{"id":87290,"date":"2017-01-30T22:14:22","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T03:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=87290"},"modified":"2017-01-30T22:14:22","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T03:14:22","slug":"should-you-empty-your-tfsa-to-speculate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/01\/30\/should-you-empty-your-tfsa-to-speculate\/","title":{"rendered":"Should you empty your TFSA to speculate?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Should<\/a>
Should you empty your TFSA to speculate? (Photo: teegardin\/Pixabay<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A reader recently asked me whether he should cash out of his $10,000 TFSA, which earns 0.5% interest, and put it in an opportunity that he says could earn him 30%. He wants to know whether he\u2019ll be penalized if he withdraws his funds. This is an interesting question, but it raises some serious concerns.<\/p>\n

There is no penalty for withdrawing money from a TFSA, assuming it is not in a locked-in GIC. Based on the interest the TFSA investment pays, that does not appear to be the case; the investment is probably sitting in a savings account. This can therefore be taken out at any time, and the withdrawal will be added to next year\u2019s contribution room. There are no tax consequences.<\/p>\n

But before acting, think about this very carefully and ask a lot of questions. No conventional investment is offering a 30% return. Whatever investment this reader is considering must, by definition, come with a high level of risk. When presented with the possibility of a sky-high return, find out exactly what this risk entails and then decide whether you are comfortable with it.<\/p>\n

Also, ask why that investment cannot be make within the TFSA, which would protect any profit from tax. If the security is not eligible for a TFSA, that\u2019s another signal to be ultra-cautious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reader recently asked me whether he should cash out of his $10,000 TFSA, which earns 0.5% interest, and put …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":87293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[7285],"class_list":["post-87290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-tax-free-savings-account","mauthors-gordon-pape","mauthors-fundata-canada-inc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}