We’ve got them but we’re not especially sure how to use them.
That’s the basic finding of a new retirement preparation survey conducted for RBC Royal Bank. It says more Canadians now have TFSAs than RRSPs but a big percentage of those with the TFSA are not using to their best potential.
Calling the TFSA a retirement superhero, it says too many Canadians are not properly deploying their super power, preferring to treat them as a savings account rather than a place to build wealth.
57-percent of us now have a TFSA, an instrument that was first unveiled ten years ago. Their popularity has surpassed the RSP which is in the hands of 52-percent of savers. But the RSP still has more value. The average amount in the RSP is nearly $97,000 compared to $42,000 in the TFSA. In fairness, though with contribution limits on TFSAs we really haven’t had enough time for them to catch up their older RSP siblings.
Another interesting finding is that people over the age of 55 look most favorably on the TFSA.
