{"id":695442,"date":"2026-01-14T13:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/695442\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T13:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:23:10","slug":"accountants-sector-rotation-strategy-results-in-a-skyrocketing-tfsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/695442\/","title":{"rendered":"Accountant\u2019s sector-rotation strategy results in a skyrocketing TFSA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Feodora Chiosea\/iStockPhoto \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

This is TFSA Trouncers, a series that profiles how Canadian investors have been investing their tax-free savings accounts. Whether you\u2019ve been successful in growing your TFSA balance or not, we\u2019d like to hear from you. Please fill out this form<\/a> to contribute. You may choose to be anonymous, but we do require an e-mail address and may request a screengrab of your portfolio for fact-checking purposes.<\/p>\n

Rama Nutakki is in her 50s and works as a self-employed chartered accountant in the Toronto area. She has grown her own and her father\u2019s tax-free savings accounts to a combined value of $930,000. <\/p>\n

The TFSAs were started in 2009 and contributions were maxed out. Ms. Nutakki also has a registered retirement savings plan (good for conservative investments such as bonds), non-registered investment accounts and a mortgage-free principal residence.<\/p>\n

For over three decades, Ms. Nutakki has followed the stock market and invested. One of the perks of self-employment is that it gives her the time and flexibility to pursue this interest. Her accounting background also helps with assessing the financial statements of companies.<\/p>\n

For most of those years, she has maintained a diversified portfolio. By 2024, her TFSA was worth $190,000. Her 88-year-old father\u2019s TFSA, which she had just begun to manage, had a lower value.<\/p>\n

But investing legend Warren Buffett\u2019s views on diversification had always been in her thoughts. In particular, she kept in mind his statement that \u201cdiversification may preserve wealth, but concentration builds wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Buffett also previously said: \u201cDiversification is protection against ignorance. It makes little sense if you know what you are doing.\u201d As a seasoned investor, Ms. Nutakki felt in 2024 that it was time to follow Mr. Buffett\u2019s advice.<\/p>\n

Why Warren Buffett is still relevant even as he turns 95<\/a><\/p>\n

Whereas Mr. Buffett believed in concentrating in a few stocks, Ms. Nutakki\u2019s twist on the concept was to concentrate in individual sectors of the stock market, based on their tendency to outperform during various phases of business, technology and other cycles. <\/p>\n

For example, the tech sector<\/a> is currently on a tear because of a major technological breakthrough. Also outperforming at this time is the resource sector<\/a>, with the prices of many commodities rising to new highs.<\/p>\n

Ms. Nutakki follows \u201ca few astute market analysts,\u201d and one in particular influenced her choice of a sector. The analyst was Stephanie Pomboy, founder and president of MacroMavens, an investment research firm that provides macroeconomic commentary. <\/p>\n

Ms. Pomboy appears regularly on the Fox Business television channel, and in one interview, Ms. Nutakki said the analyst \u201cspoke of a shift from financial assets to hard assets like commodities<\/a> \u2013 specifically precious metals.\u201d This crystallized the sector to focus on: gold and silver stocks.<\/p>\n

One rationale for a bullish view was the escalation in geopolitical tensions around the world, including Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and China\u2019s threats against Taiwan. Central banks in China and other countries also began decumulating U.S. Treasury bonds and buying bullion. <\/p>\n

On top of this, U.S. President Donald Trump is manoeuvring to control<\/a> the Federal Reserve and push interest rates down to one per cent. This is fanning fears of a pickup in inflation, which generates demand for gold (an asset historically viewed as an inflation hedge).<\/p>\n

To lower her risk, Ms. Nutakki first purchased shares in market leaders. In the gold sector, it was Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (AEM-T<\/a>) and in the silver sector, Pan American Silver Corp. (PAAS-T<\/a>). Once she was ahead on these positions, she accumulated the stocks of other miners such as Kinross Gold Corp. (K-T<\/a>), as well as the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX-A<\/a>). <\/p>\n

\u201cThe TSX had an incredible year in 2025,\u201d Ms. Nutakki noted. \u201cI was fortunate to be in the right sector at the right time.\u201d Indeed, in that year, her TFSA portfolio went from $190,000 to $575,000 and her father\u2019s increased to $355,000.<\/p>\n

