How Much Should You Have Saved by 30 in Canada?

One year’s salary by 30. Every answer to how much you should have saved by 30 in Canada comes back to that number, and at the median employment income for Canadians aged 25 to 34 it works out to $49,400. Families under 35 hold a median of $35,000 in retirement savings, and about a third hold none at all. The target is worth knowing. So is where it came from, because the milestones were built in the United States, around Social Security rather than CPP.

How much should you have saved by 30 in Canada?

About one year’s salary, which at the 2024 median employment income for Canadians aged 25 to 34 comes to $49,400 (opens in a new tab). That’s a benchmark, not a pass mark. Half of Canadians that age with employment income earn less than that and are aiming at a smaller number, and hardly anyone arrives at 30 holding the full amount.

Where the one-times-salary rule comes from

Fidelity’s retirement guidelines (opens in a new tab) set the milestones: one times your salary by 30, three times by 40, six times by 50, eight times by 60 and ten times by 67. They come with conditions. Fidelity assumes you started at 25, save 15% of your income every year including any employer match, keep more than half of it in stocks, and retire at 67. The 45% of pre-retirement income it sizes them to replace is the share your own savings cover after Social Security, and it assumes no employer pension on top of that.

The government benefit underneath it is American

That’s the assumption to look at from Canada, because the base the milestones sit on is US Social Security, claimed at 67. Ours is CPP plus Old Age Security, usually claimed at 65. An average new CPP retirement pension at 65 is $877.01 a month (opens in a new tab), and full OAS for someone aged 65 to 74 is up to $751.97 a month (opens in a new tab), which together come to about $1,629 a month or $19,548 a year before tax. Different programme, different claiming age, different amount. So treat the milestones as a direction of travel rather than a Canadian calculation, and check what CPP will actually pay you in My Service Canada Account (opens in a new tab), where the estimate runs off your own contributions.

What the benchmark looks like at 30, 40, 50 and 60

Line the milestones up against the median income at each age, then against what Canadians that age actually hold in retirement savings.

Income is median employment income for 2024 among people who had any, from Statistics Canada Table 11-10-0239-01 (opens in a new tab), for the age bands 25 to 34, 35 to 44, 45 to 54 and 55 to 64. Holdings are median private pension assets (RRSPs, RRIFs, LIRAs and employer plans) from the 2023 Survey of Financial Security (opens in a new tab).

The two sides of that table don’t measure the same unit

Income there belongs to one person. Holdings belong to a family unit, and they count only the families that hold some retirement savings at all: 32% of under-35s hold none, so the $35,000 is a median among the ones who have started. A couple in their thirties sits on the flattering side of that comparison and a single person sits on the other. So use the table to see how the gap changes with age. It won’t tell you where you personally stand.

Where the gap is widest

Not at 30. The median family reaches about 71% of the benchmark there, then 53% at 40 and 52% at 50, before climbing to 86% by 60. The gap is widest in the years when people are paying a mortgage and raising children, and it narrows in the decade with the highest earnings and the fewest dependants. These are different families measured at the same moment, not one household followed through life, so it shows how age groups differ today and doesn’t predict your own path.

What it takes per month to reach one times your salary

Getting to $49,400 by 30 depends almost entirely on when you start.

That’s the target divided by the months, with nothing added for interest or market returns, so treat each figure as the high end. Any return you earn brings it down, and Fidelity’s own 15% assumption counts employer matching and decades of compounding. For scale, $515 a month is 12.5% of a $49,400 income and $823 is 20%.

If none of those numbers is realistic

Most 25-year-olds can’t move $823 a month, and the national household saving rate was 3.7% in the second quarter of 2026 (opens in a new tab). The milestone also moves with your income, so a raise lifts the target about as fast as it lifts what you can put away, and chasing the exact figure is a losing game. A percentage holds up better: pick one you can keep through a bad month, raise it whenever your pay rises, and treat the milestone at 40 as the one you’re actually aiming at.

What to sort out before you chase the multiple

A cash buffer comes first. The FCAC (opens in a new tab) sizes it at three to six months of your regular expenses, because a $2,000 car repair on a credit card undoes a year of retirement contributions. High-interest debt comes next, since no savings rate in the country beats clearing a card at 20%. We go through the buffer in how to build an emergency fund in Canada and the ordering question in pay off debt or save first.

Where should the money sit?

Retirement money belongs in an RRSP or a TFSA, and which one you fill first depends on your income now against your income later. Our guide to RRSP vs TFSA vs FHSA works through the choice. Money you’ll need inside two or three years belongs somewhere else. Keep that as cash in a high-interest savings account at a CDIC-member bank, well away from the market. Everyday rates run about 2.75% and promotional rates run 4.50% to 5.00% for a fixed window, as of September 2026, and the best high-interest savings accounts in Canada has the current list. A chequing account is the one place it shouldn’t sit. Lodavo isn’t one of these accounts and pays no interest, so pick your rate on its own merits.

Free tickets for money you’ve already put away

Lodavo is a free Canadian app that gives you something back for leaving your balance alone. It links to the savings or chequing account you already use through Plaid (opens in a new tab), which reaches over 99% of deposit accounts in Canada, so you can track your savings each week and earn free tickets in a weekly cash draw. Every $25 in your linked balance is one ticket, which means a fund you’re building toward the 30 milestone keeps earning tickets week after week without you doing anything else.

The money stays at your own bank, at whatever rate you picked above. Prizes run up to $10,000 and at least $100 goes to a user every week. Past results are on the winning numbers page.

Ready to get something back for the balance you’re building? Download Lodavo free on the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) or Google Play Store (opens in a new tab) and start earning tickets for this week’s draw.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.