Did you know?

• On average, each Canadian household spent $56,279 in 2012 up two per cent from 2011.
   
• The average household debt in Canada is 165.5 per cent of annual household income?
   
• The average household saves $3,600 per year?
   
• One in three people, on average, will be disabled for 90 days or longer at least once before age 65.
   
• The average length of a disability that lasts over 90 days is 2.9 years.
   
• There are an estimated 70,000 heart attacks each year in Canada. That's one heart attack every seven minutes.
   
• Only four in 10 (39 per cent) of households engaged in refining their saving and investment strategy in the past 12 months; even less 31 per cent developed or tuned their retirement planning.
   
• An overwhelming majority (80 per cent) of Canadians who are building wealth say they will consume at least part of it in the next three years. Younger rather than older households are more likely to think they will tap into their wealth.
   
• In 2010, Canadians donated $10.6 billion to charities. 84 per cent of people over the age of 15 (equivalent to 23.8 million Canadians) gave a donation to a charity or not-for-profit organization.
   
• Households are more likely to accumulate 1.58 times more financial assets after working with a financial security advisor for only four to six years, compared with otherwise identical non-advised households. And this number can grow to 2.73 times more assets after 15 years.
   
• Households with a plan are more likely to:
  • Have enough money to live the life they want (61 per cent compared to 31 per cent with no financial plan)
  • Be able to take an annual vacation (74 per cent compared to 44 per cent with no financial plan)
  • Have enough money for splurges (65 per cent compared to 31 per cent with no financial plan)

1 Statistics Canada

2 The Vanier Institute of the Family, 15th Annual Family Finances Report

3 CIA 86-92 Aggregate Table & 1985 Commissioner's Disability Table A (Experience Table)

4 Heart and Stroke Foundation

5 Certified General Accountants Association of Canada, Money Talks: Emphasizing Wealth in Household Finances

6 Statistics Canada

7 Investment Funds Institute of Canada, New evidence on the value of advice, 2012

8 Financial Planning Standards Council, The Value of Financial Planning, 2012