I trained for financial services and once held a mutual funds licence and a life insurance licence. For all the years I have spent telling other men what to do with their money, I had never pulled my own CPP statement. I finally pulled it the week this guide went up.
So this comes from a man running his own numbers too.
Why the number for your age says less than you think
Two corrections before you go looking for your bar. First, a few very wealthy families drag every average upward. When a headline says the average Canadian family is worth almost a million dollars ($995,900 in 2023), it is reporting a true number that describes almost nobody.
Second, the biggest driver of net worth by age in this country is whether the family owns its home. Look at the gaps.
Under 35: the middle family and the average family
Under 35: owners and everyone else
55 to 64: a house and a workplace pension
Use the figures like a map at a trailhead. A benchmark tells you where you are standing, and that is the only thing it is allowed to tell you. A man below the median who gives first and owes nothing above ten percent is doing better than the number can see. Your worth was settled somewhere else entirely, and if that lands harder than any figure here, start with that.
The Steward's Map is the order your money moves in. Here is the whole map, with the decade each move usually belongs to.
- Give FirstEvery decade
- The First $1,00020s
- The Fire20s, with the employer match collected while you fight it
- The Free Money20s
- The Real Fund30s
- Invest On PurposeFrom the 20s, at full weight in the 30s and 40s
- The Big Goals30s and 40s
- Beyond the Tithe40s onward
In your 20s the habit is worth more than the balance
- $49,600Median income, ages 25 to 34
- $159,100Median net worth, main earner under 35
- $15,000Median RRSP, among the 54.7% who hold one
- $200Median gift claimed (1 filer in 10 claims)
In my own twenties the money went to concerts and to solo trips to other countries, while I sat in class studying personal finance. Plenty of nights out with friends, too. The training and the living ran on separate tracks for years.
The decade's advantage is time.
Run your own numbers, then work the moves in order:
- Give first, on the grossOn the median income that is $4,960 a year, about twenty-five times the median gift your age claims. Set it to move on payday.
- Stash the first $1,000At a different bank from your chequing.
- Put out the fireAnything above roughly ten percent. Student loans (26.6% of families under 35 carry one, median $15,000) usually sit below that line, so pay them on schedule.
- Take the full employer matchThe day you are eligible, even while the fire is still burning.
- Open the TFSA and automate something small$7,000 a year in 2026, and unused room carries forward from the year you turned 18: $51,500 of lifetime room at 25, $78,000 at 29.
Sources for every board on this page: Statistics Canada income survey 2024, wealth survey 2023, RRSP and TFSA contributions 2023 and charitable donors 2023; CRA TFSA statistics 2024.
Go deeperChristian Personal Finance in Your 20s, including when the RRSP beats the TFSA.
In your 30s the variables multiply
- $63,800Median income, ages 35 to 44
- $409,300Median net worth (average $753,500)
- 58.5%Carry a mortgage; median balance $247,000
- $290Median gift claimed (1 filer in 6 claims)
This is my decade. Income goes up, and so does everything it has to carry. For most of us the mortgage and the first child arrive within a few years of each other.
My wife and I spent about three years as live-in building superintendents to build a down payment, with our unit free in exchange for the work and a phone that could ring at any hour. Then we each put the $8,000 annual maximum into an FHSA for two years, $32,000 between us, and pulled all of it out for the house we live in now. Through her maternity leave we kept tithing on the gross of what the leave paid, about half her usual income. The dollar amount fell, and the practice held.
Which move am I on? Somewhere between six and seven. Investing on purpose is running, and the next big goal is still getting named.
- Finish the real fundThree months of essential expenses, six if either income varies. Put term life, disability cover and a will beside it.
- Let the RRSP earn its placePast $58,523 of income in 2026, the second federal bracket, the RRSP deduction starts to beat the TFSA for most men, and this decade's median income is already there. Keep the TFSA running too; ours are not full either, and we are working at it.
- Give each big goal its accountA first home: the FHSA, $8,000 a year and $40,000 lifetime, deductible going in and tax free coming out. A child: the RESP, opened the year the child arrives. The government adds 20% on the first $2,500 a year, and the sooner the account opens, the less grant you chase later.
Go deeperChristian Personal Finance in Your 30s, the full guide to this decade.
In your 40s the compounding shows, one way or the other
- $65,800Median income, ages 45 to 54, the peak
- $675,800Median net worth (average $1,150,800)
- $72,600Median RRSP, among the 69.6% who hold one
- $360Median gift claimed (1 filer in 5 claims)
Online you will meet an American rule of thumb in multiples of salary.
The American rule of thumb
- One times salary saved by 30
- Three times by 40: about $191,000 here
- Six times by 50: about $395,000
- Counts only what you saved yourself
What a Canadian man may also hold
- CPP for life, indexed
- OAS from 65
- A workplace pension, for many families
- Equity in the house
The 40s are where earlier decades come due. If you have been avoiding the statements because you already know, hear this first: the number is smaller than the dread of it almost every time, and looking is the whole first step.
