If you live in Canada and are interested in investing, a Tax-Free Savings Account AKA a TFSA is the best option you have. This is an investment tool introduced by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in 2009 to encourage investments among individuals without facing tax penalties.

Unlike an RRSP, a TFSA cannot be used to reduce the tax you pay on your income during the current year. Instead, a TFSA gives you tax benefits on the returns on what you have invested in your TFSA.

To simplify this further, after you deposit money into your TFSA, if you made sound investing choices, your money will grow and multiply within the investment account. Technically, this is extra money you are getting. But CRA is kind enough to overlook these gains or incomes. Even when you withdraw money from the investing account, you are still not liable to pay any tax. So, we suggest every Canadian open their own TFSA as the first choice in their investment journey.

So, how do you open a TFSA?

Full disclosure: I have personally had my TFSA with two different institutions–Fidelity Investments and Wealthsimple Trade. Although there are quite a few more institutions where you can open your investment accounts, I do believe that these two players capture the two basic subdivisions in this space.

Institutions such as Fidelity, TD, RBC, iA Financial, Tangerine, and so on, do have a rather lengthy process with a bunch of paperwork involved. At least, this was my experience with Fidelity.

I believe that Wealthsimple stands to be the opposite of everything that these big financial institutions are not. For example, Wealthsimple allows commission-free trades. RBC Investing charges somewhere around $50 per trade! If you are even slightly investing-savvy, you should take control of your investments and NOT pay any commissions to these institutions–at least not these absurd rates.

When I opened my TFSA with Wealthsimple Trade just last month, the process was very smooth. All documentation required can be sent online via taking a picture of documents with your mobile phone and directly uploading to the Wealthsimple app. All their terms and conditions can be accepted or declined online. So, no signing paperwork.

Right now, we believe Wealthsimple Trade provides the easiest way to open a TFSA for any Canadian. Let us know your experience and complaints in the comments below.