Net Worth of the Top 10%, 5%, and 1% in Canada

[00:00:00]To be in the top 10% of Canadian families by wealth, you need $2 million.

[00:00:04]Top 5% 2.8. And the top 1% starts at 7.4 million. Those are the most recent official numbers Canada has from the parliamentary budget officers wealth database. The measure 2023, the newest year on record. And if anything, the rungs have crept a little higher since.

[00:00:26]In the next 10 minutes, I'll show you the whole ladder, where you land on it, and the one number on this list that matters more than any of this, because it's not the 2 million. I'm TW, a CP and MBA with years of real client work behind me. I'm glad you're here.

[00:00:45]Everything here is general financial education, not advice tailored to your specific situation. I don't recommend specific investments, funds, or securities. And nothing in this video is a suggestion to buy or sell anything. If you want guidance built around your own numbers, your debt, your taxes, your plan, work with a qualified professional who knows your full picture on those topics. That can be me. Otherwise, take what's useful here, check it against your own circumstances, and make the call that's right for you.

[00:01:20]Now, before the ladder, you need the floor. The median Canadian family sits at $519,700.

[00:01:28]Median, not average. And the difference matters. Line up every family in the country from poorest to richest. The median is the family standing in the middle of that line. Half the country is behind them, half the country is ahead.

[00:01:45]The average is a different animal. One billionaire walks onto the street and the average of the whole street jumps.

[00:01:52]Nobody on the street got richer. So when you hear a big scary average net worth number, it's usually the billionaire dragging the line up. The median is the honest number and I'll use it all the way through this video. If you've never had this numbers laid out straight, hit the like button. It tells me to keep making this. Thank you.

[00:02:15]Now, let's climb. Top 20% of Canadian families, $1.3 million. That group holds 69% of all the wealth in the country. I know, top 10%, 2 million, and that group alone holds more than half, about 53% of everything. And if that number just made your stomach drop, stay with me because there's a reason it shouldn't. This channel is me walking through what the real numbers mean for regular Canadians.

[00:02:48]If that's useful, consider subscribing.

[00:02:52]Okay, let's keep climbing. Top 5%, 2.8 million. That's about 843,000 families.

[00:02:58]And together they hold 40% of the country's wealth. Top 1% 7.4 million, about 169,000 families. Wow. Nearly a quarter of all the wealth. And the ladder keeps going. There are about 1,700 families in this country above $171 million. Yes, you heard that right.

[00:03:23]Now, on the other end, because this is the part that puts your own number in context, the middle 40% of Canadian families, the actual middle of the country, sits between $300,000 and 1.3 million. and the bottom 40% share 3.3% of the wealth between them. So if you're somewhere in that 300k to 1.3 million band, you are not behind. You're the middle of Canada, no matter what it feels like in your neighborhood. And these days, your neighborhood is your social media feed. Open any app and somebody's always posting the new car, the trip, the renovation.

[00:04:07]Nobody posts about being the median. So the picture you carry in your head of normal is built from the loudest posts.

[00:04:16]The same way the average is built up by the biggest fortunes. Think of the average salary at a big bank. It looks huge until you remember it includes the CEO while the median employee earns a fraction of the CEO's salary. So am I behind is usually the wrong question.

[00:04:37]asked against the wrong number, you've now got the right numbers. But the ladder still holds one thing, and it's the thing that decides how you should feel about your rung.

[00:04:51]The ladder ignores your age. A 38-year-old halfway up is a completely different story than a 62 year old on the same rung. Same number, different story. I made a whole video slicing those numbers by age. It's linked at the end. And if the ladder rattled you, that video is the one that will settle you down. Here's my heel. After years of looking at real balance sheets, the top 10% is mostly time and behavior. It's not a six-f figure salary. The salary helps. Of course, there are teachers who are quietly in the top 10%. And there are people earning $200,000 a year who are nowhere close. The teachers did the same boring thing for 25 years.

[00:05:38]Contributions that never stopped. A house that got paid down and they never interrupted the compounding. Never cashed out to chase something exciting.

[00:05:49]Never paused for three years because life got busy. The tier is a snapshot.

[00:05:55]Your slope is the movie. Where you are on the ladder today was decided by the last 20 years. Where you be is being decided by your direction right now.

[00:06:08]That's the number that matters more than any wrong. Which way you're moving and how fast. That idea direction over position is the kind of thing I write about in the Sunday money letter. One com idea every Sunday about 500 words.

[00:06:24]No hype. Go to cpmoneymetor.com/moneylet or click the link in the description.

[00:06:31]So, here's what to do with all of this.

[00:06:34]First, get your real number today.

[00:06:37]Everything you own minus everything you owe. I said this over and over. It takes about 10 minutes. Put the house in at a sober value. What it would sell for this month, not what your neighbor swears their house is worth. Second, write it down with the date. And redo it every six months. That's it. That's the scoreboard. Two numbers a year tell you your slope.

[00:07:03]Third, feed the slope. Automatic transfers into your TFSA or RRSP room before anything exciting gets a vote.

[00:07:13]Boring broad investments, an index fund, an all-in-one asset allocation ETF.

[00:07:19]There are several, and this is a category. I'm not describing a peak. And fourth, drop the tier envy. The ladder is for orientation. It was never a report card.

[00:07:34]Remember the stomach drop at $2 million?

[00:07:37]The ladder didn't change in the last 10 to 11 minutes. Your relationship with it should have. The wrongs were built over decades by ordinary behavior, which means the climb is open to you and it's measurable twice a year on one piece of paper. You're not behind. your mid climb. And if you want to know what the climb looks like for your age specifically, watch my network by age video right here. That's the fair comparison.

[00:08:09]See you in the next video. Thank you.