Nearly 80 per cent of Canadian parents believe it’s their responsibility to help pay for their children’s post-secondary education, and 57 per cent would go into debt to do so, according to a new report.
Canadian education savings and planning company Embark conducted a new survey of over 1,000 parents in Canada regarding their stance on providing monetary support for their children’s post-secondary education.
The results found that many are cutting out day-to-day necessities in order to make ends meet and help pay for their child’s education. In fact, 43 per cent are already planning to go into debt to pay for their children’s studies.
With prices and the cost of living going up, 76 per cent said they’ve found it harder to save for their child’s future, and 70 per cent do not believe their child would be able to afford school without their help.
In addition, 78 per cent of Canadian parents feel like it’s their responsibility to help their children pay for post-secondary studies.
“Today’s parents are watching their children grow up during a difficult job market and volatile economic conditions, and they see how higher education can provide security for young adults,” Andrew Lo, CEO and president of Embark, said in a press release on Tuesday.
The report also shed light on the emotional toll parents face worrying about the debt their kids will go into for school. And saving for education has become increasingly difficult in this day and age.
Eighty-seven per cent of parents surveyed said growing expenses have made it more difficult to save in general, and 56 per cent said they are living paycheque to paycheque.
In addition, 46 per cent of parents surveyed said they had to stop saving for their child’s post-secondary education in order to pay for other necessities.
“The additional stressor of cost of living increases means parents are putting their own financial health on the backburner in order to provide support to their child,” the report says.
Nearly two-thirds of Canadian parents said supporting their child financially is more important than their own financial health, and 58 per cent would rather take on debt themselves than have their child take on debt to pay for school. Additionally, 66 per cent said they would postpone their retirement to help their child pay for their education.
Some parents are living with financial regret, as 52 per cent said they wish they started saving sooner for their child’s education.
