Hey Reader ♥,

This is financial education, not advice for your specific situation. Please consult a qualified professional before making investment decisions. I hold XEQT in my own TFSA, so I'm disclosing that here since I mention it below.

For years, I ignored my TFSA.

Not because I didn't know it existed. Because of a few reasons that made perfect sense at the time.

It was marketed as a savings account. When TFSAs launched in 2009, the message was: save for a car, save for a vacation. Nobody said it could be your most flexible retirement account. I already had an RRSP, so I figured the TFSA was for other stuff.

Investing on your own used to be a hassle. When I started investing, you called a discount broker on the phone and paid $29 per trade, each way. There were no robo-advisors, no friendly apps, no all-in-one ETFs. Opening a second account to manage felt like too much work.

The RRSP refund felt like winning. A big tax refund lands in your bank account. A TFSA contribution gives you nothing to see. One felt exciting, the other felt optional.

And I thought I was being responsible. Every article, every advisor, every podcast said the same thing: max your RRSP first.

So I did. And I felt good about it.

But here's what I eventually admitted to myself: I wasn't being responsible. I was being obedient.

I was following advice written for someone else's life. A life with no family obligations, where you retire at 65 and that's that. Not mine. Maybe not yours either.

Here's the part that still surprises me. The thing that made me avoid it, the complexity, is mostly gone. Today you can open a TFSA on your phone in about 10 minutes, buy one ETF, and pay no commission.

What I wish someone had given me back then is the order of operations. I think of it like grocery shopping:

1. Pick your store. Choose a brokerage.
2. Choose your cart. Choose the account, like a TFSA.
3. Shop with ETFs. Fill the cart with low-cost, diversified funds.
4. Place the trade. The checkout.
5. Automate it. So it happens without a decision every month.
6. Don’t panic sell. The hardest one, and the one that matters most.

Six steps, every time. I walk through all of them in my video, including how I place a trade and what my own TFSA routine looks like.

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👉🏾 Watch: How to Start Investing, Step by Step​

You don't have to do it perfectly. You just have to stop waiting for permission.

With support,

Lianne Hannaway, CPA, CA
​Financial Educator​ | Money Coach | Trauma of Money® Certified

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P.S. Already have a TFSA but suspect you're not using it well? My free guide covers the 7 mistakes I see first-gen professionals make most → liannehannaway.com/tfsa.

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