Debt Reduction Tops Resolution List

As we enter the New Year, Canadians are less upbeat about their prospects than they were at this time a year ago, a couple months before COVID was a thing for most of us.

A year-end survey conducted for CIBC asked about our outlook for 2021, particularly on the financial front. And, for the 11^th year in a row, we said our top priority was going to be paying down debt and we were generally taking bleaker stance on their prospects for the coming year.

Uncertainty caused by the pandemic is making it difficult to plan ahead, the survey found with nearly three-quarters of the population worried about an economic downturn.  Almost half said the pandemic hurt them financially and half of those said they simply don’t know how to cope with that…but they do think it will take more than a year to get back on track.

And the disruption has changed priorities. Three-quarters chose not to take on more debt last year while the number of people who put travel at the top of their bucket list declined more than 30-percent.