Do you want to be a tax-free savings account (TFSA) millionaire?
If so, it helps to study people who have already achieved the distinction.
Canadians have gained $102,500 in TFSA contribution room since 2009 (less age-based limits), and some have managed to grow that relatively small sum into millions already.
According to the Globe and Mail, at the end of 2024, 352 Canadians had $1 million or more in their TFSAs, while 29 had $5 million or more. The mythical TFSA millionaire is rare, but does exist. In this article, I will reveal the five secrets of TFSA millionaires and how you can apply them to your own investments.
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Secret #1: TFSA millionaires invest aggressively
One common trait shared by TFSA millionaires is that they invest more aggressively than others. A survey of TFSA millionaires found that they were more likely to own individual stocks and more likely to trade options compared to the average Canadian. Growth stocks tend to be among their favourite equities.
Consider Shopify Inc (TSX: SHOP), for example. It’s a Canadian tech stock that has risen 6,238% in the market since its 2015 initial public offering (IPO). If you’d held $100,000 worth of Shopify on its IPO date and held to today, you’d be sitting on a position worth $6,338,000 today. That’s the power of aggressive investing: when done correctly, it lets you compound more rapidly than would otherwise be possible.
Secret #2: TFSA millionaires play the long game
Another common trait of TFSA millionaires is that they invest for the long haul. Rather than day trading, most TFSA millionaires hold their top positions for years. The logic behind this is simple enough: investment theses can take considerable time to play out; daily stock moves are just statistical noise. Still, many investors shoot themselves in the foot with frequent, costly trading.
Secret #3: TFSA millionaires re-invest their dividends
One surprising trait research has discovered about TFSA millionaires is that they tend to re-invest their dividends. When you re-invest dividends paid by a stock that is appreciating in value over time, you boost your returns. The magnitude of this effect can be quite surprising. There are many high-yield stocks whose share prices have barely moved, but have delivered Shopify-like returns to investors who re-invested their dividends.
Secret #4: TFSA millionaires contribute as much as possible
Another trait shared by TFSA millionaires is the tendency to contribute as much to their accounts as possible. Each year, a little more TFSA contribution room is added on top of that which accumulated in past years. In 2025, the additional amount was $7,000. If invested wisely, $7,000 can grow to $70,000, $700,000, or more. So it should come as no surprise that TFSA millionaires have the habit of maxing out their contributions.
Secret #5: Very few TFSAs are worth over a million dollars
A final fact about TFSA millionaires is that they are very rare. Across Canada, there were only 352 millionaires in 2024, out of 17,000 TFSA holders in total. In other words, only about 2% of TFSA holders had a million or more in their accounts. That’s not a lot, but it’s enough to make one think that becoming a TFSA millionaire is not unattainable. Perhaps you could look at the TFSA millionaires as inspiration in your own saving and investing quest.
