All the Numbers

← Learn

Auto-allocation

Off, the plan moves only the money you told it to: each contribution flow takes what cash can give it, and whatever is left sits in cash at the savings rate. On, the leftover is pushed down a list of accounts in the order you set, and each one takes as much as its room allows before the rest moves on. Nothing is decided invisibly — the amounts it chose are on every month row, separately from your own contributions.

The default order, and why

FHSA → RRSP → TFSA → non-registered. This is the order Gilded's "cash priorities" use, and it is what the engine's own comparison of after-tax outcomes found (routing plan, 2026-09-12): the FHSA wins in every case, because it is deductible going in and tax-free coming out; the RRSP beats the TFSA whenever your tax rate in retirement will be below today's, which is most earners; the two are identical when the rates are equal; and the TFSA wins when the retirement rate will be higher — a household expecting that should move the TFSA up. Non-registered comes last because it is the only one that is taxed as it grows.

RESPs are not in the default list. Filling one is a decision about a child, not a tax ordering; add it to the list yourself if you want it filled.

What the engine does

  • Runs after your explicit contributions, so those keep their order and their warnings.
  • Asks each account for everything that is left, and lets the room clamp say no: the FHSA stops at $8,000 a year and $40,000 for life, the RRSP at 18% of last year's income plus carried room, the TFSA at its room. No over-contribution is ever modelled.
  • Allocates the April refund on the deductions it earned the year before, the same way.
  • Keeps back the cash buffer you set, in months of living costs (none by default).

What it deliberately does not

  • Pay down debt. Gilded's first priority is "pay down all debt"; the plan has no prepayable debt yet, so the list starts at the FHSA.
  • Choose the order for you from your own numbers. The default is the general answer; the optimizer on the accounts card is where the plan's own rates get a say.

Sources