# The most successful TFSA



## Tostig (Nov 18, 2020)

Just a bit of fun here.

For those who were 18 or older when the TFSA was first introduced and had the ability to max out the contributions, the minimum balance he or she should have should be $69,500 at the end of December 31, 2020. That would be for a person who contributes but didn't invest in anything. For those who are just bad investors, their TFSA portfolio would be worth less.

I wonder if some institution somewhere has the data indicating what the current highest value TFSA is and who owns it?


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

It's the stock market, so people are gambling. Because of the nature of gambling, there will be some number of people with very high gains ... I'm sure there's someone out there who bought some penny stocks or got lucky on a leveraged ETF, and has a crazy high balance today.

Sadly I was unable to use my TFSA for six years while I was in the US, and that set me behind. With max contributions, mine is at 83 K


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

I read some in the past, but I think people don't want to attract the attention of the CRA. 

A very high TFSA account may be looked at by CRA for evidence of day trading.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Tostig said:


> ... I wonder if some institution somewhere has the data indicating what the current highest value TFSA is and who owns it?


There's published articles for those in the $500K range.








Not for the faint of heart: The $500,000 TFSA and whether it’s right for you


While many Canadians have been content to park their money, some use aggressive or unique strategies in a bid to get the most out of the relatively new savings…




financialpost.com





There's over a million but CRA was reported to be investingating.








Former trader amasses $1.25 million in his TFSA — now the taxman wants to know how


He made his seven figures in his TFSA with a series of longshots on penny stocks and warrants, but now he has to fight the Canada Revenue Agency for his tax…




financialpost.com





Several people on CMF years ago wrote about having $100K TFSAs.

I seem to recall when the additional penalty was rolled out in 2009 that some of those using the suspect methods were reported to have built up million dollar ones.


Cheers

*PS*
Unless they are willing to put their names out there in an article, I'm doubting any with big value TFSAs want their names published.

Keep in mind that for many years, the cash and cash equivalent assets in the TFSAs being used was reported to be high. This would limit the chance of a large TFSA.


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## Eder (Feb 16, 2011)

My TSFA consisting of 6 TSX dividend stalwarts has grown to $132k although it is down ~4% this year. Oh...make that $138k as of Monday lol...don't forget to contribute even if you need to rob a bank to do so!

I really wish there were TSFA's when I was 30.


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## doctrine (Sep 30, 2011)

My TFSA has been conservatively managed but is up a cool $16k this year, plus another $6k in contributions. So sitting at $112k and up a nice 17% this year, but that is indexing for you. 

Don't forget, for every $500k TFSA out there, I guarantee you there are literally thousands of people who have done permanent damage to their TFSA contribution room by investing high risk like in penny stocks. 

I'm quite happy to achieve my typical 8-10% a year which now easily puts my capital growing at 100% and maybe even as much as 200% of my contribution room itself, with plenty of time to compound further.


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## scorpion_ca (Nov 3, 2014)

I made only $550 from 2009 to 2013 even though I maxed out my TFSA. It was on HISA. At the end of 2013, I opened a brokerage account and now the value is around $92/93K. It has been maxed out every year. It has 32k worth of ZAG and 62k worth of ZRE. I will buy more ZRE with the new 6k this year. Also, planning to sell ZAG and buy ZTU in future.


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## Tostig (Nov 18, 2020)

Here are some benchmarks for the full 12 years.
Raw data from Yahoo Finance, Historical Data Open Jan, 2, 2009, Close Dec. 31, 2020.
S&P500= 902.99 to 3756.07
Dow = 8772.25 to 30606.48
Nasdaq= 1578.87 to 12888.28
S&P/TSX= 8951.9 to 17433.36


The average annual compounded growth rate (%=LN(P1/P0)/12).
S&P500= 11.88%
Dow = 10.41%
Nasdaq= 17.5%
S&P/TSX= 5.55%

So for full contributions January of every year and NO cash reserves, no commissions or fees, no exchange rate fluctuations, no US foreign withholding tax, benchmark TFSA portfolio values as of end of Dec.31, 2020 should be:
S&P500= $158,508.99
Dow = $141,990.20
Nasdaq= $246,799.53
S&P/TSX= $100,224.26

At an average annual growth rate of 9.58%, the only one I beat is the TSX.. My portfolio has 14% cash, 20% in US equities and heavy in Canadian dividend stocks and ETFs.


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## Gator13 (Jan 5, 2020)

My TFSA has been more or less 100% REIT ETF's. It is sitting at around 125k. Same thing for my wife. I'll probably pick up more ZRE with this year's contribution and distributions from the past 12 months.


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## MrMike (Sep 30, 2020)

Congrats to everyone here! Those are some great numbers. 

I was over 18 when the TFSA was introduced, I didn't learn/start using it until 3 years ago (and as you know, investing is slow in the beginning). I haven't benefited from the years of growth yet


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## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

thanks to a couple of poorly-timed investments in a couple of oil companies, I am somewhat below the $69500 mark...😪


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## dotnet_nerd (Jul 1, 2009)

Our TFSAs are mostly in bonds.

Mine's at $108,000 mainly ZAG
Wife's is $104,000 with TD e-Series TDB909


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## Retiredguy (Jul 24, 2013)

Ours, maxed contributions, including 2021.

