How Do You Stack Up?

5 Simple Steps to Switch Accounts 6 Money Mistakes Couples Make

How Do You Stack Up?

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People are always writing to me to ask me how I think they're doing financially. They send me gobs and gobs of info and then want to know how they measure up. I try to encourage people to measure themselves against themselves. But the questions, they keep coming.

Did you know that Royal Bank has a "How Do You Stack Up?" tool. You put in your income, your savings, your debt and your province of residence and the calculator shows you how you measure up against other Canadians and against others in your province or territory.

If you're a single person living in Ontario earning $36K a year with no savings and $7,500 in debt, the calculator will tell you that you're making about almost $7000 less than the average for Ontario, but just $3,000 less than the average for Canada. The average net worth for an Ontario res is $192,502 (home ownership accounts for a lot of that), while net worth for Canada comes in at $163,535. If you were living in BC, you'd be worse off net worth-wise since the average in BC is 210,108, but you'd be more in like on income since BC'ers average income for singles is just over $40K.

What if you're a couple just starting out and you have a family income of $55,500? You have a house worth $367,000 and almost as much debt in mortgages and student loans? Well the calculator can't cope with those numbers (really?) but you will be taken to a screen that shows national and provincial averages.

You'll see that the average real estate asset holdings for a Canadian family just starting out is just under $262,000 while for Ontario it's just over $304,000. You'll also see that the average GIC holding in Canada is $16679, the average bond holding is $7,506, the average stock portfolio is worth $43,240 (which begs the question, "Why does investing get so much space in our financial pages?" Oh, yeah, advertising!) The average mutual fund portfolio is at $39,436 and the average balance in our chequing and savings accounts is $8,014. Hey, I know a lot of people … and I mean a LOT of people with less than $8 in their accounts, so some people are holding a bundle. Say "Hurrah" for emergency funds. Then you click on Liabilities to see the debt story.

Credit card debt = $4,716
Mortgage debt = $163,357
Loan debt = $18,948
Line of credit debt = $33,334

For a total debt load of $220,355

Compared to a total asset base of $376,875

For a net worth… drumroll please… $156,520.

So, how are you doin'?

The Prairies get lumped together (no wonder people out west are always so pissed off at the rest of Canada) as if life in Saskatchewan is anything like life in Alberta! Ditto Atlantic Canada. So if you live in these regions, you'll have to settle for less specific info.

The family types offered range from those I've mentioned to:

Couples already established
Families, oldest child under 12
Families, oldest child 12-18
Families, oldest child 18+

While I don't think we should be comparing ourselves to others, I do think looking at our financial picture in the context of national and regional averages can be useful in helping us to see where we fit in the big economic picture.

If you find this useful, use it.

If you think it's a load of hooey, ignore it.