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By MoneySense Staff on May 21, 2010
Estimated reading time: 1 minute

Freedom 68?

By MoneySense Staff on May 21, 2010
Estimated reading time: 1 minute

Longer lifespans may force Canadians to rethink retirement age.

This article is 15 years old. Some details may be outdated.

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An attention-grabbing new report is arguing that Canadians need to get over our obsession with early retirement. Among other recommendations, the report by the Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation suggests that we follow the lead of the U.S., Britain and Germany and raise the eligibility age for pensions beyond 60. Given that the average Canadian now lives well past 80, the economics are inarguable, and there’s precedent—pension eligibility used to kick in at 70. If lifespans keep increasing, Canadians’ golden years may soon last almost as long as our working years. The report’s authors do acknowledge one little roadblock: no sane politician is ever going to propose raising the retirement age, and Canadians, as a group, probably won’t be too thrilled with it either.

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