Canadians Redefine Wealth as Financial Freedom, Not a Number on a Screen

Canadians redefine wealth as financial freedom in new Léger research for Meridian Credit Union: 88 per cent name flexibility as a sign of wealth, 45 per cent say daily pressure blocks any longer-term planning, and young Canadians are trading the single retirement for micro-retirements.

Ask a room of Canadians what “wealthy” means and the big house barely gets a mention. Canadians redefine wealth as financial freedom in new survey research released this week: 88 per cent of respondents said flexibility in their budget — and in their life — is a sign of wealth or financial success, while 83 per cent said they would feel wealthy if they had the flexibility to live life on their own terms (Meridian Credit Union via CNW). The research, commissioned by Meridian Credit Union and conducted by Léger, surveyed 1,533 Canadians aged 18 and older online from 18 to 20 September 2026 (Wealth Professional).

Information verified through 5 November 2026.

Canadians redefine wealth as financial freedom in the survey numbers

The pattern repeats whichever way the question is asked. The same share — 83 per cent — pointed to being able to take time away from work for family, health or personal priorities without financial stress (Meridian Credit Union via CNW). Meridian’s president and CEO, Jay-Ann Gilfoy, summed up the release this way: “Canadians are telling us that wealth is no longer simply about how much you accumulate. It’s about having the confidence, resilience and freedom to live life on your own terms” (Meridian Credit Union via CNW).

Notice what is missing from that picture. No yacht. No second property. No seven-figure portfolio held up as the finish line. The status symbols that used to anchor the word “wealth” have quietly left the frame, replaced by something much less photogenic: room to breathe.

What does financial freedom mean when the bills still arrive?

Strip the slogan down and the answers get almost stubbornly ordinary. Eighty-three per cent said they would feel more financially confident if they could comfortably cover monthly expenses and still save. Eighty per cent pointed to having at least three months of living expenses set aside, and 79 per cent to being able to pay off a credit card in full every month (Meridian Credit Union via CNW). Wealth Professional, reporting the same figures, called them “not aspirational figures” but “the building blocks of financial resilience” (Wealth Professional).

Then comes the tension at the centre of the survey. Nearly half of respondents — 45 per cent — said the day-to-day pressure of getting by keeps them from engaging with their broader financial picture at all (Wealth Professional). People know exactly what security would feel like. Many just can’t get far enough ahead of the month to build it.

One caution belongs here. Léger ran the survey through a non-probability online panel, so no formal margin of error attaches to the sample; a comparable probability sample of the same size would carry a margin of no greater than plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20 (Meridian Credit Union via CNW). Read it as a snapshot of attitudes, not a census.

Micro-retirements: young Canadians are rewriting the retirement deal

The under-35s are pushing the same shift further. Separate survey research from Co-operators, released in February 2026, found two-thirds of young Canadians (65 per cent) saying retirement will look different for their generation, with half (49 per cent) expecting to work longer and retire later than their parents — and a third (33 per cent) doubting they will ever be able to retire at all (Co-operators).

Their response isn’t despair. It’s a renegotiation. Half of young Canadians said their ideal job has a flexible schedule, 48 per cent named strong work-life balance, and about four in ten (40 per cent) found the idea of micro-retirements — short, intermittent career breaks spread across a working life — appealing (Co-operators). If the long retirement at the end of the road looks unreachable, take the rest in instalments along the way.

The strain underneath is real, though. Less than half of young Canadians (44 per cent) said they can cover basic expenses and still set money aside, and Co-operators linked the squeeze partly to an entry-level job market in which hiring of workers under 25 has dropped 30 per cent since 2019, citing Statistics Canada (Co-operators).

What people want from advice has changed too

The Meridian research also asked what Canadians want from the financial industry itself, and the answers match the mood: 85 per cent value a clear financial plan with actionable next steps, 84 per cent want advice tailored to their life stage, and 81 per cent value a trusted advisor relationship (Meridian Credit Union via CNW). Meridian has built a campaign, Meridianaires, around the findings, with a sweepstakes running from 2 November 2026 to 31 March 2027 (Meridian Credit Union via CNW). That commercial wrapper is worth naming plainly: a credit union paid for this research because the freedom framing sells. That doesn’t make the numbers wrong — the Co-operators data, gathered separately, points the same direction — but it does mean the slogan arrived with a marketing department attached.

Analysis: the deeper shift here is about what money is for. An older script treated wealth as a score: accumulate, compare, display. The scoreboard version needs an audience. The version in these surveys is private — a calendar you control, a bill you don’t fear, a month off that doesn’t wreck you. It is also, quietly, a lowered horizon dressed as a values change. When 45 per cent of people say daily pressure blocks any longer view, “freedom” may partly mean “a smaller target I can actually reach.” Both readings can be true at once. A generation priced out of the old definition has written a new one — and the new one, notably, fits inside a life they can still imagine living.

Photo: Peter Southwood, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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