Despite a majority of Canadians observing rapid change in the financial industry in recent years, many are confident making financial decisions, within limits, a new Scotiabank poll suggests.
Among more than 1,500 respondents surveyed, 81% said the financial world seems more confusing and complex that it did five years ago. However, 77% said they feel well equipped to make personal finance and investing decisions.
Specifically, respondents said they generally feel confident making financial decisions about TFSAs and RRSPS (61% and 58%, respectively).
Conversely, the top three areas of personal finance that respondents found most confusing or wanted help with were real estate, digital investing and emerging technologies such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (70% of respondents had “no clue” about these blockchain technologies).
Only 38% of respondents said they felt confident making real-estate decisions, while 30% said the same when it came to direct investing.
The poll also found that 54% of respondents said they’d received bad financial advice at least once. The worst financial advice comes from social media platforms (34%) and search engines (16%), they said — though 27% of those under 35 said they use Google for good financial advice.
More than a third of respondents (39%) said they consult a financial advisor for reliable financial advice.
Respondents also cited parents (21%) and spouses (16%) as sources of good financial advice.
The Scotiabank poll was conducted by Maru Public Opinion on March 14–15 and consisted of 1,522 Canadian adults who were Maru Voice Canada panellists. Results were weighted by education, age, gender and region (and in Quebec, language) to match the population according to census data. The polling industry’s professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys can’t be assigned a margin of error because they don’t randomly sample the population.