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I wouldn't say EasyEquities is the only place you should get a TFSA. Speaking purely from a product/features point of view and not the execution of it, it is one of if not the best.

Before I continue I need to get something of my chest first: *clears throat* .. SCREW YOU ABSA!!! 

BUT, different strokes for different folks. Not everybody out there is an emotionally mature investor and I'd argue that most aren't. The downside of EE is that it gives you so many options of ETFs and makes it so easy to buy, sell and swap them which in itself makes for a bad investment strategy.

Costs aside, a unit trust based TFSA like Allan Gray's Balanced Fund or similar funded via a debit order may work better for most investors. They set it up and forget about it. No changing between funds because Sygnia released a new ETF tracking cryptos, weed or whatever and no rebalancing because local shares have been doing great over the last year and I am now overexposed. Just a R2750 debit order going off every month.

Now you can achieve the same with EE because of they allow debit orders, which is great, but you have alternatives with fewer features which might be more effective: CoreShares, Sygnia etc. If Costs are absolutely EVERYTHING to you then sure, EE is the way to go but it shouldn't be.

Another option worth exploring is FNB's Horizon Unit Trusts. Yes, they come with costs which I haven't fully explored but if eBucks is your thing you'll gain points for making use of it which can result in quite a lot of savings, more in savings and cash back than the total amount of charges from any platform out there.

So I beg to differ - it is not the only place you should get one. (on a separate note, is EE actually profitable or bleeding money and how sure are we they'll be around in 5 year's time?)


Idea for next article: the one TFSA you should NEVER use (Liberty Stash).

Interesting discussion on TFSA's - firstly I opened a separate TFSA account with my present brokers and negotiated a fee structure which is more than satisfactory.
All my counters in are ETF and I hold STXIND, SYGWD, ASHMID - the only negative is the Ashburton but that because I only recently invested in them. I still await the purchase of STXNDQ but the price is just not right at the moment - waiting on some dollar weakness. To my mind Mutual Funds are not necessarily to right options for TFSA's - their growth progressions are too slow for my needs - I want growth of at least 12 - 16% p.a.

May be an interesting exercise to get forum ikes to list what they are holding in their TFSA's
   

May be an interesting exercise to get forum ikes to list what they are holding in their TFSA's

STXQUA, STXEMG, STXWDM, PTXTEN and then recently I bought some STXNDQ with the dividends (so nothing significant at all  )

Is anyone concerned about the huge spread on the STXWDM? It seems to be constantly just under 1% difference between buy and sell. (and thats with the market maker in the spread.)

Is anyone concerned about the huge spread on the STXWDM? It seems to be constantly just under 1% difference between buy and sell. (and thats with the market maker in the spread.)

The TER will have a greater effect than the spread. A 1% spread means you're overpaying by 0.5% (or underselling by 0.5%) If we assume the market will go up by 12% per year perfectly linearly then the spread will be taken care of in 2 weeks.

Even though I'd love it to be lower, it doesn't bother me.

Guy, what are your 2020 thoughts on type of TFSA one should look for. With so much volatility at the moment, one is tempted to go with cash at 6.89% with investec.
In the longer term ETF's should out perform cash by a mile, question is which ones to pick now.
Also do you guys prefer the rand cost averaging method, i.e. fixed amount invested monthly or a lump sum upfront?