Anxiety is taking a toll on Canadians as they wonder whether they will be able to afford retirement.Halfpoint
Nearly 60 per cent of working Canadians believe they’ll never be able to retire, according to a new survey from the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) — reflecting how anxiety and financial instability are reshaping retirement planning across the country.
That fear is taking a toll. The annual survey, released Tuesday, also found that 44 per cent of Canadians say their mental health has worsened because of geopolitical instability. Many reported feeling anxious, fearful and sad about their finances, with concerns intensifying over the past year.
After a long bull-market run that increased the size of many people’s nest eggs, the notion of a comfortable retirement has been upended by a storm of economic forces. More Canadians are putting off saving, scaling back plans or questioning whether they’ll be able to retire at all.
“I feel like history is repeating itself, only worse,” said Alison Smith, a 50-year-old banking professional in the Greater Toronto Area. “I just don’t have enough. I don’t have enough private savings to survive by the time I retire.”
Ms. Smith lost her job during the 2008 financial crisis, and even though she was able to find another job, she is still concerned about how her savings will stand up to recent market swings. “It’s going to be time to pay the piper pretty soon, and I think we’re all feeling the pressure,” she said of her Gen X peers.
The survey by HOOPP, which manages pension investments for more than 478,000 members at more than 700 employers in Ontario’s hospital and health care sector, found that almost half of Canadians haven’t set aside any money for retirement in the past year. Thirty-nine per cent say they’ve never saved for retirement at all. More than a third say geopolitical instability has already affected their travel plans, with many Canadians delaying or cancelling their trips to the United States.
The findings were based on a survey of 2,000 Canadians aged 18 and older from April 11 to 16, 2025.
Even for Canadians who have managed to squirrel away some savings, the stress remains.
“When the markets are down, they recover faster than a retiree’s confidence returns,” said Adam Chapman, a certified financial planner based in London, Ont. “The markets come back, but the retirees are still ultra-hesitant and anxious.”
Mr. Chapman said that while portfolio values may have stabilized, his phone keeps ringing. Many of his retiree clients are overwhelmed, not just by the memory of recent market dips, but by the barrage of news about tariffs, interest rates and global instability.
“They’re having a hard time following the news that’s happening, with announcements changing week to week, sometimes day to day,” he said.
Adam Chapman said many of his retiree clients are worried about how tariffs, interest rates and overall instability could affect their retirement funds.Nicole Osborne/The Globe and Mail
Mr. Chapman points out a technical term in financial planning for what many retirees are going through: “sequence of returns risk.”
It refers to the risk of a market downturn in the first few years of retirement — a period when retirees begin to draw down their portfolios. If the market drops early on, losses can compound faster than if the same dip happened later in retirement.
But Mr. Chapman says that only tells part of the story.
“That just looks at the numbers,” he said. “It doesn’t look at what’s the emotional effect of a down market in the first couple of years for a retiree who just retired. People are feeling insecure and not confident.”
That emotional effect is rippling through even the best-laid retirement plans, he said, prompting some to question whether they should have retired in the first place.
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Jennifer Rook, vice-president of strategy, global intelligence and advocacy at HOOPP, said the emotional toll is reflective of the times.
“People are living longer, and we’re in uncertain times,” she said. “Just the very concept of retirement is hard for people to think about right now.”
Mr. Chapman recommends that soon-to-be retirees and those already retired prioritize not just financial planning, but emotional support. That could mean speaking with a mental-health professional or working with a financial adviser who understands the psychological toll that retirement can take, he said.
Some advisers and firms are recognizing this growing need. Many now pursue additional training to better support clients through the emotional side of retirement, including grief, fear and uncertainty about the future.
“Really good financial planners and financial advisers go way beyond the math when the math doesn’t work,” Mr. Chapman said.
