More than half of Canada’s Generation X-ers — those between the ages of 25 and 39 — are “not very confident” or “not at all confident” in the availability of the Canada Pension Plan when they reach retirement, according to the TD Waterhouse 2004 RSP Investor Poll.

By comparison, Baby Boomers (age 40-54) are significantly more confident that the CPP will be there for them.

Gen X-ers are also far less likely to expect they will be able to take early retirement than Boomers and feel that they need considerably more retirement savings — $570,000 versus $494,000 for Boomers. They are also the least likely among different age groups to feel “extremely” or “very” confident that they will have enough to retire comfortably.

While 61% of Gen X-ers say they plan to rely on either personal savings or their RSP to fund their retirement (vs. 54% for Boomers), they have not yet turned intention into action. Boomers are significantly more likely to own an RSP than Gen X-ers — 68% compared with 58%.

“It’s no surprise that Gen X-ers are more pessimistic about their retirement prospects,” said Patricia Lovett-Reid, senior VP, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc., in a news release. “They grew up and entered the job market under the long shadow of the largest population cohort in Canada’s history. They’ve seen the e-business/tech stock bubble burst and investor optimism turn to investor despair.”

“The good news is that Gen X-ers are getting the message about wise RSP investment strategies,” said Lovett-Reid. “According to our poll, they are far more likely than Boomers to use monthly contribution plans, and they lead the way in contributing over the web.”

Gen X-ers also claim they are not risk-averse. Roughly the same number consider themselves to be high risk investors (6%), medium risk investors (45%) and low risk investors (46%) as other age groups. In fact, they lead the way in terms of managing their investments without any professional advice — 33% versus 26% for Baby Boomers and 29% on average.

Finally, despite Gen X-ers claims of not being risk-averse, more Boomers (36%) are planning to purchase stock-based mutual funds this year than Gen X-ers (27%).

The results are part of the TD Waterhouse 2004 RSP Investor Poll, which was conducted by Toronto-based research firm NFO CF Group between October 27 and November 5, 2003. A total of 1,063 telephone interviews were conducted among a nationally representative random sample of Canadians aged 18 to 69.