Just over six years ago, I resigned from my public sector job to focus full-time on advice-only financial planning, this blog, and some paid freelance writing work.
Suffice it to say, this was one of the best decisions of my life. No more budget meetings, performance reports or KPIs on Monday mornings. Now I could work on what I wanted, when I wanted, from the comfort of my own home, with my wife and business partner.
Forget the fact that we started this at the beginning of a global pandemic. That may have been a blessing, as the world became increasingly accustomed to working remotely via Zoom and other online tools.
Our business has since exploded, exceeding our wildest expectations of what was possible. Along the way, I’ve been a guest on the Rational Reminder podcast, The Wealthy Barber podcast, the annual Canadian Financial Summit, and this year I even wrote my first op-ed in The Globe & Mail.
We’ve also updated our website to reflect that we are now a financial planning firm with a blog on the side, not the other way around.
In personal finance, we’ve benefited from growing revenues and a raging bull market (Covid crash and 2022 blip aside). My RRSP has grown 101% in six years, despite not making any contributions during that time. Incredible!
At the end of 2020, we reached the million dollar milestone in our assets. That felt like a monumental milestone. But just five years later, we cracked $2 million in net worth.
It would take an exceptional year in the market for us to reach that milestone, but that’s exactly what happened. Our investments, held primarily in Vanguard’s All Equity ETF (VEQT), rose 20.56% in 2025. That did most of the work for us.
Additionally, we increased our salary and dividend combination (with the intention of contributing to our RRSPs next year and moving forward), allowing us to aggressively contribute to our TFSAs.
We will complete our TFSA snowball next year, plus start the mentioned RRSP contributions. From there, we will balance our RRSP and TFSA contributions with some additional mortgage payments, plus financial assistance for our children in post-secondary and early adulthood.
As we continue to travel and grow our collection of memories – they bear the best fruit over time.
Since I already spoiled the outcome (that we hit the $2 million mark), here’s what our net worth looks like at the end of 2025:
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | % Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assets | ||||
| Checking account | $12,000 | $12,000 | $12,000 | 0.00% |
| Business cash balance | $60,000 | $55,000 | $75,000 | 9.09% |
| Business investment account | $562,848 | $444,117 | $305,617 | 26.73% |
| RRSP | $456,847 | $378,600 | $302,411 | 20.67% |
| LIRE | $303,019 | $251,172 | $204,231 | 20.64% |
| TFSA | $169,198 | $52,297 | $0 | 223.53% |
| RESP | $139,422 | $122,293 | $100,796 | 14.01% |
| Main residence | $976,000 | $976,000 | $976,000 | 0.00% |
| Total assets | $2,679,334 | $2,291,479 | $1,976,055 | 16.93% |
| — | ||||
| Debt | ||||
| Mortgage | $460,899 | $481,077 | $500,155 | -4.19% |
| Total debt | $460,899 | $481,077 | $500,155 | -4.19% |
| — | ||||
| Net worth | $2,218,435 | $1,810,402 | $1,475,900 | 22.54% |
It’s amazing how much investment returns are now driving our overall wealth growth, compared to five to 10 years ago when savings contributions were more critical. While we contributed significantly to our TFSAs, it was the 20%+ investment returns that did the heavy lifting this year.
Now let’s answer a few questions about how I calculate our net worth:
Credit cards, banking and investments
Earlier this year, I closed the TD account I’d had since I was eight years old and moved my day-to-day banking to Wealthsimple.
My wife and I take a simple approach to our banking: one joint account where income flows in and joint expenses flow out, plus one free personal account for agreed-upon debt-free spending.
We have a joint credit card with Scotiabank (Passport Visa), but direct the majority of our spending to our Wealthsimple Visa Infinite cards (2% cash back on everything).
Once or twice a year we apply for a new rewards card to build our points, focusing on American Express Membership Rewards, Aeroplan, and Mariott Bonvoy as our favorite travel programs.
All of our investment accounts (RRSPs, TFSAs, my LIRA, our children’s RESP, and our business investment accounts) are now all held on Wealthsimple’s self-directed trading platform.
You know all this from my post about how I invest my own money.
RRSP / LIRA / RESP
The right way to calculate net worth is to consistently use the same formula over time to track and achieve your financial goals.
My preferred method is to list the current value of my RRSP, LIRA, and RESP plans rather than discounting their future value to account for taxes and benefits.
I think of a net worth as a snapshot of your current financial situation, so when it comes time to tap my RRSP/LIRA and divide the RESP among my children, my net worth will decrease accordingly.
Main residence
We bought our house in 2023 for $976,000, so that’s the price I’m using for our net worth calculation. I usually adjust the purchase price every year for inflation, but I will probably continue to list it at the purchase price for a few years.
Astute readers will notice that the price of our previous home went from $459,000 to $555,000 between 2022 and 2023. That ended up being the sales price, so you can see I was pretty conservative with the home’s value over the years.
Final thoughts
Unlike the last big wealth milestone, there won’t be a big hairy, audacious goal of reaching $3 million or $5 million in a few years. While that’s probably the trajectory we’re on, it’s starting to feel a little tone-deaf to post about our success when inequality has never been more prevalent in society.
Ordinary people are still struggling with affordability after the recent spike in inflation, and while wages have also risen (on average), we are seeing more of a K-shaped recovery and a growing gap between rich and poor.
I know many of you are looking forward to these updates, and I have always strived to be transparent with my readers. But this will be our last net worth update post.
Besides not wanting to sound unreachable, I also don’t want the message to focus on the pile continually growing.
I joke that half my job is spent convincing my retired clients to spend more money. I think that comes from an obsession with saving, investing and the desire to go further. It is difficult to turn off the savings taps and open the spending taps.
But, as Die With Zero author Bill Perkins says, our wealth should peak around age 55 (not at death) so that we can maximize our life fulfillment and create more long-lasting memory dividends. If you wait too long to spend your money, you risk your health declining before you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.
We strive to do that with our trips and provide our children with great experiences and the opportunity to pursue their dreams. Heck, we still have our own dreams to pursue!
So that will be our focus from now on. Saving and investing for tomorrow, of course. But also live for today and not obsess over vanity metrics like our net worth.
Happy New Year, thanks for reading and we wish you all the best for 2026 and beyond!
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