159,000
76,000


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## Retiredguy (Jul 24, 2013)

Tostig said:


> Here are some benchmarks for the full 12 years.
> Raw data from Yahoo Finance, Historical Data Open Jan, 2, 2009, Close Dec. 31, 2020.
> S&P500= 902.99 to 3756.07
> Dow = 8772.25 to 30606.48
> ...


Interesting, did you spreadsheet the contributions each year and work the numbers or use a website calculator. If website can you share it. Thanks


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## Tostig (Nov 18, 2020)

Retiredguy said:


> Interesting, did you spreadsheet the contributions each year and work the numbers or use a website calculator. If website can you share it. Thanks


The data is all in Yahoo Finance, Historical Data

This is the link to the January 2, 2009 data








S&P 500 (^GSPC) Historical Data - Yahoo Finance


Get historical data for the S&P 500 (^GSPC) on Yahoo Finance. View and download daily, weekly or monthly data to help your investment decisions.




ca.finance.yahoo.com





I calculated the compounded annual growth rate using =LN(P1/P0)/T; =LN(3756.07 /902.99)/12 = 0.118784749820305 or 11.8%. This is natural log growth rate calculation, You can use the more common compound growth equation that you learned in high school or in finance classes compounding daily, monthly or yearly. The natural log growth rate calculation compounds continuously instead of discretely.

Then I ran a spreadsheet starting with $5000 contribution to start 2009. And with this contribution and every annual contribution ($5000, $5500, $10,000, $6000) growing at 11.8% continuous compounding every year calculated to the end of December 2020.


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## Juggernaut92 (Aug 9, 2020)

I would think it would be risky to buy small cap stocks in a TFSA. Either it can go up and you make a lot or it will go down and destroy your contribution room. I would want to know more about investing before doing something like that or have a lot of profit in my account before considering it.


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## Thal81 (Sep 5, 2017)

Mines at 99k, maxed contributions excluding 2021. 
I started contributing only 6 years ago, I had 31k of contribution room and no clue about investing. There was some wasted years, but then I learned!


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## Benting (Dec 21, 2016)

The timing of this plan is just perfect, right at the end of the market crash and a long climb right after.
Including 2021 contribution:
Mine's $138k in one stock.
Wife's $135k in one stock.
All dripped and no trading.


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## MrBlackhill (Jun 10, 2020)

Tostig said:


> I calculated the compounded annual growth rate using =LN(P1/P0)/T; =LN(3756.07 /902.99)/12 = 0.118784749820305 or 11.8%. This is natural log growth rate calculation, You can use the more common compound growth equation that you learned in high school or in finance classes compounding daily, monthly or yearly. The natural log growth rate calculation compounds continuously instead of discretely.
> 
> Then I ran a spreadsheet starting with $5000 contribution to start 2009. And with this contribution and every annual contribution ($5000, $5500, $10,000, $6000) growing at 11.8% continuous compounding every year calculated to the end of December 2020.


You should also explain that then you need to compound using e. And explain the advantage of the log space being that it converts exponentiation into multiplication, roots into division, multiplication into addition, division into subtraction.

Using a single value for compounding stock returns can give an approximation, but since the stock market is pretty volatile, combining cashflows and a single compounding rate can be misleading.

I used Portfolio Visualizer's data for total yearly return. See how XIC.TO has a CAGR higher than XIU.TO, but the investment ended at a lower final value. All that due to that $10,000 investment in 2015 when XIU started outperforming XIC.










Anyone who simply invested all of his TFSA room in QQQ would have about $300,000 in his TFSA as of today, depending on the cost of currency exchange to convert his cashflow into USD.

Note how XSP.TO underperformed SPY due to currency hedging. You should look at XUS.TO to decide whether you want to hedge or not, depending on your belief for the forecast of CAD/USD.


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## Retiredguy (Jul 24, 2013)

Benting said:


> The timing of this plan is just perfect, right at the end of the market crash and a long climb right after.
> Including 2021 contribution:
> Mine's $138k in one stock.
> Wife's $135k in one stock.
> All dripped and no trading.


If I recall correctly from ur earlier posts. TD. Correct? If so about 1000 a month in divs! Combined.


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

I'm sure there must be more than a few Tesla fanboys or Weed heads out there that have turned 50k into 500k+

Probably laying low due to all the TFSA hit pieces in the papers over the last 5 years.


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## Jamesdean (Jan 4, 2021)

Mine before 2021 contribution 100k. Zre bce bns and slf...all on drips. I expected better performance but oh well maybe with more time. 
Wife's 99k and vgro and zdy... Happy with this result considering they are etfs


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## Covariance (Oct 20, 2020)

21% CAGR


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## Benting (Dec 21, 2016)

Retiredguy said:


> If I recall correctly from ur earlier posts. TD. Correct? If so about 1000 a month in divs! Combined.


Yes, since inception.
It was down closed to 90k last May. Although the value of the plan not important to me at the moment, since I am not planning to cash it in anytime soon. What I am looking at is the number of shares I gained from dividend. It was a good year to pick up a few more than usual due to the downturn. Just hope we'll have few more years like this....


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## newfoundlander61 (Feb 6, 2011)

Did mine and the wifes today $6k each, added more AQN & Telus shares with the money.


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## Ponderling (Mar 1, 2013)

mine is at 116k prior to 2021 new funds in, and wife's at 160k. Mine is loaded with oil and forest and in a funk at the moment. At least we are all using them to hold equities.

According to a recent Greater Fool post gobs of people use it them as glorified vacation savings accounts. Or put gic's in them.


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