Your RDSP projection
This tool started as one person's example. Now it is yours. Put in your own name, age, and starting balance, then run your own what-if situations.
What the government adds, worked out automatically
Set your yearly contribution above and this updates on its own. The grant and the bond are already counted in the projection below. Amounts assume eligibility and family income under $117,045; higher income still gets a grant, at lower matching rates.
Your results in words
Set your name, age, balance, return and contribution above, and your results will be written out here in plain words.
See the difference a little more could make
This is not a recommendation, just the math, on the Steady path with your settings above. If you were able to put in a little more each year, here is what would change. The top-up to $1,500 a year matters because that is the level that earns the full $3,500 grant.
- Your starting point: the current balance you enter is money already in the RDSP, and it keeps growing at the rate you choose. New grants and bonds below are calculated on new contributions from today, against the full lifetime caps. If you have already received a lot of government money, your remaining lifetime room may be smaller than this illustration shows, so treat the government amounts as an upper guide, not a promise.
- Building years (now to 60): each year the account grows by the chosen rate, then that year's contributions, grants and bonds are added. Grants: the first $500 you contribute can earn $1,500 (matched 3 to 1), the next $1,000 can earn $2,000 (2 to 1), so $1,500 in can earn the full $3,500 grant, at family income under $117,045. Catch-up up to $10,500 per year, and only from the past unused grant room you enter above. Bonds: $1,000 per year (assumes eligibility), paid even in years you contribute nothing. Grants and bonds end December 31 of the year the holder turns 49. Lifetime caps enforced: $70,000 grants, $20,000 bonds, $200,000 contributions. Contributions allowed until 59.
- Paycheque years (60 to 85): payments must start by the end of the year you turn 60. Each year's standard formula payment (LDAP) is the account value divided by (83 minus your age), so at 60 it is value divided by 23. One exception worth knowing: when a plan is primarily government-assisted, meaning grants and bonds make up the bigger share of it, the legal maximum is the greater of that formula or 10 percent of the plan value at the start of the year. This tool models the standard formula payment, the gentler path. The rest keeps growing at the chosen rate, which is why the balance can keep rising while you withdraw.
- Tax split: each payment is split proportionally. The part that is a return of your own contributions comes back tax-free. The part made of grants, bonds and growth is taxable income to you in the year you receive it, with tax withheld at source.
The legacy: what happens at the end
An RDSP is built to pay you for life. But it is worth knowing how the story ends, because this is where the planning pays off twice.
- When the beneficiary passes away, the RDSP closes.
- Government money paid in during the last 10 years goes back to the government. That is the assistance holdback rule doing its final job.
- Everything remaining flows to the estate.
- It can also roll over tax-free into a spouse or partner's RDSP, or into the RDSP of a financially dependent infirm child or grandchild, so the money keeps working for the next generation.
Estate rules are personal, so get professional guidance for your own situation.
The real legacy was never the final balance. It was decades of security the RDSP made possible.
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✓ Verified for 2026 rules · October 2026