Canadian household net worth.
Net worth
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Total assets
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Total liabilities
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Worked example
Take the default Canadian household loaded in the form. On the asset side it holds $10,000 in cash and chequing, a $150,000 RRSP, an $80,000 TFSA, and a home valued at $700,000, for total assets of $940,000. On the liability side it carries a $350,000 mortgage and $15,000 of other consumer debt, for total liabilities of $365,000. Net worth is simply assets minus liabilities, so $940,000 minus $365,000 leaves $575,000. Notice that the registered accounts are counted at their full balance here, but an RRSP is pre-tax money, so a withdrawal later is taxed as income. A TFSA, by contrast, comes out tax-free. Two households with the same headline net worth can therefore have quite different spending power once future tax is taken into account, which is worth remembering when you compare yourself to the StatCan medians.
| Line item | Amount (CAD) |
|---|---|
| Cash + RRSP + TFSA + home | $940,000 assets |
| Mortgage + other debt | $365,000 liabilities |
| Net worth | $575,000 |
How it is calculated
Net worth is the most basic measure of financial position: everything you own minus everything you owe. The tool sums the four asset inputs (cash, RRSP, TFSA, and home value) into total assets, then sums the two liability inputs (mortgage and other debt) into total liabilities, and subtracts the second from the first. There is no tax, growth, or inflation adjustment in the figure, so it is a snapshot at today's values. Home value should be a realistic resale estimate rather than the purchase price, and registered accounts should reflect current market balances. Because the number moves with markets and debt paydown, the useful signal is the trend over time, not any single reading, so tracking it once a quarter is the standard recommendation.