I checked my TFSA account and noticed something was worth celebrating yesterday.
I finally broke $100,000 in TFSA, aka Tax Free Saving Account. I have seen more and more people breaking $100,000 mark lately so I am very glad it happened to me as well. It was about time baby!
Glorious looking chart for last 3.5 years!
Average annual return of 14.97%. With that annual returns, I would double the money every 5 years.
Considering total accumulated TFSA contribution limit as of 2018 taxation year is $57,500, close to $43,000 is the gain I earned in TFSA account over the years. That $43,000 is 100% mine. It is not taxable. I give nothing to the government. Just like many of you, I always get hit with the least tax efficient employment income tax before I even touch my hard earned money so this is one of my most powerful weapon against the taxman. That sweet little $43,000 non taxable gain will compound itself day after day and whatever gain it will generate over the years down the road won’t be taxable. Just thinking about it, I feel younger!
Here is how much you could/can contribute in TFSA
2009- $5,000
2010- $5,000
2011- $5,000
2012- $5,000
2013- $5,500
2014- $5,500
2015- $10,000 (Harper doubled the limit in 2015)
2016- $5,500 (Mr. Socksman put it back to $5,500 in 2016)
2017- $5,500
2018- $5,500
Total accumulated contribution limit of $57,500. Yup. That’s a sweet little contribution room that will give little guys like us something that has been long forgotten ‘Hope’
So go get it while it lasts.
Maybe I can share some of my tips of breaking $100,000 in TFSA.
If this random pathetic Korean immigrant who barely spoke an English word 10 years ago can do it, you… who are intelligently sexier than me can do it with minimum effort.
Here we go…
1. Maximize TFSA contribution ASAP!
I was still a student in 2009 and did not contribute in TFSA until later years. Then I understood the power of compounding and TFSA sometime around 2012-2013. Ever since, I maximized TFSA limit every January, the moment contribution limit was reset so that I could take advantage of the tax free nature of investment returns as early as possible. Based on the 2017 Stats Canada report, only 1.2 million of Canadian’s maximized their contribution room in 2017. I think we can certainly do better than that… Aren’t I right?
2. Do not get mislead by its name Tax Free Saving Account
You can buy whatever you want in TFSA account- savings, GIC, bonds, preferred shares, ETFs, mutual funds and common shares and all gains you make within the account is tax free. Sadly many people are getting misled by stinky politicians who named the account as ‘Tax Free Saving Account’ instead of ‘Tax Free Investing Account’. I would never understand people who put safe stuff such as saving accounts and GICs in TFSA. All gains you make in TFSA are tax free. Why would you limit the potential of TFSA and compromise yourself for a mere 0.1%- 1% of return? Sky is the limit in TFSA.
3. Focus on quality of assets you buy in TFSA
I cannot emphasize this enough.
Do you want to gamble with TFSA account with Penny stocks and Cryptocurrency junk? You easily can and you may be able to make many times of your money but out of 1 winner there are 10 losers in this gambling. Even if you become the winner, you may get audited by CRA which has been hitting people with large gains and frequent trading. When that happens, the gains may get taxed as business income which is the highest taxable source of income.
For those who do not know what to buy in TFSA, read through my previous posts to learn more.
No one cares about your financial future than yourself. Again If I can do it, you can do it!
4. Learn from mistakes and polish your investing styles.
Life is all about learning something new. Isn’t it?
Mistakes will happen but as long as you learn your lessons and apply what you learned, you would get tremendous advantage and be better off for a long time.
Last 4-5 years, I refined my investing styles more than 5 times.
- First- Learned importance of saving money so I saved
- Second- Learned about mutual funds and so I invested all my savings in mutual funds
- Third- Learned about ETFs so I sold all of my mutual funds and bought Canadian and US ETFs
- Fourth- Learned about dividend growth investing so I sold all my ETFs and started buying dividend stocks.
- Fifth- Learned about value investing so I started buying value stocks on top of dividend stocks.
- Sixth- Learned about GARP (Growth At a Reasonable Price) investing style which I am quite happy with for the moment.
Since September 2014, my TFSA account returned close to 70% during constant refinement of my investing styles.
There is no perfect investing style. You just need to stick to whatever works for you.
I would recommend diversified ETFs if you are new to investing which Warren Buffett recommends as well.
Just stick to diversified and low cost ETFs and automate your saving and investing then you are all set.
5. Monitor, Save and Invest
Watch your eggs, get rid of weed, save and invest. Rinse and Repeat until you reach millions in TFSA 🙂
and as always, spend some time to learn what you are buying. Don’t trust anyone and that certainly includes myself and my pathetic blog until you are fully satisfied with what you are about to buy. 🙂
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Congratulations. My tfsa is about $78,000. Mostly popular canadian Reits and dividend stocks that ive been holding years. I can see why your tfsa performed much better. You hustle.
Yes I do!