The tax-free savings account (TFSA) is the closest thing South Africa has to a legal wealth-creation cheat code. No income tax, no dividends tax, no capital gains tax — ever.

We ran four realistic scenarios (all fees under 0.5%)

1. 100% Satrix 40 (JSE Top 40) – historical average ~11.8% p.a.
2. 100% Ashburton 1200 / Satrix MSCI World – global equities in rand – historical ~11.2% p.a.
3. 60/40 local/global balanced – ~10.1% p.a.
4. Conservative CPI + 3% (typical money-market or income fund) – ~8.2% p.a.

Results after maximum R36 000 annual contribution

After 20 years:
Satrix 40 → R2.91 million
Global ETF → R2.76 million
60/40 balanced → R2.48 million
Conservative → R1.89 million

After 30 years:
Satrix 40 → R9.84 million
Global ETF → R9.12 million
60/40 balanced → R7.65 million
Conservative → R5.22 million

That’s R1.08 million contributed over 30 years turning into R7.6–9.8 million completely tax-free — with almost no effort beyond clicking “recurring debit order”.

Even if future returns are lower (say 8–9% real), a 30-year tax-free account still ends up between R4.5 million and R6 million. That’s life-changing money for most South African households — and it’s available to anyone earning above the tax threshold.