3 Reasons Seniors are Facing More Debt than Ever – and May Be Vulnerable to Abuse
Almost half of retirees are in debt. While their total debt might be lower, older Canadians are accumulating debt at a faster rate than their children and grandchildren. The question is, why this is the first generation of seniors willing to risk their retirement by taking on so much debt late in life? In truth, seniors are facing the pressure to go into debt for three main reasons.
1. Lifestyle and Longevity
For some, debt becomes a way of funding their retirement. A small segment may be using debt to maintain a larger home rather than downsizing and travelling, but for many, debt is funding basic living expenses. A reduction in income without a healthy safety net, in terms of retirement savings or a good pension, means borrowing to pay the rent and eat. As we live longer, any savings we do have may not go far enough.
Until recently, the nature and level of care and assistance received by First Nations, Metis and Inuit women in the Yukon was “all over the map”. Due to the existence of “negative social responses” to those who report violence, many Indigenous women choose to deal with complex violent situations on their own. 
I am a confident writer, always have been. But I recently chanced on a column I’d written in 2004 by that hang-about village idiot, Bill O’Reilly, on Fox News, and my blood froze. That was the year I was first hit by online bursts of hate. I’d reached the 10-year point at which the wonderful U.S. journalist Michelle Goldberg has suggested that online feminist writers might well burn out. A decade of being called a “c—t” and an “ugly bitch”? It saps the soul.
When you want to achieve an important goal, it often helps to set a deadline.
