Investing trumps politics, religion as a taboo topic: survey

Canadians would sooner talk about their politics or religion than their investments, according to a new survey.

A poll from Toronto-based Sharechest Inc. found that 15% of Canadians said they felt uncomfortable discussing their investments, while 12% said they’d be uncomfortable talking about politics and 10% were uncomfortable discussing religion.

Overall, 75% of respondents said it was rude to ask other people about finances.

Seventy-one per cent said it was rude to ask someone about their income, and 23% said it was rude to ask what someone invests in. Respondents felt less rude about asking what investment platform someone uses (13%) and whether they use an advisor (13%), though.

Even when talking with their parents, some survey respondents still didn’t feel comfortable broaching investing: 20% said they wouldn’t ask their parents what investments they hold, and only 41% said their parents openly discussed investments.

Men (30%) were more likely to say it’s not rude to ask someone about their investments than women (22%). Men (70%) were also more likely to discuss their finances with a friend than women (58%).

Younger respondents were more willing to talk finances than older participants: 84% of people aged 18–34 said they’d disclose financial information to friends, compared with 69% of respondents aged 35-54 and 43% of respondents aged 55 and older.

When it comes to discussing personal financial information, 42% said they’d disclose their salary, but only 25% said they would disclose a bonus they’d received, and 23% said they’d disclose their net worth.

The survey noted than English-speaking Canadians are more likely to consider investing a taboo topic than French-speaking Canadians. For example, 22% of English speakers said it wasn’t rude to ask people questions about money and investing, compared with 40% of French speakers.

“Let’s all stop being so clammed up and stereotypically ‘Canadian’ about investing and share some information with our friends and family, so we can all make better and informed investment decisions,” Chad Williams, chairman and founder of Sharechest, said in a release.

Sharechest is the developer of Connector, a platform that allows companies seeking capital to connect directly with investors.

Sharechest used an Angus Reid Forum online poll to survey 1,514 Canadians from March 24–25. Online polls cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.