Kevin O'Leary says people should have $100,000 saved by 33 — most Canadians aren't even close

He even built in some wiggle room, noting 35 years old is okay, too.

Hitting that mark sets up for $500,000 before retirement

O’Leary frames this age as a financial inflection point — the moment when time and compounding interest either start working for you or begin to slip away. His logic extends to a larger goal: accumulating $500,000 before retirement.

“Your goal should be to try and amass at least $500,000,” he said. “So you start to chop up the decades you’re gonna work. By 33, you better have US$100,000 if you’re gonna get the other US$400,000 by the time you’re 60.”

His prescription for getting there is to save 20% of your paycheque and let market growth do the work. For Canadians, that 20% has two natural homes: a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), which shelters contributions from tax now and taxes withdrawals later, and a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA), which shields all growth and withdrawals from tax permanently.

How most Canadians are actually doing

Most people are nowhere near O’Leary’s target. According to Statistics Canada’s Survey of Financial Security, the median net worth of Canadian families was $519,700 in 2023 — but that figure covers everything a family owns minus debt, not just savings, and it skews heavily toward older, homeowning families.

For younger Canadians specifically, the picture is more mixed than it first appears. Families under 35 had a median net worth of $159,100 in 2023, up 179% from 2019 — but almost all of that gain came from rising home values among young homeowners, whose median net worth hit $457,100. Young families without a principal residence had a median net worth of just $44,000, and the least well-off group — young renters with no employer pension — had a median net worth of $27,000.

That gap matters because O’Leary’s target is centred on liquid savings, not home equity. A young Canadian who owns a home may look fine on a net-worth basis while still being far short of $100,000 in an RRSP and TFSA combined.

It’s also a moving target. According to BMO’s Annual Retirement Survey, Canadians now believe they’ll need $1.7 million to retire comfortably, up from $1.54 million the year before, and 36% say they’re unlikely to hit that number — up from 29% the previous year.

Still, there are signs of effort: the average RRSP contribution reached a record $7,447 in the most recent full year measured by BMO, a 14% jump from $6,512. “Someone in their 20s contributing 10% a month to an RRSP can be a great start,” said Margaret Leong, senior investment counsellor and portfolio manager at BMO Private Wealth. “As earnings increase throughout an individual’s prime working years, so should their savings.”

Not everyone gets that early start. A 2025 survey from the National Institute on Ageing, supported by Manulife, found 22% of working Canadians aged 50 and older report retirement savings of $5,000 or less, excluding property and workplace pensions.

That gap is partly structural. StatCan’s figures show the median salary earned by a Canadian was $46,300 in 2024, and workers aged 25 to 34 actually saw their income fall 2.4% in real terms that year — down 6.9% since the 2021 peak. Meanwhile, average weekly earnings for all workers reached $1,333.23 in March 2026, up 3.5% year over year, or roughly $69,300 annualized. However, that average is pulled up by higher earners and doesn’t reflect what a typical worker in their 20s or early 30s is actually taking home.

Student debt adds another drag in the early-career years. StatCan’s National Graduates Survey puts the median debt at graduation for bachelor’s degree holders at about $20,000, with college graduates owing roughly $11,500 — a burden that lands hardest in the same years O’Leary’s savings target is aimed at.

Still, it’s worth noting that the most significant jumps in savings tend to happen between your 40s and 50s, when incomes are higher, debt loads have often eased and compounding has had more time to work. That makes the early accumulation O’Leary prescribes by 33 all the more important as the foundation for what comes later.

The math behind the 20% rule

O’Leary’s method is achievable but demanding. It assumes consistent contributions and enough time in the market for compounding to do its work. Run the numbers and the underlying principle holds: $10,000 invested at age 30 at a 7% average annual return grows to roughly $106,000 by age 65. Wait until 45, and the same investment yields only about $38,000.