Daily Factoid: Canada's Generation (Spending) Gap

If there's a recurring theme when it comes to news stories about the aging population, it's that unproductive seniors, moldering away on their fixed incomes, with their high medical bills, are inevitably going to be a huge economic drag on the hard-working Millennials.

Right. @BrandROI has debunked this myth before, but we never get tired of doing so. Today's Daily Factoid comes from MACLEAN'S Magazine, up in Canada, which found that, in fact, it's more likely that aging Canadians will drive the economy, not drag on it.

Some of the highlights of the story include the fact that, while it's true that 5% of seniors are living in poverty, that's about half the poverty rate for the working age population as a whole.

Canadians age 75 and older make up less than seven per cent of the population, but control more than a third of all financial assets in the country­­—roughly $1 trillion worth of stocks, bonds, mutual funds and cash. —MACLEAN'S 

The story cites Bank of Montreal studies that show the median net worth of seniors has jumped 70% since 1999, though it has hardly risen at all for Canadian under 35. What's going up for younger people? Debt.