All the Numbers

Who the plan is about

From the All the Numbers wiki · The plan itself

A plan has one person or, if a partner is added, two. Each person has their own pay, their own accounts and their own tax return; see taxes are per person. The household pools only the money left after tax.

Several rules depend on age: TFSA room, RRSP room, the FHSA, CPP, OAS and the length of the plan. The plan therefore needs a birth year for everyone in it.

When the age is not given

  • No birth year. The person is taken to be 40 at the start of the plan.[1] That is close to the median age of the Canadian population (about 40.6 in 2025, Statistics Canada). It is a round mid-career age, chosen so that the first figures a visitor sees are neither a student's nor a senior's. It is not a legal fact: tax, CPP and registered-account rules read it until the real birth year is entered.
  • The birthday. The plan asks for a birth year, never a date of birth, and takes every birthday as 1 January of that year.[2] Most rules need only the year. A few need the month: CPP contributions stop by the birthday month once a person is past 65, and CPP, OAS and a retirement start by it. A person born in December is treated as up to eleven months older than they are, so those dates can come up to eleven months early.

The plan lists these assumptions in the run's list of assumptions. A missing birth year is removed from the list as soon as one is entered; the January birthday stays, because there is nothing to enter.

How long the plan runs

A new plan runs through the year the younger person in it turns 90, until a length is chosen.[3] The choice of 90 and its limits are described in the plan horizon.

What it deliberately does not

  • It does not guess a partner. A second person is in the plan only when one is added.
  • It does not assume an age for retirement from the birth year alone; see retirement age.
  • It does not model more than two adults.

See also

  • Events outside the plan's horizon · An event, purchase or sale dated before the plan starts or after it ends is ignored rather than clamped into range, and the plan says which one it dropped.
  • OAS at 75 · Old Age Security is 10% higher from the month after the 75th birthday. The plan takes every birthday as January 1, so in the projection the increase starts each February of the year a person turns 75.
  • Old Age Security · A monthly pension paid to most Canadians from 65, based on years lived in Canada after 18. It can be deferred for a permanent increase, rises 10% at 75 and is partly repaid through a recovery tax at high incomes.
  • Retirement age · The age at which a person's pay stops in the plan, 65 unless you give another. Their monthly contributions stop then, and an RRSP becomes a RRIF at 71.
  • RRSP room, deduction and withdrawals · Room accrues at 18% of earned income up to the annual cap, contributions earn a deduction refunded the following April, and withdrawals are taxed as income. The plan assumes you start with no carried-forward room unless you say otherwise.
  • Taxes are per person · Canada has no joint return, so each of you is taxed on your own income with your own brackets and credits. The routes that do move income between partners — pension splitting, spousal RRSPs, prescribed-rate loans — are not modelled, so a couple's real bill may be lower than this.
  • TFSA contribution room · Room starts accruing the year you turn 18, not the year you open an account, and it never expires. Withdrawals come back the following January. Limits past 2026 have not been announced, so the plan projects them by the rule the Act sets and says so.
  • The CPP retirement pension · A monthly pension from the Canada Pension Plan based on contributions, payable from 60 to 70. Starting earlier cuts it by 0.6% a month, starting later raises it by 0.7% a month. The plan estimates it from a Service Canada statement or from salary.
  • The First Home Savings Account · $8,000 a year with one year of carryforward and $40,000 for life, deducted from income and withdrawn tax-free for a first home. The refund is credited the following April, and the account winds up into an RRSP if it is never used.

References

  1. ↑Statistics Canada Table 17-10-0005-01 (median age of the Canadian population ≈ 40.6, 2025) · A person whose birth year is not given is taken to be 40 at the start of the plan, born on 1 January of that year, until the year is entered; the assumption is reported on every run and on the page · 40 years · effective 2026-09-20
  2. ↑CRA — CPP contributions stop the month after the 70th birthday, or after 65 on CPT30 · The plan asks for a birth year, never a date of birth; every birthday is 1 January of that year. CPP and OAS start, and CPP contributions stop past 65, by the birthday month, so this is reported on the run whenever one of them falls in the plan · See the source · effective 2026-09-20
  3. ↑FP Canada / Institute of Financial Planning, 2026 Projection Assumption Guidelines, §4 e) "Projection Period" and Probability of Survival table (CPM2014 projected to 2026) · Plans run to age 90 by default — about the median: FP Canada's 2026 guidelines put the age half of people outlive at 89–92 for individuals under 80. The same guidelines recommend planning to the age a person has at most a 25% chance of outliving — 94–95 for a man, 96–97 for a woman, 98–99 for either of a man–woman couple — so 90 is a choice, and editable · 90 years · effective 2026-09-25