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Martin Alderwick is a millionaire. But he doesn’t feel like one.
The 76-year-old retiree lives modestly in Guelph, Ont., with his wife. The couple bring in about $7,500 a month in retirement income and own a townhouse that makes up nearly 40 per cent of their total assets. Their net worth crosses the seven-figure threshold.
But Mr. Alderwick doesn’t identify with the millionaire title. “I live comfortably,” he said. “But I still look for bargains and where I can save.”
His unease reflects a growing reality in Canada: A rising number of people technically qualify as millionaires, but don’t feel, or function, like it.
According to the UBS 2025 Global Wealth Report, the number of so-called “everyday millionaires,” those with wealth between US$1-million and US$5-million, has quadrupled globally since 2000, reaching nearly 52 million people.
In Canada, and around the world, much of that growth is tied to real estate, according to the UBS report. As home values surged in major cities and even mid-sized markets, many middle-class homeowners became millionaires without doing anything beyond staying put.
But with that wealth locked into their primary residences, many of these individuals are likely confronting an uncomfortable truth that having a million-dollar net worth doesn’t necessarily mean you are financially ready for retirement.
“We still have this notion of a millionaire as someone on a yacht or a private jet,” said Brenda O’Connor Juanas, a financial adviser at UBS. “The makeup of what this millionaire looks like is quite different.”
In 2024, the average Canadian household net worth reached $1,026,205, a 30 per cent jump from 2019, according to Statistics Canada. Generation X has the greatest average real-estate wealth, at $666,146 per household, followed by baby boomers at $550,994 per household.
“The tension is that a lot of that net worth happens to be in things that they can’t access on a day-to-day basis, mainly their home equity,” Ms. O’Connor Juanas, who is Canadian and living in the U.S., said. “You see a lot of net worth in terms of a paper number but not necessarily what an everyday millionaire Canadian would feel.”
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For Mr. Alderwick, he sees his house as “somewhat irrelevant” when it comes to his current financial situation and living in the moment. “It may help my dependants or offspring, but it’s no help to me. You can’t live on that.”
Unlike pensions or RRSPs, a home doesn’t generate monthly income in retirement. It doesn’t pay for groceries or cover medical bills. And converting it into cash, whether through downsizing, borrowing or reverse mortgages, comes with financial and emotional trade-offs.
The disconnect becomes even more striking when compared to the amount of money Canadians say they think they need to comfortably retire.
According to Fidelity Canada’s 2025 Retirement Report, pre-retirees believe they’ll need about $1.02-million to retire comfortably, a figure that does not include home equity. That’s more than double what Canadians thought they needed in 2005.
In other words, if your $1-million net worth includes a $900,000 house and just $100,000 in liquid savings, you’re likely well short of the mark of what you may feel like you need in order to comfortably retire.
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Longer lives, rising costs and uncertainty about the future are some reasons why Canadians feel they need to save more to live a comfortable retirement, said Michelle Munro, director of tax and retirement research at Fidelity.
Although prices are not rising as fast as previous years, costs for key essentials, such as groceries and gas, still remain much higher than prepandemic levels.
“What we fail to acknowledge is that consumers like you and me don’t necessarily care about the rate of change in inflation. They care about the change of price levels,” Ms. O’Connor Juanas said.
While $1-million may be enough for someone living in a lower-cost region, it’s far from a magic, one-size-fits-all number, Ms. Munro said. For a person living in a high-cost city, such as Vancouver or Toronto, Ms. Munro finds that million figure “very limiting.”
That’s why having a plan, not just a number, is key, Ms. Munro said. According to the Fidelity report, 90 per cent of Canadians with a written financial plan feel prepared for retirement, compared to just 55 per cent of those without one.
It’s also important to diversify how you grow your nest egg, Ms. Munro said. While the sale of a home in retirement can be a way to fund long-term care, it’s a good idea to also have assets that are more easily accessible. That can be done by having a portion of liquid assets in accounts such as a high-interest savings account for short-term goals. For long-term goals, investing in the stock market can offer growth over a longer period.
“When somebody has a goal that they’re working towards saving, towards investing, they’re really setting themselves up for success,” Ms. Munro said.
For Ms. O’Connor Juanas, the takeaway is clear: “Many Canadians are paper millionaires, but that doesn’t necessarily give them a lot of comfort that they’ll be okay in retirement, which actually is an incentive to plan earlier.”
