• Ontario residents most likely to work after they retire out of financial necessity
• One-third believe they will need to have between one and two million dollars for retirement

TORONTO, Jan. 4 /CNW/ - Of those Ontarians who plan to retire, seven-in-10 (70 per cent) plan to work during retirement, primarily to remain mentally (72 per cent) and socially (59 per cent) active, according to a recent Scotiabank study conducted by Harris/Decima assessing Canadians' attitudes toward retirement and investing. However, nearly half of Ontario residents (44 per cent) expect to work after they officially retire out of financial necessity, more than the rest of Canada at 34 per cent.

"It was a bit surprising to see that so many Ontario residents plan to work out of financial necessity in their golden years," said Kelly Damour, Investment Sales Coach, Toronto, Scotiabank. "At Scotiabank, we want to help all Canadians invest for their future and with effective planning many Ontarians who think they will have to work may not have to."

The study found that one-third (33 per cent) of Ontario residents think they will need between one and two million dollars to fund their retirement, while half (51 per cent) believe they will need less than a million dollars. The remaining 16 per cent expect to need two million dollars or more for their ideal retirement.

"Whether you feel you will need $500,000 or $1,000,000, it can be overwhelming to think about needing such a large sum of money for retirement," said Ms. Damour.  "When determining how much you will need, it's important to be realistic about how you plan to spend your retirement years and how much it will cost. It's equally as important to know how much you can currently afford to put away and what that will mean for you down the road."

When it comes to how they plan to spend their retirement, Ontario residents are slightly more likely than other Canadians to travel (91 per cent vs. the rest of Canada at 83 per cent). The majority of Ontarians also plan to spend time with family and friends (72 per cent), read (62 per cent) and exercise (62 per cent) in their retirement.

As for saving for retirement, 80 per cent of those expecting to retire are currently putting money away for their future and they have been doing so for an average of 15 years. Half of Canadians from Ontario (52 per cent) who plan to retire report saving less than $20,000 over the past five years.

"We all know that it's important to invest for our future, but with so many demands on our time and money it can be easy to put off saving for a goal that often seems far away," commented Ms. Damour. "At Scotiabank, we work with our customers to help make their long-term goals more tangible so they can take action and let the saving begin."

Most Ontario residents expect the money for their retirement to come from RRSP contributions and savings (82 per cent and 70 per cent respectively), which is significantly more than those in Atlantic Canada (64 per cent) and Quebec and in line with the rest of the country. According to Ontarians, the rest of their retirement money will come from the government (66 per cent), their work pension (53 per cent) and inheritance (29 per cent). A few people from Ontario expect to have their children take care of them in retirement (five per cent).

For more information about investing for your future, visit www.letthesavingbegin.com.

Let the Saving Begin is a Scotiabank program designed to inspire and empower Canadians to get on track with their saving, investing and borrowing habits.

Built on three simple principles, Let the Saving Begin encourages Canadians to:

• Save automatically, because it works;
• Invest for your future, because no one else will; and
• Borrow to get ahead, not fall behind.

About the survey

A total of 324 completed surveys were collected from a random sample of Harris/Decima's panel members from Ontario, of which 239 expect to retire. The study was conducted from October 14th, 2010 to October 25th, 2010. 

This was a standard panel survey among a random sample of Harris/Decima's Canadian panel members. In a fashion similar to a telephone study, email addresses from their panel were pulled at random, according to population and gender specifications, in order to make the study representative of the Canadian population by region and gender. When contacted to solicit participation, participants had no prior knowledge of the subject matter of the study. Harris/Decima controls access to the study through passwords to ensure that respondents can participate only once. Subsequent to completion of the study, the data was weighted by region, age, and gender.

About Scotiabank

Scotiabank is one of North America's premier financial institutions and Canada's most international bank. With more than 70,000 employees, Scotiabank Group and its affiliates serve some 18.6 million customers in more than 50 countries around the world. Scotiabank offers a broad range of products and services including personal, commercial, corporate and investment banking. With assets above $526 billion (as at October 31, 2010), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto (BNS) and New York Exchanges (BNS). For more information please visit www.scotiabank.com.