Canadians wish to rid themselves of debt, stress and in-laws

If Canadians had a magic button and could press it to deduct one bothersome thing from their lives, credit card debt and mortgage payments would be the first to go. According to a new Angus Reid Strategies survey sponsored by Intuit Canada, makers of QuickTax, debt is at the top of Canadians’ deduction wish list, with stress and weight gain following close behind.

Debt is the first to go

The Angus Reid/Intuit study, which polled 1,045 people across Canada, revealed there\’s some interesting dreaming going on:

• More than one-quarter (26 percent) of respondents would strike credit card debt from their everyday life if they had the chance, followed by mortgage debt (22 percent) and winter\’s extra pounds (15 percent).
• Atlantic Canadians were the biggest credit card debt dreamers, with 32 percent claiming they would strike it before anything else compared to only 22 percent in Alberta. Atlantic Canadians tied with Quebeckers for deducting school debt (14 percent each).
• Not surprisingly, mortgage debt elimination was highest in Ontario where housing prices continue to skyrocket.
• Ten percent of Canadians are eager to get rid of school debt while another 10 percent would deduct work stress and seven percent would choose snow.
• Annoying partners/spouses and in-laws appear manageable, each accounting for just one percent of deduction button wishes. Those living in Manitoba and Saskatchewan feel otherwise, with five percent wishing to eliminate annoying partners/spouses. Three percent of Albertans would ditch the in-laws if they had the chance.
• While it’s unclear who’s actually fatter or more stressed, women, ranked higher than men in wishing their extra pounds away (17 percent vs. 13 percent) while men ranked slightly higher than women in wishing their stress away (10 percent vs. 9 percent). But when it came to credit card debt, a whopping 30 percent of women wanted to dream it away compared to 21 percent of men.
• The largest group that wished their credit card debt to disappear were between 35 and 54 years old (33 percent), followed by those over 55 (23 percent).