Andy McKay

Sep 18, 2016

TFSA Check


The TFSA is a savings account for Canadians that was introduced in 2009.

As a quick check I wanted to see how much or little my TFSA had changed against what it should be. That meant a double check of how much room I had in the TFSA each year. So this is a quick cacluation the theoretical case: that you are able to invest the maximum amount each year, at the beginning of the year and get 5% return (after fees) on that.

Year Maximum Total invested Compounded Total interest gain
2009$5,000.00$5,000.00$5,250.00$250.00
2010$5,000.00$10,000.00$10,762.50$762.50
2011$5,000.00$15,000.00$16,550.63$1,550.63
2012$5,000.00$20,000.00$22,628.16$2,628.16
2013$5,500.00$25,500.00$29,534.56$4,034.56
2014$5,500.00$31,000.00$36,786.29$5,786.29
2015$10,000.00$41,000.00$49,125.61$8,125.61
2016$5,500.00$46,500.00$57,356.89$10,856.89
2017$5,500.00$52,000.00$65,999.73$13,988.73
2018$5,500.00$57,500.00$75,074.72$17,574.52

Which always raises the question for me of what is a reasonable rate to calculate at these days. It always used to be 10%, but that’s very hard to get these days. Since 2006 the annualized return on the S&P 500 is 5.158% for example. Perhaps 5% represents too conversative a number.

Update: added in 2017 and 2018 numbers.