Canadian Registered Accounts Explained
Every registered account in Canada compared: TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, RDSP, RRIF, spousal RRSP and LIRA, with limits, tax rules and how Luum tracks each.
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Plain-language explainers on the mechanics of investing in Canada: registered accounts, adjusted cost base, contribution room, and how returns are measured. No advice, ever.
Canadian equivalents of US accounts
You searched for an IRA, a Roth IRA or a 401(k) and you are Canadian. What each one maps to at home, where the analogy holds, and where it quietly breaks.
FHSA: how the room works, and when to open one
How First Home Savings Account room accrues, why opening the account early matters more than funding it, and the deadlines that close it.
TFSA and RRSP contribution room and deadline
How room accrues, why withdrawals differ between the two accounts, when the RRSP deadline actually matters, and the overcontribution traps that cost real money.
Adjusted cost base (ACB) in Canada, explained
What ACB is, why your brokerage's number can be wrong, and the four events that change it. A plain-language guide for Canadian non-registered accounts.
T5008 box 20 is not your adjusted cost base
Your broker reports a cost or book value in box 20. CRA says plainly it may not be your ACB, here is what it is, why it diverges, and what to do.
Return of capital and your ETF cost base
Return of capital is not taxed when you receive it. It lowers your cost base instead, which raises the gain you report years later, and box 42 cuts both ways.
Pooling cost base across two brokerages
The same ETF at two institutions is one adjusted cost base, not two. Here is the calculation neither broker can do for you, worked in both directions.
Adjusted cost base for a Wealthsimple account
Why the book value beside your Wealthsimple holdings is not your adjusted cost base, what a transfer in does to it, and how to rebuild the number you file.
Adjusted cost base for a Questrade account
US-dollar holdings, DRIP purchases and years of partial sales are what make a self-directed cost base drift. How to rebuild the number you file.
TD Direct Investing adjusted cost base
Splits, mergers and spin-offs each move the cost base of a long-held position, and a foreign spin-off is taxable unless you elect. How to rebuild the number.
BMO InvestorLine adjusted cost base
A joint account is one slip and two taxpayers. Who reports the gain follows who contributed, and adding a spouse moves neither the tax nor the cost base.
RBC Direct Investing adjusted cost base
Your online history does not go back as far as your cost base does. What CRA expects you to keep, for how long, and how to rebuild a pool from what is left.
Scotia iTRADE adjusted cost base
An inherited holding does not carry the cost base it had before. What a beneficiary starts from, why a spouse is the exception, and what to record on day one.
Qtrade adjusted cost base
Every rebalance in a non-registered account is a sale. What a switch realises, why the average moves rather than the lot, and what to record each time.
Tax-loss selling and the superficial loss rule
How selling at a loss actually reduces tax in Canada, the CRA rule that quietly cancels it, and the two conditions both of which have to be true.
The couch potato portfolio
What the couch potato approach actually asks of you, what it does and does not solve, and the two jobs it quietly hands back to the investor.
One-ticker ETF portfolios
How asset-allocation ETFs work, what the management fee actually buys, and the two mistakes that quietly undo the reason for holding one.
XEQT vs VEQT: how to compare them
XEQT and VEQT side by side: MER, holdings by region and returns over one year, five years and since inception, plus what switching does to your cost base.
Asset location across your accounts
Asset location is not asset allocation. It decides which account holds which holding, and it is the one tax lever you cannot see from a single statement.
Retiring early in Canada
The years between an early retirement and the first CPP payment are the ones that fail, and an RRSP is not spending money. What changes in Canada.
Dividend investing in Canada
Why a dividend is not free money, what the Canadian tax treatment actually buys you, and the sector concentration the approach hands you by default.
Norbert's Gambit, step by step
How the gambit converts CAD to USD at close to the interbank rate, the four ways it goes wrong, and the cost-base records it leaves behind.
Covered call ETFs in Canada, explained
What a covered call ETF sells to generate its distribution, why the headline yield is not a return, and what the distribution mix does to your cost base.
US covered call ETFs, for Canadians
Holding a US-domiciled covered call fund from Canada changes the withholding, the currency and the cost base. What differs from a Canadian-listed one.
What a covered call overlay gives up
Nine Canadian covered call ETFs measured against their own sponsor's plain fund over the same holdings. What the options overlay cost, year by year.
Tracking multiple investment accounts
Why a TFSA, an RRSP and a taxable account at three institutions cannot be understood one login at a time, and what actually breaks when you try.
Portfolio tracking in a spreadsheet
What a spreadsheet handles well, the four places it fails silently, and how to tell when you have hit one of them.
Portfolio and tax terms, defined
Plain definitions of the terms that appear on Canadian brokerage statements, tax slips and portfolio reports, with what each one is commonly confused with.
Time-weighted vs money-weighted return
Time-weighted, money-weighted and simple return measure different things. Which one answers your question depends on what you are actually asking.
How to benchmark your portfolio
Why comparing a diversified portfolio to the S&P 500 measures the wrong thing, and how to pick a yardstick that matches what you actually hold.
CAGR vs average annual return
Averaging annual returns overstates what you earned, always in the same direction. What CAGR is, why the gap exists, and what it still hides.
US investing accounts explained
The 401(k), traditional IRA, Roth IRA, HSA and taxable brokerage account: 2026 IRS contribution limits, how each one is taxed, and what Luum tracks.