Weekend Reading – TFSA Year-End Tips – Applied Business Revenue

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Weekend Reading – TFSA Year-End Tips

Hi Folks!

Welcome to a new Weekend Reading edition that includes some TFSA year-end tips!

Before those tips and other links, some recent reads and reminders:

My wife started to work part-time earlier this year. Lucky her! All fun aside, this has been part of our shared financial plan…I hope to join her in 2025 as part of our #FIWOOT plan (Financial Independence, Work On Own Terms).

Financial Independence Update

To “get there” in 2025, I’m also working on safeguarding our retirement plan. I believe there are a few key things to think about and act on. You might want to consider the same. And, if you have already safeguarded your own financial plan then I look forward to hearing from you to compare notes!

So, feel free to join me live and engage with me on this or any related retirement income topic next week!

You can click the link above or the image below to register for free to find out more details about this fun event.

Weekend Reading – How to safeguard your retirement plan

Also recently posted, related to this Weekend Reading edition:

What’s in your TFSA?

Check out the comments.

Some pretty smart and savvy investing decisions made by many DIY investors and readers.

Onwards and upwards, folks!

via GIPHY

Weekend Reading – TFSA Year-End Tips

Thanks to Rob Carrick’s newsletter, I found some solid TFSA year-end tips to consider (subscription). The highlights are as follows:

Not sure of your current TFSA contribution limit? Login to the Canada Revenue Agency MyAccount portal to find out but like Rob mentioned, be mindful there is often a lag in accuracy: MyAccount may not include your contributions for 2024 yet, if you made them. My advice is to always, always keep track of your TFSA contributions (or withdrawals) yourself.
Many DIY investors avoid making TFSA withdrawals (to preserve tax-free compounding power) but if you made TFSA withdrawals, this year, you should wait until 2025 to add your contribution room back to avoid over-contribution penalties. Again, track all contributions and withdrawals, yourself.
Hard to ignore tax-free income and growth using the TFSA vs. other accounts so consider, if you can, maxing out your TFSA for 2025 for retirement income planning before other accounts – that includes your RRSP at any income level. Automating your savings for investing can help with that which works out to saving about $135 per week.
If you are not using the TFSA for near-term spending, focus on equities inside the TFSA. Related to that, as Rob mentioned: “Sitting in cash may seem appealing, but returns from risk-free parking spots for money are down to between 2 and 3.5 per cent.”
Strongly consider a successor holder or beneficiary for your TFSA. A ‘successor holder’ could be the best choice for your partner since they take over your TFSA on your death, tax-free, regardless of how much TFSA room they have. We have already signed up for that years ago.

I previously shared some investment fine print beneficiary tips/considerations here:

Beneficiaries for TFSAs, RRSPs, RRIFs and other key accounts

In other Weekend Reading news….

I enjoyed Ben Carlson’s post about the S&P 500 returns. The U.S. market is WAY up in 2024. So are many DIY investor portfolios that invest heavily in the U.S. market.

How common are 20% or 30% stock market returns? More common historically than you might think.

Another good lesson in staying invested…since:

“I don’t know when it will come to an end but I know it can’t last forever.”

Very much aligned with my FIWOOT philosophy (with thanks to @DividendGrowth):

In various monthly dividend income updates during 2024, I’ve hinted at buying more Tourmaline (TOU), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ) and some Brookfield (BN) in our portfolio if/when I have any money to do so.

One example here.

This is a good reason why I’m focused on more BN in particular:

“Our long-term compound annualized return has been 19% for 30 years…several unique factors set us up for similar – or possibly even better – returns in the next 10 years.” Bruce Flatt $BN

Source: @BarrySchwartzBW https://x.com/BarrySchwartzBW/status/1857034851930579074

Reigniting the dividends debate @ClementsMoney, Jonathan Clements mentioned this benefit:

“But wherever you stand on this issue, keep a key notion in mind: At some point in their life, we need publicly traded companies to start returning cash to shareholders—or there’s a risk they’ll disappear without creating any wealth for investors over their lifetime.”

Don’t be like the U.S. government. The U.S. National Debt has just surpassed $36 trillion and continues to spiral out of control.

Here is the U.S. debt clock. Watch that for a few seconds – just how fast $1-million in debt is occuring…yikes.

Finally, on Cashflows & Portfolios, we took some inspiration from other posts recently and shared a few things we believe in about investing. Which belief aligns with your thinking? What would you add to this list?

Save, Invest, Prosper this Fall!

As always, check my Deals page – partnerships and discounts to help you make the most out of your money – some of them you can’t find anywhere else!

Check out my partnerships with:

Dividend Stocks Rock
5i Research
StockTrades.ca
LegalWills
and more!

As always, you can also consider reaching out here for some low-cost financial projections services – anytime.

I launched this service with my DIY investor good friend (Joe, who founded Million Dollar Journey) as a service by DIY investors for DIY investors without the conflict of any advice, without costly fees (like some folks charge), while offering money-back guarantees – because, well we’d expect all of that from others….

You can contact us there, on that site, anytime, even just to chat about personal finance and investing including how we’re investing in our respective 7-figure portfolios these days… We engage with all DIY investors so we try and reply to every reader comment and email there too!

We have (2) low-cost services to choose from along with our free content on the site:

Done-For-You – we do the work and data entry, and provide your reports OR
DIY – whereby you do all the work, you do your own data entries, and you get your own results in the software – we essentially open up some professional financial software for you to use to be your own retirement income planner!

As a My Own Advisor reader, you always get a discount off either service. Just mention my site. That’s it. Discount approved!

Enjoy your weekend and see you on the site. 🙂

Mark

My name is Mark Seed – the founder, editor and owner of My Own Advisor. As my own DIY financial advisor, I’m looking to start semi-retirement soon, sooner than most. Find out what I did and how I realized Financial Independence to tailor your own path. Join the newsletter read by thousands. Always free.

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