Q: Retired (70 yrs old), dividend-income investor. Been meaning to ask this question for a long time. We run a concentrated portfolio of roughly 10 ETFs and 10 stocks, plus fixed income on top. Our pro-rated MER for the equity ETFs is 0.64 and for the entire portfolio is 0.38.

I use the ETFs above that are sector ETFs (like HHL, NNRG, XIT) as my proxy for the sector and am ok with the trade off of paying fees for a sector ETF instead of having lots of stocks.

I then add my individual stock selections to achieve my targeted Asset Allocation for the entire portfolio (like AD, BCE, FTS, GSY, RY, NWC, PBH, TRP, WSP, etc). I weight each of these relative to my risk tolerance.

Does this make sense to you? Does my "sector ETF" make sense, especially with a potentially large weighting in one ETF. Virtually all of my ETFs are capped at around 7% of the equity portfolio and the stocks are capped at 5% max.

Your thoughts on my strategy and on my MER....thanks...Steve

Q: Retired, dividend income investor. NRGI (the income ETF of Eric's) has been around since March 07/22. I've owned it since Oct 2022 and am basically flat.

The last question on NRGI was roughly a year and a half ago. What are your current thoughts on it's performance since inception and how it looks going forward?

For perspective, this is a smaller position for me, while I have a very full position in Eric's NNRG ETF (which has done incredibly well for me).

Thanks....Steve

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. I hold AQN in my RRSP, bought it in 2011 at $5.60 (not a typo) and have trimmed it multiple times due to asset allocation. Not that it matters, but I am still up 15% over my ACB.

Looking forward is what really matters. AQN is up roughly 20% from it's low of around $9/share. Q#1 = Do you think AQN can continue their short term performance?

I hold AQN, FTS, TRP, NNRG, NRGI, and utility-energy stocks held within CDZ, ZLB, ZWC. Q#2 = What conservative utility or infrastructure stocks should I consider that might "fill the gap" in my current holdings? Please list 4-6 stocks for me to do further research on.

Q#3 = Should a component of "renewables" be a consideration? That was one of the reasons for holding AQN. Ideas?

So the bottom line is = what's done is done. AQN appears to be starting to recover and there is always the chance of being bought out.
1. Hold of sell,
2. Replace with what,
3. Include renewables?

Thanks for your help....Steve