🎚️ TFSA vs RRSP Optimizer

Set your current income and your guess at retirement income. The tool will tell you, in dollars, which account wins for the same $5,000 contribution. Slide and watch the result update live.

Current income (Ontario, gross)$70,000

Marginal tax bracket: 29.7%

Estimated retirement income$50,000

Retirement marginal bracket: 20.0%

Annual contribution$5,000

Years until retirement40 yrs

Result

🟢 TFSA

After-tax retirement value

—

You contribute with after-tax dollars. Growth and withdrawal are 100% tax-free.

🔵 RRSP

After-tax retirement value

—

You contribute pre-tax dollars (so the same $5k contribution gives you a tax refund now), but withdrawals are taxed as income.

🎯 Verdict

📊 Side-by-Side Growth

How this calculates

Uses 2024 Ontario combined federal+provincial marginal rates as a stand-in. Actual rates differ slightly by province but the relative answer is the same.
Assumes 7% annual return (a standard long-run global equity assumption).
"Same contribution" means: TFSA gets $X of after-tax money. RRSP gets $X reinvested gross. The RRSP refund is invested in a non-registered account (where growth is taxed).
This is a teaching tool, not financial advice. Real situations have wrinkles (CPP, OAS clawback, pension splitting, etc.).

← Back

FHSA + Order of Operations

Next module →

Diversification