Lifestyle Reality Check
Enter your household income, expenses, age, savings, assets and debts. See where you stand on the Canadian standard-of-living ladder, what your net worth is vs the typical Canadian your age, and how much to save for a good life now and in retirement.
Your household
Money in & out (per month)
Assets - what you own
Roughly is fine. Used for your net worth.
Liabilities - what you owe
Outstanding balances, not monthly payments.
A mortgage is a temporary expense. Tell us the payment and years left so we can model a mortgage-free retirement.
Retirement plan
Retirement & freedom-age projections run on your investable money (investments, cash, RRSP & pensions) - not home equity - at a 5% real (after-inflation) return, so everything is in today's dollars.
Right now your household is living a
🙂 Comfortable
lifestyle - ahead of about 51% of Canadian households.
Struggling
Getting by
Comfortable
Good life
Luxury
To reach a Good life standard of living, this household would need about $2,567/mo more take-home (after tax).
$1,100
Monthly breathing room
income left after expenses
13%
Savings rate
Canada avg ~6% · healthy 15%
83%
Saved for age 35
of the $54,000 rule-of-thumb target
Your net worth
Everything you own, minus everything you owe.
Net worth
$205,000
$610,000 assets
− $405,000 owed
Home equity
$170,000
Debt vs assets
66%watch it
vs the typical Canadian aged 35
About typicalMedian net worth for your age is about $284,200. You're at 72% of it.
Approximate, StatCan Survey of Financial Security 2023. The median is mostly home equity, so renters typically sit well below it - it is a rough yardstick, not a target.
Can you keep this life going in retirement?
Funding $18,000/yr of mortgage-free spending from age 65, after CPP + OAS.
On your current pace
$672,847
projected nest egg at 65
What this life needs
$0
25× your spending, less benefits
How we treat your home
This projection runs on your investable money only (investments, cash, RRSP & pensions) - never home equity, because you can't spend your house in retirement without selling it. So adding home value won't move your freedom age, but adding investments will.
Your mortgage is counted - as a temporary cost. We assume it's paid off around age 55, so your retirement target uses your mortgage-free spending of $1,500/mo.
Separately: if you ever downsize, freeing about half your home equity could cover roughly 5 years of that spending - a backstop this projection doesn't count on.
You're on track - with room to spare.
Your current pace funds this lifestyle in retirement. Saving $600/mo keeps you there.
On this pace you reach financial independence at age 59.
Hover the chart to see your projected portfolio overtake the nest egg this life needs - the crossover is your freedom age (today's dollars).
How this works & where the numbers come from
This is an educational reality-check, not financial advice or a precise forecast. It compares your situation to public Canadian benchmarks so you can see, roughly, how you're doing and what it would take to do better.
What counts as a 'comfortable' income in Canada?
There's no official line, but a useful benchmark is Statistics Canada's median adjusted (per-person-equivalent) after-tax income, which is roughly $53,000. A household at about that level is living a typical Canadian standard of living. Around 1.6× the median starts to feel like a 'good life', and roughly 3× and up is a luxury lifestyle. Because the figure is adjusted for household size, a family of four needs more total income than a single person to reach the same standard.
How does the tool decide which 'lifestyle tier' I'm in?
It takes your household after-tax income and divides it by the square root of your household size - the same 'equivalence scale' Statistics Canada uses so families and singles can be compared fairly. That adjusted figure is then compared to multiples of the Canadian median: below 0.5× is struggling, 0.5-1× is getting by, 1-1.6× is comfortable, 1.6-3× is a good life, and above 3× is luxury. The percentile is an approximate estimate of how many Canadian households sit at or below your level.
How much should I have saved for my age?
A common rule of thumb is to have roughly 1× your annual income saved by 35, 3× by 45, 6× by 55, and 9-10× by retirement. This tool applies a conservative version of that rule to your take-home income. It's a guideline, not a verdict - starting late, a paid-off home, a pension, or lower retirement spending can all change what 'enough' means for you.
How is the retirement number calculated?
It uses the '4% rule': to safely fund a level of spending in retirement you need about 25 times that annual amount invested. The spending target is your MORTGAGE-FREE spending - if you tell us your mortgage payment and years left, we assume the mortgage is paid off on schedule and drop it from retirement spending, adding back the exact payments for any years the mortgage overlaps retirement. We subtract an estimate of your CPP and OAS benefits (from age 65), then project your investable savings plus monthly contributions forward at a 5% real (after-inflation) return - so every number is in today's dollars. The result is an educational estimate, not financial advice; your real plan should account for your specific pensions, taxes, and goals.
How is my net worth calculated, and how do I compare?
Net worth is everything you own minus everything you owe: your investments and cash, RRSP and pensions, home and other property, and other assets, less your mortgage, car loan, and any other debt. The tool also shows your home equity (home value minus mortgage) and your debt-to-asset ratio. It then compares your net worth to the approximate Canadian median for your age from Statistics Canada's 2023 Survey of Financial Security. Keep in mind that median net worth is dominated by home equity, so renters typically sit well below it - it's a rough yardstick, not a target. The retirement and freedom-age projections deliberately use only your investable money (investments, cash, RRSP and pensions), never home equity, since you can't spend your house in retirement without selling it.
Benchmarks are approximate and drawn from Statistics Canada (median adjusted after-tax income and the Low Income Measure), the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security average payments, and standard personal-finance rules of thumb (the 4% / 25× rule and salary-multiple savings targets). Thresholds are illustrative and vary by region, year, and household. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any product.