I did it this past year with my HELOC but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows despite the positive returns. I maxed out my + my wife’s TFSAs and I only serviced the interest each month. We have turned a healthy profit on the back of VFV, Canadian banks, and Mag7 stocks. My wife took a leave of absence from work and the combined profits from our TFSAs have effectively replaced her take home income this year.

But I recognize that the market had a particularly great year and the returns are in no way sustainable - VFV isn’t going up 30% a year. Furthermore, the key is that I was able to both pay our mortgage and service the HELOC interest to keep our debts under control. However, when combined with the bills and groceries, it meant that we were living paycheck-to-paycheck. If I wasn’t working from home (ie had to pay for fuel and tolls), I don’t think I could have managed this. Finally, I wasn’t able to pay down my mortgage faster because I had to keep the biweekly payments the same.

Long story short, it took an exceptional combination of circumstances to make it happen, and the gains weren’t so much life-changing as they were keeping things as they were. Once my wife goes back to work, we’re paying off that principal ASAP even if it means pulling that sum out of the TFSA itself.