Some weeks back the nation stopped in its tracks to witness the outpouring on this blog. When I asked the dogs who run here what their net worth might be, the results were eye-opening, to say the least. I spent the next two weeks telling the Canada Revenue Agency guys to bug off. Finally I relented and sold them the complete email address and IP list. Sorry. I know you and your heirs will understand.

Anyway, you’re rich. But are you rich enough? Let’s put this in context.

Environics, which earns money peddling data analysis to big corporations, made waves this week with a new report stating family wealth in Canada is growing by double-digits. It says households, on average, have $442,130 in net worth, after debt of $122,075 is deducted (that includes mortgages). Sounds impressive, right?

Of that, half ($213,000) is in real estate equity. The other $229,000 is liquid, with more than $82,000 in cash savings. So, invested assets equal $145,000. Now things don’t look so hot.

While house prices have romped higher since mortgage rates romped lower, there’s growing evidence in market after market that the party for most Canadians is over. It’s hard to imagine there are consistent and meaningful real estate gains lying ahead for people in Halifax, Montreal, Regina or Victoria. Besides, houses cost money to own, while liquid assets don’t. Moreover, getting equity out for most people means selling property, which is not only expensive (5% commission) but can be a nightmare in times of illiquidity (which approach).

The eighty grand in cash? That’s in chequing accounts (paying nothing), 1% savings accounts or comatose 2% GICs and term deposits. Dead money, in other words, slowly eroding in a world of 2.5% inflation while being fully taxed outside of a registered account.

This leaves the $145,000 in investible assets, the bulk of which sits in bank-sponsored mutual funds. Thanks to gains in US equity markets during 2013, here’s where the best gains were made – an increase of 10.4%. Smart, because most of that came in the form of capital gains, which are taxed at only 50% compared with money you earn working.

Meanwhile family debt is still increasing, with a 3.3% increase last year in outstanding mortgages. They now total about $1.2 trillion (which means every 1% equals another $12 billion). The cheery news, says Environics, is that real estate values grew faster than the additional debt. So, we’re good.

At least for now. Over the last four decades real estate appreciation nationally has been 0.4% annually, so when we revert to the mean, it’ll be highly interesting, what with all the wailing and foaming.

Now, here’s where you gentrified, haute couture, truffle-snorting blog dogs come in: There are 320,000 rich people in Canada who have (outside of their principal residences) $1 million in investible assets. Together they’re worth about $979,000,000,000, for an average of $3.06 million per household.

So the liquid worth of each rich person equals that of 13 average families, which means the 320,000 wealthy have the same aggregate liquid assets as 4.27 million households.

Hmm. There are only 13.2 million households in the country, so I guess the top 1% of people have the same as liquid net worth as one third of all households combined. So much for averages.

The point should be clear. Savings of eighty grand and investments of $145,000 (most of it in taxable RRSPs) is the best case scenario. When we remove the $979 billion in the possession of the one-percenters, those ‘average’ numbers fall precipitously, which means real estate – as a percentage of net worth – rises just as dramatically. Any way you cut it, most Canadians have adopted a one-asset strategy and are at serious risk if house values correct. Which, of course, they will.

Remember: middle class people have the bulk of their net worth in a house. Rich people don’t.

Should tell you something.

Oh, by the way, the CRA guy who now shares my office wants to know if you could possibly include your SIN when you post comments. Ta.