How to be the richest person in Canada

We can learn something about getting rich based on these survey results

By Golden Girl Finance | GoldenGirlFinance.com – Mon, 16 Sep, 2013 7:00 AM EDT

The most recent results from Statistics Canada’s 2011 National Household Survey are in. Overall, Canadian wallets aren’t doing too shabby- 95 percent of Canadians earned some form of income in 2010 and 70 percent earned it from busting their butts at work.

Oh! Canada, you make us proud. Canadians reeled in $1.1 trillion into their household bankbooks for the year from employment income, government transfers, investment income and private retirement income sources.
The report segments income earners into ten percentiles. The median income of Canadians is reported at $27,800 (consider that some of the respondents were millennials with part-time jobs), but one in ten of us earned more than $80,400 in that year. The top 5 percent earned at least $102,300. The top 1 percent earned at least $191,100, but averaged $381,300.
If you’repart of the ninty-nine percentwho didn’t quite make that mark, don’t worry- the report also outlines some characteristics of those who did so we can follow in their footsteps.With these handy dandy breadcrumb clues, we should be able to get up to that top percentile by the time the next Census rolls around, which is scheduled for 2016. Cue Rocky IV training montage music now.

Turn yourself into Miss Moneybags

1) Go to school and get educated
The best investment a gal can make is in herself. Of the top 1 percentile of income earners, 67.1 percent had earned a university degree compared with just 20.9 percent of the rest of the respondents- and 87.4 percent of the top 1 percent earned a post-secondary qualification of some kind.
2) Study business, health, or engineering
These three fields of study made up 55.1 percent of the fields studied by the top 1 percent. They also made up high proportions of the fields studied by other high-income earners, usually accounting for about half.
3) Study dental, medical, or veterinary residency
A whopping 1 in 4 people studying in one of these three fields landed in the top 1 percent of income earners. With those kinds of odds, we’re willing to bet the other three aren’t doing too badly either.
4) Work in a management occupation
The top 1 percent of income earners also worked in a narrow range of occupational fields. In fact, 87.7 percent worked in one of the following five occupations: management; health; business, finance and administration; education, law and social, community and government; and natural and applied sciences and related fields. However, management professionals made up the largest chunk of this percentile, accounting for 38.8 percent of the highest-income earners.
5) Have investment income
Although investment income was reported by just a third of Canadians, more than two-thirds of the investment income reported came from the top 20 percent of income earners. Of the top 10 percent of income earners, half reported receiving investment income, but that income accounted for 56.7 percent of all investment income reported.
Women are cashing in

The report also indicates that women made up 20.5 percent of the top 1 percentile, 25.6 percent of the top 5 percentile, and 30.9 percent of the top 10 percentile. Hopefully, this leaves you feeling inspired to set up a 3-year, 5-year, or 10-year plan that will lead you to your dreams. Oh! Canada, the future is oh-so-bright!

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