- Invest on purpose, at full weightFor most men the tax rate is near its peak this decade, so the RRSP deduction is worth close to its most. Route the refund straight into the TFSA.
- Write the mortgage-free date on paperThen see what one extra payment a year does to it. Catch up missed RESP grant, up to $1,000 a year, before the child turns 17.
- Start giving beyond the tithePeak income is the decade to raise giving past ten percent. The median gift of $360 on a $65,800 income says most of the country went the other way.
We do not have a mortgage-free date written down in our own house yet. I am telling you so you know the man writing this list is still working through it.
Go deeperA Letter to the Man Who Feels Behind at 45, if you already know the number.
In your 50s, run the real numbers
- $53,300Median income, ages 55 to 64
- $873,400Median net worth, the peak (average $1,347,300)
- $120,000Median RRSP, among the 70.0% who hold one
- $410Median gift claimed (21.0% of filers claim)
There is no church pension plan behind me, of any kind, and no plan document to request. On my side of the ledger, everything past CPP and OAS will be what gets set aside on purpose. You cannot plan around a pension you have never read, and most men have never read theirs.
- Pull the CPP statementMy Service Canada Account, then read the projected amount at 65.
- Find your pension numberIf you have a workplace plan, ask HR for the plan document. Plenty of men will spend a weekend comparing dash cam reviews and never open the PDF HR already emailed them.
- Catch up on purposeRRSP room is 18% of last year's earned income, up to $33,810 in 2026, and every skipped year still sits there. Men your age post the highest median contribution in the country, $5,000.
- Write it on one page, with your wifeCPP, OAS, pension, RRSP and TFSA, and then what the house is for.
To the man behind at 55 because the business failed or the layoff came at 52: God did not stop providing when the paycheque did, and none of it is a punishment. Ten years is enough to build something real. Start with a plan and the decade is still yours to use.
Go deeperWhether retirement is a biblical concept, and what the funded years are for.
In your 60s the order reverses
- $39,200Median income, 65 and over
- $738,900Median net worth (average $1,204,500)
- $102,200Median RRSP or RRIF, among the 64.7% who hold one
- 24.1%Of filers claim a gift, the highest of any age
I am still a long way from my own sixties, and I have not yet sat with a parent or an in-law while they made this call. This section is built from the numbers, same as yours will be.
For forty years the question was how much to put in. Now it is which account to draw from first, and when. The first decision is the biggest, and once the first year passes, it is locked in for life.
- Decide when CPP starts, on paperBefore your 60th birthday.
- Know the OAS lineOAS pays up to $751.97 a month from 65 (July to September 2026; it is adjusted every quarter), and the clawback starts at a net income of $95,323.
- RRSP to RRIF by 71By December 31 of that year. If the minimums will push you over the OAS line, pay for an hour with an accountant.
- Keep the TFSA open, and draw on it lastName your wife as successor holder so it passes to her untaxed. Then sign the will and decide what the church receives.
The giving question changes shape here. If you tithed on gross for forty years, the RRSP money coming out was tithed once already, in a technical sense. I would still give on it, held loosely, as a conviction, and the same goes for CPP and OAS.
Go deeperThe Most Loving Hour of Paperwork, on the will and the executor.
From 25 to 64, the giving line barely moves
- Ten percent of the median income
- Median gift claimed, among those who claim one
Move one sits at the top of the map in every decade for a reason. Set the gift to leave on payday, before the bills get a vote.
The one move to make this week
- Look up your TFSA roomCRA My Account. It takes about two minutes.
- Pull your CPP statementMy Service Canada Account. I finally pulled mine, and I had fewer excuses than most.
- Automate the next moveCircle the move you are standing on, and set up the transfer for the next one before Sunday.
The map is for walking
Somewhere on this page is a board with your age on it, and you have already compared yourself to it. So have I. The comparison is allowed, since that is what a map is for.
Your worth was settled at the cross, for the man at $11,900 and the man at $1.4 million alike, and our wealth is in the cross. Both of them get to spend the next decade walking the same eight moves with open hands.
Trust God, and be wise. The numbers are for the second half of that sentence.
Common questions
What should my net worth be at 30 in Canada?
Statistics Canada's 2023 Survey of Financial Security puts the median net worth of families whose main earner is under 35 at $159,100 (owners $457,100, non-owners $44,000). At 30 the better measure is whether your giving comes off the top of the paycheque, you owe nothing above ten percent, you have a $1,000 buffer and the full employer match, and a TFSA contribution runs automatically.
Is it too late to start saving at 50?
No. Canadians aged 55 to 64 have the highest median RRSP contribution of any age group, $5,000 a year. Fifteen years of automated contributions at a 10% return turns $1,000 a month into roughly $415,000.
Free: The Steward’s Map
Wondering whether to invest yet? It is move 6 of 8.
The Steward's Map puts eight money moves in order on one page. Leave your email and I'll send the map with its fill-in worksheet, then The Steward's Weekly every Thursday morning.
