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The concepts, decoded
Compound interest, the account alphabet soup, emergency funds — explained like you're smart, not clueless.
Learn the basics →No jargon, no boomer lectures, no one trying to sell you anything. Just how the Canadian money system really works — and how to make it work for you, starting with your next paycheque.
Compound interest, the account alphabet soup, emergency funds — explained like you're smart, not clueless.
Learn the basics →Plug in real numbers. Watch a broad-market ETF compound against a plain savings account.
Open the calculator →The exact order to fund your accounts as a Canadian. Stop guessing which one comes first.
See the order →The cost of waiting and the power of $200/month — in charts you'll actually want to screenshot.
See the stats →Get these and you're ahead of most adults. Drag the sliders, flip the tabs — these aren't bullet points, they're things you can poke at.
Your returns start earning their own returns. The longer you wait, the more violent the curve gets.
The gap between those two numbers is compounding doing the work for free.
These aren't investments — they're tax-advantaged buckets you put investments inside. Pick a tab.
Tax-Free Savings Account. Money grows and comes out 100% tax-free, and you can withdraw anytime for anything — the room comes back the next year.
Best for: basically everyone. The default home for your first investing dollars.
First Home Savings Account. The cheat code: a tax deduction going in (like an RRSP) and tax-free coming out for a first home (like a TFSA).
Best for: anyone who might buy a first home in the next ~15 years.
Registered Retirement Savings Plan. Contributions lower your taxable income now; you pay tax when you pull it out in retirement (ideally at a lower rate).
Best for: higher earners — and grab any employer match first, it's free money.
3 to 6 months of essential expenses, parked somewhere boring and safe — before you invest a dollar.
Start with even one month. The point is that a flat tire or a lost job doesn't become a debt spiral.
When money's tight, order matters. Hover or tap each one for the why.
Want the full reasoning? The flowchart walks through each step.
The green line is a broad-market ETF assumption. The red line is the same money in a 3.5% savings account. Change anything and watch it redraw — and click a legend label to toggle a line.
Growth shown is before tax. In a TFSA, every dollar of that growth is yours to keep.
A rough but reliable order for funding your accounts in Canada. Tap any step to expand the reasoning.
Stash 3–6 months of essential expenses in a high-interest savings account. This is the foundation that lets everything else work — without it, one bad month forces you to sell investments at a loss or reach for a credit card.
The First Home Savings Account is the rare double win: contributions cut your taxable income now and withdrawals are tax-free when used for a first home. If you don't end up buying, you can roll it into your RRSP. Hard to beat.
Everything grows tax-free and you can pull it out anytime, for anything, with the room returning the following year. For most people in their 20s this is the core long-term account — hold a broad ETF inside it and leave it alone.
Contributions reduce your taxable income today; you're taxed on withdrawal in retirement, ideally at a lower rate. The higher your tax bracket, the bigger the win. One exception that jumps the whole line: if your employer matches RRSP contributions, grab that match first — it's an instant 100% return.
No contribution limits here, but gains, dividends and interest are taxable each year. This is where money goes once your registered accounts are maxed — a great problem to have. It's also fine for short-term goals that don't fit the accounts above.
All figures assume a 7% average annual return — a common long-run assumption for a broad-market ETF. Hover the bars for exact numbers, and click legend labels to filter.
What you put in versus what it becomes, if you invest $200 every month at 7%. The grey is your contributions; the green is everything compounding added on top.
Three people each invest $300/month at 7% until age 65. The only difference is when they started. Green is the early bird; red is the cost of five extra years on the sidelines.
Invest $200/month for 30 years at 7%. Here's the split between what you actually contributed and what growth added — the second slice is the reason starting young matters so much.