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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, December 11, 2014 | 20 HOT COFFEE COLD ICE A Canadian Saturday morning. Delivering Canada's energy. Every day. Learn more about pipelines in your life at: aboutpipelines.com Canadians no longer conservative in spending continued from p.19 living in a "debt-free fantasy land." The research was done by the polling rm Research House for Manulife Bank of Canada. More than 2,300 homeowners between the ages of 20-59, with an annual income of at least $50,000, were questioned. Surprising results To summarize the research, one quarter of Canadians with debt do not actually think they owe money. The response was surprising because 83 per cent said being debtfree was very important in order to have a successful retirement. Only about half thought they would achieve debt-free status by retirement age. Those in their 40's were more optimistic of being debt free than those in their 50's. At the same time, 10 per cent planned to borrow against their house during retirement. At some point in the future there is going to be a nancial collision between the reality of carrying too much personal debt and the elusive dream of a prosperous retirement. Babyboomers will outlive their capital I have said in the past the legacy of the baby-boom generation will be outliving their capital. Perhaps the publicity and impact of that will be what is needed to adjust the way we think about debt. Canadians had a history of limiting their use of debt. We were much more conservative than Americans. That has changed. Debt is acceptable. It is who we are. Consumers used to save and then spend. Now they spend on credit and while they should be paying off debt, they consume more, which just adds to the debt. The house of cards will at some point come tumbling down. Debt is debt and eventually it has to be paid. The Manulife research showing Canadians are living with debt denial is a valuable contribution towards realizing just how far out of control our attitude has become to dangerously high levels of personal debt. -- Submitted by Peter Watson, MBA, CFP , R.F .P ., CIM, FCSI., Certi ed Financial Planner