FHSA Contribution Room Calculator & Tracker (with Excel Sheet)

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FHSA Contribution Room Calculator & Tracker (Excel .xlsx)

In 2023, hopeful Canadian homebuyers received promising news: the launch of a new type of Canadian registered account known as the First Home Savings Account (FHSA).

The FHSA combines the best of both worlds in the TFSA and RRSP – tax-free contributions with before-tax dollars. It’s the perfect account to open for any Canadian looking to buy their first home within the next 15 years.

However, the FHSA runs into the same contribution tracking issue that other registered accounts do, which is that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) doesn’t keep up-to-date records of your contribution room.

Don’t make the same mistake I made in the past: relying on the contribution room amounts posted on your CRA account, just to find out that it’s only updated once a year – and only halfway into the next year!

How to Easily Track Your FHSA Contributions

What does all of this mean? Well, to stay on top of our available FHSA contribution room, the burden of tracking falls on us as the individual to ensure we maximize the potential of our FHSA while avoiding overcontributions.

However, manually setting up a proper tracker can be a time consuming and daunting task.

That’s where our handy FHSA Contribution Room Calculator & Tracker can offer a helping hand in your personal finance toolkit.

This free and easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet is designed to simplify the way you monitor and manage your FHSA contribution room.

All you have to do to get started is download the spreadsheet, enter in your FHSA contribution amounts, and the dates that you made them.

The result is an up-to-date view of your FHSA contribution room that looks something like this:

Using the FHSA Contribution Room Calculator

Start by filling in the highlighted yellow cells on the sheet.

1. On the top-right of the sheet, enter your date of birth, as well as the year that you opened your 1st FHSA account.
   
2. Each row in the Contributions / Transfers table to the left represents a contribution made on a specific date. If you’ve made any FHSA contributions so far, enter in the month, day, and year, followed by the dollar amount. Ensure you include contributions made across all your FHSA accounts.
   
   
3. Once you finish filling in the contributions table, your FHSA participation room details are automatically calculated, accompanied by a visual bucket representing your remaining FHSA contribution room.
   
   
4. To keep your FHSA tracker up-to-date, fill in new rows whenever you make new FHSA contributions.

You’re now all set up to maintain updated records of your FHSA participation room!

How Is My FHSA Contribution Room Calculated?

On the first day you open your FHSA account, you will receive $8,000 in contribution room.

Your FHSA contribution room increases on January 1 each year thereafter by up to the annual limit of $8,000, depending on how much you have unused carryover you have. In particular, you can carry over up to $8,000 in unused participation room to the next year. The lifetime FHSA contribution limit is $40,000.

Note that you must be at least 18 years of age to open a FHSA. Your FHSA account can remain open up to the maximum participation period, which is at end of the year you turn 71, or 15 years after you open your FHSA, whichever is earlier.

Open Your FHSA Today

If there’s any chance that you’ll buy your first home within the next 15 years, you should highly consider opening a FHSA account, even if you don’t plan on contributing right away.

That’s because your FHSA room begins accumulating the year that you open your first FHSA account, regardless of whether or not you actually contributed anything at all during that year.

You can open a FHSA today with Questrade, a low-fee popular online brokerage that allows you not only save for a down payment, but invest your FHSA funds in the stock market should you so choose in the meantime (remember, any investment gains are tax-free!).

It’s my online brokerage of choice for the do-it-yourself investor – and the platform that I have personally used to invest since 2017.

Sign up for a FHSA using our promotional offer and get a bonus $50 trade rebate.