VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Canadians are carrying record-high household debt and our incomes aren’t keeping up, a new survey finds.
The survey by Canada’s Certified General Accountants says that if household debt was spread across all Canadians, the average family with two kids would owe more than $176,000. Less than half of people surveyed saw their income go up, and single parents were the only who saw their debt increase as they got older, says Scott Hannah with the Canadian Credit Counselling Society.
“Here we are, two years or so past the height of the recession, and our level of activity in that time period is close to doubling,” he says.
So what can debt-ridden families do to alleviate their dire financial circumstances? Hannah suggests hard choices.
“Drop down from a two-car family to one, [look at ] housing costs, your disposable expenses, and really define what is critically important for them and going down [in] the future.”
He does say Canadians have time to get a handle on their debt with interest rates not expected to rise.
“The one thing we have to our advantage right now is a bit of time. It’s unlikely that the [interest] rates are going to increase for the next few years. I think that would send us into another tailspin if they did.”