"Because they have only been around since 2009 and yearly contribution room is limited, TFSAs won’t typically have enough money in them to meet an individual’s entire retirement-income needs."

For someone in their late thirties or older this may be true (although it could be a significant part of a retirement plan), but for someone just turning eighteen a TFSA is a viable retirement strategy.  

As a numbers guy I built a spreadsheet to run the numbers myself.  Using a 1% inflation rate (to adjust the contribution limit as it is indexed to inflation and rounded to the nearest $500), I found that someone turning 18 this year would be able to contribute a total of $330,000 by the time they turn 65. 

I, like Sniktaw and Ancientalso, believe in individual securities so I also allowed for 10 trades/year per $500K of portfolio value. 

Here is what I found. 

At a 5% annual return at age 65 one would have $1,126,514. 

At 6%, $1,502,223. 

At 7%, $2,024,275. 

Continued......