Precious metals may keep going up for a while yet, but Ms. Nutakki already has an exit plan, which is to rotate into energy stocks. Just about every other commodity has shot up in price, but oil is still in the doldrums. When commodity booms occur, the energy sector usually joins in at some point.<\/p>\n

Ms. Nutakki is aware that the outlook for oil prices<\/a> does not currently look good because of Mr. Trump\u2019s intention to boost supply from Venezuelan oil fields<\/a>. \u201cThere is already an oversupply in the oil market keeping prices down,\u201d she observed. \u201cA lot depends upon what OPEC choses to do.\u201d <\/p>\n

If and when she buys oil-and-gas stocks, she\u2019ll follow her approach of averaging in a position, starting with the market leaders. If they fail to move up, she\u2019ll refrain from adding to the position and may even \u201cbail for the time being\u201d from those initial purchases. <\/p>\n

What an expert says<\/b><\/p>\n

We asked Geoff Saab, vice-president and portfolio manager at Doherty & Associates, for his thoughts on Ms. Nutakki\u2019s TFSAs. Mr. Saab is also a blogger at lowriskrules.com.<\/p>\n

Ms. Nutakki made a great sector call prior to 2025. More importantly, she set herself up for success by fully funding the TFSAs and executing what appears to be a diversified and disciplined investment process, growing her account to $190,000. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure what percentage of Ms. Nutakki and her father\u2019s total wealth is made up of these accounts, but knowing that she also has an RRSP, a non-registered account and a fully paid-up home makes me more comfortable with the risk taken by concentrating in precious metals.<\/p>\n

Having said that, as the value of a TFSA grows, its special tax status means that it has more after-tax value than other accounts. It is the only pool of capital, other than your principal residence, that will escape the grip of the taxman. And so, growing it prudently takes on a special significance. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s assume that from here, Ms. Nutakki pivots back to a more conservative, diversified approach. If she contributes annually and achieves a 7-per-cent return, the combined value of the plans will be over $2.2-million in 10 years. In 20 years, it will be around $4.7-million. The potential for these accounts to form a cornerstone of her and her father\u2019s retirement assets – accessible completely tax-free – is, in my opinion, far too valuable to risk on the strategy of chasing the next hot sector.<\/p>\n

So, perhaps it\u2019s time to consider the other part of Mr. Buffett\u2019s advice, which is that diversification preserves wealth. Also, it\u2019s important to remember that Mr. Buffett built his fortune by buying businesses \u2013 one-decision \u201chold-forever\u201d stocks such as American Express and Coca-Cola \u2013 not by hopping from sector to sector, trying to ride the next hot investment theme.<\/p>\n

Larry MacDonald is a regular contributor to The Globe and Mail and author of The Shopify Story<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Feodora Chiosea\/iStockPhoto \/ Getty Images This is TFSA Trouncers, a series that profiles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[6934,6925,6935,1500,6918,6936,51,943,6917,6930,6931,6927,6919,6916,1700,2266,728,6929,474,6923,6946,6920,6921,1234,6926,388,3611,6607,603,6941,6942,6944,6939,6943,6937,6940,2499,6922,6932,6933,285,3027,6938,6924,53,183,6928,16,15,727,263,6945],"class_list":{"0":"post-695442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-business","15":"tag-canada","16":"tag-canada-news","17":"tag-canada-sports","18":"tag-canada-sports-news","19":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","20":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","21":"tag-canadian-news","22":"tag-economy","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-environment","25":"tag-federal-government","26":"tag-finance","27":"tag-foreign-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","30":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","31":"tag-government","32":"tag-life-news","33":"tag-lifestyle","34":"tag-local-news","35":"tag-manitoba","36":"tag-national-news","37":"tag-new-brunswick","38":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","39":"tag-northwest-territories","40":"tag-nova-scotia","41":"tag-nunavut","42":"tag-ontario","43":"tag-pei","44":"tag-personal-finance","45":"tag-photos","46":"tag-political-news","47":"tag-political-opinion","48":"tag-politics","49":"tag-politics-news","50":"tag-quebec","51":"tag-sports-news","52":"tag-technology","53":"tag-travel","54":"tag-trudeau","55":"tag-uk","56":"tag-united-kingdom","57":"tag-us-news","58":"tag-world-news","59":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}