Study: 5% of Canadians Expect to Retire On Lottery Winnings!

Scotiabank conducted an email survey of 1,011 Canadians from October 14th, 2010 to October 25th, 2010 regarding how people are planning for their retirement, and one interesting finding was that 5% of Canadians are expecting to have retirement money come from the lottery!

5% of Canadians!!

Can you believe that so many of us are depending on lottery winnings for our retirement?? Talk about just imagining, you know what I mean?! (I know, that was horrible...)

Here's the story from newswire.ca:

Majority of Canadians Expect to Work After Retirement, Primarily to Stay Mentally and Socially Active: Scotiabank Study

Of those Canadians who plan to retire, more than two-thirds (69 per cent) plan to work during retirement, primarily to remain mentally (72 per cent) and socially (57 per cent) active, according to a recent Scotiabank study conducted by Harris/Decima assessing Canadians' attitudes toward retirement and investing. However, more than a third of Canadians (38 per cent) expect to work after they officially retire out of financial necessity.

The study found that 56 per cent of Canadians think they will need less than one million dollars to fund their retirement, half of whom believe they will need less than $300,000. More than one-quarter of Canadians (28 per cent) think they will need between one and two million dollars and 16 per cent believe they will need two million dollars or more to fund their ideal retirement.

When it comes to how they plan to spend their retirement, the majority of Canadians plan to travel (86 per cent), spend time with family and friends (72 per cent), read (61 per cent) and exercise (60 per cent). Other retirement plans include taking up a hobby (50 per cent) and going back to school (24 per cent).

As for saving for retirement, three-quarters (78 per cent) of those expecting to retire are currently putting money away for their future and they have been doing so for an average of 15 years. Half of Canadians (55 per cent) who plan to retire report saving less than $20,000 over the past five years.

While the bulk of money for retirement will come from RRSP contributions and savings (78 per cent and 68 per cent respectively), many Canadians indicated their retirement would also be funded by money from the government (63 per cent), their work pension (55 per cent) or inheritance (27 per cent). A small number of Canadians expect to have retirement money come from the lottery (five per cent) or their kids (four per cent).

Well, I guess I can see it. I mean, how many of you didn't play the $50 Million Lotto Max that just passed? I actually didn't, but I scammed my buddy into selling me half of his ticket -so I guess I'm the one who got scammed in the end since we didn't win...

And tell me, am I alone in thinking that those OLG Lotto commericals that come on TV are just the most evil commercials ever (I still can't understand how they are legal...). I joke about the old "Just Imagine..." slogan of Lotto 6/49, but if that isn't one of the most manipulative advertisements ever, I don't know what is (hats off to you ad folks who came up with it!).

I mean, you wake up every morning, you're watching whatever morning news show you watch (for me it's CP24 here in Toronto), and you're hit with the OLG commercial... Now all day you're just imagining... Pretty soon you're imagining that your retirement income will come from the lottery, et voila, 5% of Canadians.

--jackandcokewithalime

PS: Here are a few of those Lottery Commercials for your viewing pleasure: