About one-quarter of Canadians think they’re in a worse financial position than they were two years ago, finds Manulife’s Investor Sentiment Index.

Canadians are increasingly viewing housing as a less attractive investment, having dropped 3 points on the Index in the last year. Further, Canadians are also less likely to prioritize investing in their home in the near future (falling 5% in the last six months).

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“Canadian investors are facing a long list of uncertainties, including tremendous volatility in both oil prices and the value of the Canadian dollar. The outlook should become more clear over the course of 2016,” says Frances Donald, senior economist, Manulife Asset Management. “What is most interesting from the survey is the ongoing decline in the Canadian appetite to invest in their own home.”

In the last six months, Canadian investors lost confidence in mutual funds (down eight points), ETFs (down seven points), and balanced mutual funds (down seven points, the lowest it’s been since 2011). Fixed income stayed the same (+3 on the index).

Interest rates

Almost half (48%) of Canadians believe that interest rates will stay the same for the next 12 months. And 77% say interest rates will not have an impact on their investment strategy.

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“The Bank of Canada has been suggesting that interest rates are on hold or may even fall further over the coming year,” says Donald. “Yet, interestingly, 40% of Canadian investors still expect interest rates to rise, highlighting the ongoing uncertainty around the interest rate outlook.”

Online banking activities

In a new line of survey questions, 82% of Canadians used an online channel to manage their finances. And affluent investors are more likely to go online to access financial services and look after their finances (94%).

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Desktop and laptop are still the most common tools to manage finances online (90% of Canadians on average); however Canadians are more likely to use a smartphone to deposit funds to their accounts (36%).

Just under half of Canadians (47%) still feel it is unsafe to bank on their smartphones. The most common online financial activity for investors is checking the performance of their investments, 75% doing so at least once a month, and 34% doing so weekly.