At 55, I have enough money in the bank to retire comfortably — but I’m gripped with regret over how much more I could have saved. Does financial anxiety ever go away?

As they often say, money doesn’t buy happiness, but what happens when your money doesn’t bring you any feeling of contentment, even when you’re financially comfortable?

Take James, for example. While he’s not a real person, his story reflects the experience of many Canadians approaching retirement. James 55 years old and describes himself as financially responsible. He has an emergency fund that would cover three months of his family’s expenses, $250K in his RRSP and is on track to pay off his mortgage right before he hits the standard retirement age. He and his wife also own their two cars outright and have no consumer debt.

Yet in spite of this sound financial footing, James constantly feels stressed about the money decisions his family made in the past, and the impact it is now having on their present and future. James earns a decent salary, but he often wonders if it was a mistake for his wife to become a stay-at-home mother during their children’s early years. He also knows he could have contributed more to his retirement savings, but financial pressures while his children were young kept him from saving as much as he would have liked.

Is James’s situation unique?

While James describes himself as “gripped with regret” over his past lifestyle choices, his worries are quite common. A study from FP Canada found that 42% of Canadians say money is their leading source of stress. Meanwhile, nearly one third (32%) of Canadian baby boomers feel that they are still unprepared for retirement, according to Spring Financial.

James has his worries, but many of his fellow Canadians find themselves on much more precarious financial footing. For example, 60% of Canadians do not have an emergency fund according to an RBC poll.

Moreover, according to Sun Life, the average Canadian carries $21,717 in car loans, and $13,986 in personal loans. Meanwhile, only 66.5% of Canadians own their homes, according to the a 2022 report from Statistics Canada.

Still, James worries that it’s too late for his wife to find a decent job with a comfortable salary, and that he will struggle to provide for his family in the future.

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How to manage financial anxiety

If you feel like financial anxiety is taking control of your life, there are several steps you can take to feel more grounded and confident with your finances.

Consult a financial advisor

If you’re in good shape financially but still feel worried about money, it may be helpful to have a professional review of your financial progress. Consider speaking with a fiduciary financial advisor who can give you a professional, bias-free account of your retirement plan and financial goals.

An advisor can help you feel more confident about your financial path by reviewing your budget, emergency fund and investment portfolio while also offering advice on how you can improve.

Whether you need to improve your financial situation or you're on track for a healthy retirement, an advisor can help you create manageable goals that can give you a feeling of control over your money and your future.

Create a budget

James could help to ease his worried mind by carefully creating a budget for his household. By focusing on everyday expenses and cutting costs wherever possible, James can free up some more cash that he can then invest in his family’s future.

If you too are worried about your financial future, creating a budget and investing what you save is a great way to help assuage your money worries. Whenever the anxiety over your future finances crops up, you can feel a little bit better knowing that you’re budgeting well and investing your savings for your golden years.

When creating a budget, the first step should be to take a good look at your current numbers. “You have to know what you're working with before you can start working toward anything,” wrote Kara Perez in an article for Moneywise.

Create an emergency fund

One very smart money move that James made was building an emergency fund that can cover three months’ worth of his family’s expenses.

An emergency fund is a vital stash of money that can come in handy when unexpected expenditures arise, or when you lose your job and temporarily stop earning money. Life happens, and things like emergency car repairs or replacing a broken water heater can pop up at any time.

The last thing anyone wants is an emergency expense that pushes them into debt or forces them to dip into their savings. Credit cards are great, but using them to get yourself out of an emergency can be costly, and it’s hard to save for your future when your money is tied up paying off debts.

Start investing early

It’s no secret that the sooner you start investing, the more well off you’re going to be when you retireme. For many Canadians, retirement may seem decades away, but saving for it as early as possible can be incredibly beneficial for your retirement finances.

The money that you invest benefits from compounding returns, which means your money grows over time — and the longer the period that your money sits in investments, the more growth you’ll see with your portfolio.

If young Canadians can start investing in their 20s, they’d be setting themselves up to take advantage of what’s likely the most valuable asset out there: time. Investing as early as possible is a great way to unlock the complete potential of compounding returns.

Unfortunately, many Canadians who struggle with financial anxiety could be plagued by these worries for quite some time. Even if you consider yourself well-off, factors such as inflation and economic uncertainty due to controversial trade policies could create cause for concern. And if you’re already anxious about your future finances, these factors could greatly exacerbate your worries.

That’s why peace of mind is so important. If you follow the tips above, you can remind yourself that you’re doing everything you can to boost your future finances whenever your money worries pop up. And while that financial anxiety may never disappear, it can be greatly reduced just by knowing that you’re putting your best foot forward today for a better tomorrow.

Sources

1. FP Canada: FP Canada™ 2025 Financial Stress Index reveals top financial stressors, barriers and generational differences (Mar 18, 2025)

2. Spring Financial: Spring Clean Your Finances: How Canadians are Approaching Big Financial Goals in 2025, by Jessica Steer (May 21, 2025)

3. RBC: "Financially paralyzed": Higher costs have Canadians feeling unable to move forward - RBC poll (Jan 23, 2025)

4. Sun Life: What's the average debt in Canada and how do you compare?, by Jillian Stinson (Sept 18, 2024)

5. Statistics Canada: To buy or to rent: The housing market continues to be reshaped by several factors as Canadians search for an affordable place to call home (Sept 9, 2022)

6. Moneywise: How to make a budget that works, by Kara Perez (Jun 7, 2023)