They are calling it financial paralysis.
That’s the terminology emerging from an RBC survey of Canadians asking how their personal finances were shaping up these days. And, it turns out, rising costs are making a mess of the personal finances of a wide swath of people in this country.
Just over half of the people surveyed put themselves in the category of being financially paralyzed. And half said their standard of living is declining as they can no longer maintain the life they had previously. And a quarter are either taking on debt for day-to-day consumption or tapping family for financial support.
Here’s how this group sees itself: half say they are living bill-to-bill, a twist on the pay check to pay check position. And roughly the same number say they have resorted to dipping into their retirement savings to cover daily living expenses.
This sort of pressure raises anxiety and we are seeing it in the political realm with voters throwing out incumbents, hoping new faces will make changes that will help.
