Survey Where we live, what we own, what we do there Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming majority of us are Canadian citizens (97%) and most of us own a home in Canada (90%). What might be surprising is that a sizeable majority (61%) of us own a house or condo down south as well. Of the remainder, a good many rent a house, condo or trailer (17%). There’s also a fair number of us (10%) who travel south in an RV. All in all, we’re pretty happy where we are. Most of us (52%) have no plans to sell our U.S. home anytime soon. Nor are we planning to buy or rent a new home in Canada (91%) or the U.S. (94%) within the next two years. Of those who are planning to buy or rent, our preferences really depend on where we’re planning to buy it. In Canada, we seem to be more interested in a single-family home (70%), an apartment (75%) or condo (67%). For those buying in the U.S., there seems to be a lot of interest in manufactured homes (75%). In Canada, most of us live in mixed neighbourhoods. Abroad, however, it’s very different: 49% of us live in 50+ communities. Most of us (62%) do not own or lease a vehicle at our winter destination either. The overwhelming majority (97%) don’t own a boat, which is somewhat surprising since fishing is the number-one sport in the Americas. Yes, we do know that birdwatching has more adherents, but is it really a sport? Travel insurance As snowbirds, travel insurance remains an important topic for us and is probably our largest expenditure in retirement. The majority of us (74%) were eligible to purchase an “off the shelf ” travel insurance policy last year, and most of us (52%) bought it from Medipac. Of those of us who did choose Medipac, 93% indicated that they were likely to recommend Medipac to friends and family. Why did we choose to go with our insurer? There are a variety of reasons – among the most popular are comprehensive coverage (19%), low rates (17%) and ease of purchase (8%). CSA endorsement was another important factor, with 12% indicating that this was an important consideration. Perhaps interestingly, the endorsement from our broker or financial advisor was not really a factor (a mere 2% said that it was), but a recommendation from family or friends had more weight at (4%). Do we ever travel without travel insurance? For most of us, the answer is no (90%). But there are those of us who sometimes do so (6%). For the majority of us, travel insurance is about peace of mind – 76% of us haven’t made a claim against our policy in the past two years. Good Health… We’re pleased to note that the vast majority of us consider ourselves to be in excellent (26%) or very good health (47%). Maybe that’s because the overwhelming majority of us are diligent about getting annual checkups (94%). This is not to say that we don’t use any health care at all. Almost all of us wear glasses (87%), and a good many have dentures (20%) and hearing aids (16%). Most of us (82%) take at least one prescription drug every day, and a fair number (76%) also take some kind of non-prescription vitamins daily. If you found these results interesting, please make sure to complete the survey next year, and make your voice heard! Again, our many thanks for giving us the opportunity to serve you better. Taking care of business The majority of us (54%) have households that earn more than $50,000 per year. Fully 19% of households earn more than $100,000 per year. As for the source of that income, a good many of us report that we’re self-sufficient (34%), while a little more (36%) say that we rely on our employment pension for our main source of income. Interestingly, about 5% of us say that we’re still working – either full time or part time. In our working lives, we pursued a wide range of professions. Many of us (22%) owned our own businesses, and an almost-equal number (18%) had government or civil service careers. The teaching profession was well represented at 12% and the remainder had careers primarily in health care, manufacturing and finance. Obviously, dealing with currency exchange is a central financial concern for most snowbirds. But it doesn’t seem to bother most of us. The vast majority (77%) haven’t changed their travel plans, even as the Canadian dollar-U.S. dollar exchange rate has deteriorated over the past many months however, some of us (12%) have opted to shorten our time away from home. Our response to economic conditions in Canada and/or the U.S. generated about the same reaction: most of us (75%) made no changes to our plans, while some (15%) shortened our trip. When it comes to obtaining foreign currency, most of us (48%) go to the bank. But a sizeable portion of us (25%) take advantage of the CSA’s Snowbird Currency Exchange Program. This number has grown dramatically over the past several years and is still spiking upwards as snowbirds find its convenience, lack of bank fees and great exchange rates irresistible. 16 | www.snowbirds.org
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzMzNzMx