If you have checked your Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) contribution room recently and the number felt more daunting than exciting, it’s time to take some serious action. Canadians eligible to make TFSA contributions since 2009 have a cumulative 16-year contribution room of $102,000, including the $7,000 limit for 2025.
As a beginner with small balances, say $500 or $1,000, the six-figure allowable limit highlights a massive gap between where you are and where you “should” be. It’s easy to feel that without a massive lump sum, the TFSA investment game isn’t worth playing.
But here is the sincere truth: You do not need big money to start. You just need a “pocket-sized” amount of capital, a mechanism to compound it, and the patience to let time do the heavy lifting.
The TFSA account’s “savings” trap
The first step towards making the TFSA ready for serious wealth creation is a mental rebrand. The Canadian government’s naming it a “Savings Account” made the TFSA appear like a place to park cash for a vacation.
If you leave your money in cash earning 2% interest, you are barely treading water against inflation. To build serious wealth, you must treat your TFSA as a tax-free investment account. This is the only place where the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) cannot touch your capital gains or dividend income. The value of your TFSA investments will not be penalized as long as you stay within the yearly contribution limit.
So, if we aren’t saving, what could we be buying to turn a pocket-sized TFSA into serious wealth?
A one-ticket investment solution
If you are looking for a TFSA investment action plan, my preferred candidate for a foundational holding is the iShares S&P/TSX Composite High Dividend Index ETF (TSX:XEI), a monthly-dividend paying exchange traded fund (ETF) that invests in Canada’s best dividend stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
With a small ‘pocket-sized” capital position, it can be tough to meaningfully diversify your holdings across multiple assets, and buying one or two stocks exposes you to significant risk. However, meaningful diversification is achievable by investing the bulk of your capital in ETFs. This allows you to build wealth slowly but surely, avoiding the heartache of volatile penny stocks.
The XEI offers investors a significant slice of the entire Canadian economy. Buying XEI shares gives you instant diversification across 75 holdings in a portfolio worth $2.7 billion. You effectively own a piece of Canada’s best high-yield dividend stocks among the largest and sustainably profitable companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
For a beginner, this dividend ETF will generate regular monthly payouts, currently yielding 4.3% annually. You won’t wait too long to see the initial returns on your investment, and the fund has a dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP) that automatically converts monthly dividends into more shares, compounding your wealth faster.
The low-cost ETF has a management expense ratio (MER) of just 0.22%. You might incur as little as $2.20 per year in fees for every $1,000 invested.
The XEI’s track record
The XEI ETF has generated a 24.6% total return so far this year. Over the past decade, it has averaged a wonderful 11% compound annual return.
To put that in perspective, using the Rule of 72, that past return could have doubled an investor’s capital in just 6.5 years with dividend reinvestment. Investors who snagged units at its inception in 2011 could have seen their initially allocated TFSA capital grow by 226% today.
How to turn a small TFSA into sizeable wealth
Long-term oriented investors could turn pocket-sized TFSA balances into a significantly large retirement nest egg by investing, staying invested, reinvesting dividends, and more critically, religiously adding more capital to compound returns over time.
Let’s assume you are starting fresh today. Commit to invest $580 per month through the TFSA. This totals nearly $7,000 a year, effectively maxing out your annual contribution room.
The XEI ETF has averaged a compound annual return of 8.7% since its inception in 2011. If your TFSA earns this average return (equivalent to 0.725% monthly) over the next 20 years (240 months), here’s the projected total wealth by 2045:
- Total principal invested: $139,200
- Estimated TFSA account value in 2045: $372,935.38
Take note that monthly compounding increased the potential total balance. With lump sum annual contributions of $6,960 instead, the potential wealth could be lower at $344,307.65.
The XEI’s monthly dividends and regular TFSA contributions every month could grow a meagre account into a third of a million dollars over the next 20 years, all tax-free!
