Canadian retirees are searching for ways to generate passive income on their hard-earned savings as a way to complement the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security (OAS), and work pensions. One popular strategy to generate investment earnings involves owning top TSX dividend stocks inside a self-directed Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA).
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TFSA benefits
The TFSA contribution limit in 2025 is $7,000. This brings the cumulative maximum contribution space to $102,000 per person. That’s a large enough portfolio to generate a decent stream of tax-free passive income.
All interest, dividends, and capital gains earned inside a TFSA are tax-free. This means the full value of the earnings can go right into your pocket or reinvested. Any amount removed from the TFSA opens up equivalent new contribution space in the following calendar year, in addition to the regular annual contribution limit increase.
Retirees who collect OAS don’t have to worry about TFSA income pushing them into a higher tax bracket or triggering the OAS pension recovery tax.
Bank of Nova Scotia
Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS) is up more than 20% in the past year, but investors can still get a solid 4.9% dividend yield from the stock.
The bank’s share price has actually underperformed its large peers in recent years, but that might change as management navigates the business through a strategy transition that will see the bank focus its growth investments on the United States and Canada rather than on Latin America where Bank of Nova Scotia’s big bets over the past two or three decades have not delivered the anticipated investor returns.
Bank of Nova Scotia is also focused on improving efficiency and reducing operating expenses. These efforts should help boost earnings in the coming quarters. The bank delivered solid results in the fiscal third quarter (Q3) of 2025 with adjusted net income rising to $2.52 billion compared to $2.19 billion in the same quarter last year.
Enbridge
Enbridge (TSX:ENB) is a popular stock among Canadian dividend investors. The energy infrastructure firm has increased its dividend annually for the past 30 year and currently provides a 5.7% dividend yield, even after its stellar rally over the past 24 months. Enbridge trades near $66 per share at the time of writing. The stock was below $44 in October 2023.
Falling interest rates help Enbridge and other companies that use debt to fund growth programs. Pipelines and other energy infrastructure projects can cost billions of dollars and sometimes take years to build. Lower borrowing costs can reduce debt expenses. This frees up cash for debt reduction or dividend payments.
Enbridge is working on a $32 billion capital program. As new assets are completed and go into service the boost to cash flow should support ongoing dividend increases. Enbridge gets additional revenue and profit expansion from strategic acquisitions. For example, Enbridge spent US$14 billion in 2024 to buy three natural gas utilities in the United States. The deals further diversify Enbridge’s revenue stream and complement the existing natural gas transmission infrastructure.
The bottom line
Bank of Nova Scotia and Enbridge pay good dividends with attractive yields. If you have some cash to put to work, these stocks deserve to be on your radar.
