources of information."

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The Financial Well-being Index (FWI) found that having access to credible financial information leads to a better financial well-being score. The FWI score for April is -2.2, which is a slight improvement from the score reported in the first index in February (-2.8).

A negative score indicates a lower level of financial well-being among working Canadians compared to pre-pandemic benchmark data collected in 2019.

Among respondents:

  • Thirty-seven percent rely on family members as their primary source of financial information. Those individuals have an average score of -5.8.
  • Twenty-two percent of respondents rely on friends, and 11 percent rely on social media as their primary source of financial information. They have average FWI scores of -7.2 and -7.3, respectively.
  • By comparison, 40 percent of respondents rely on a financial advisor as their primary source of financial information, reporting a positive FWI score of +4.7.
  • More than half of Canadians indicate some barrier to increasing their financial knowledge, including lack of time and not knowing where to look, among other reasons.

"Financial well-being has been shown to make a difference between those who are faring better in their mental health and those who are not," said Paula Allen, senior vice president for research and total well-being for LifeWorks. "Employers are often unaware of the challenges faced in the workforce. There are people over the age of 50 with no emergency savings and others who prefer to go beyond only saving through pension plans. It is essential to provide a system that offers more personalized options."

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Alan Goforth

Alan Goforth is a freelance writer in suburban Kansas City. In addition to freelancing for several publications, he has written a dozen books about sports and other topics.