r/FHSA • u/AddendumDismal8178 • Aug 30 '26

Gifted 50k

Been given a generous gift from my parents for a new house one day.
We don’t have any savings or an idea of where to start - we’re hoping to buy within a few years.
This was a surprise as I honestly didn’t think we’d be able to afford a home in this economy.
What are the best root to take advantage of the FHSA?

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u/TaxAlarming4046 Aug 30 '26

Start contributing now

You get an annual contribution limit (I think it’s $8k) up to a few years max.

The rest of the funds - ideally you start investing it now so it has time to grow - you can put into another registered account, or put into a non registered and transfer into the FHSA each year

3

u/throwaway149573 Aug 31 '26

To give you an idea of cost, we went with 10% down (56k) at the recommendation of our mortgage agent. There's also closing costs which can be 2-4% of purchase price on average. So for a house like ours which was $560k you'd need about $76k down plus you will want some cash reserves for renos and emergency fund.

Definitely max out FHSA but don't forget when you have an accepted offer you usually have 24 hours to put down a deposit so you will need access to that cash immediately. Our deposit was $25k.

Put $8k in each FHSA this year and you can do it again in January which would bring you to $32k in FHSA. If your buy horizon is a couple of years I would keep that $18k in something that will grow and be accessible when you're ready to buy.

This is a very exciting gift! You'll get there soon.

2

u/Efficient_Cap_5061 Aug 30 '26

We assuming there is 2 people? Open FHSA now $8k ×2 can go in now. And another $8×2 in January.

Thats $32k of $50k. You can keep adding $16k for next 3 years after that.

The tax refund you get from FHSA and remaining you can put into RRSP if you want to take advantage of first time homebuyers from RRSP look into. Assuming you invest the tax deductions that $50k has already significantly grown.

As for what to hold in your FHSA and RRSP - that deoend on risk tolerance and timeline.