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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: In reading Jason Heath's article in the Moneysaver he comments that there is no US withholding tax on US ETF's held in an RRSP, but there is withholding tax on the Canadian equivalent. I am in the process of rearranging our RRIFS and have been switching to more ETFs, including US based ones. Many ETFs have both a Canadian dollar and a US dollar version of the same fund. For convenience, to avoid opening a US dollar RRIF component, I elected to go with the Canadian equivalent.

Does the withholding tax also apply to RRIFs as well as RRSPs. If so it follows that perhaps I should convert a portion of our RRIF to US dollars and then purchase the US based ETFs in that account. It is not difficult to do, just a bit inconvenient.
Your thoughts please.
Russell
Read Answer Asked by Russell on June 05, 2019
Q: I'd like to simplify my rrsp and have a constant stream of income. I was thinking of selling my 30 stock over weight in canada and buy 5 or 6 ETF. Making easier to manage and have more investment outside of Canada. Do you like ZWC 20% weighting Ca, ZWH,20% weighting Us , ZWP20% weighting Eur , ZQQ 20% weighting Global tech company and Maybe ZRE for last 20% because reits usually goes up in a negative market. Please give me your opinion on my ETFs and your 6 picks would be? take as many question credit needed. Income and diversification globally are my goal.
Read Answer Asked by Hubert on June 05, 2019
Q: I have recently been making significant adjustments to my portfolio, based on the results of Portfolio Analytics. In particular, I am significantly decreasing my financials and energy, and making large increases to my US and international weights.

Despite my changes, I am still overweight by 6% based on the recommended financials, and by 5% for energy. I am underweight international by about 6%. What is your recommended tolerance? How much leeway do you suggest for the recommended allocations?

Also, I am currently invested about 11% in VIGI. What is the maximum allocation you suggest for any ETF? I am a fan of the dividend aristocrats/growers strategy. Is there any other international dividend ETF which you would recommend (if possible, sold in Canadian dollars) along these lines?

For the US dividend growers, I have DGRO, VGG and ZDY.

Thank you for this incredible service that you offer!
Read Answer Asked by Dale on June 05, 2019
Q: For the purpose of simplicity I would like your opinion on these 3 ETF portfolios.
My idea is to rebalance 1 / year.
non registered: VFV 30% VDU 30% VAB 40%
TFSA: VFV 50% VDU 50%
RRSP: VOO 30% VIG 30% IWO 30% VAB 10%
Any suggestions as to changing the etf's used for better tax purposes ?
Are there better etf's that you would recommend using?
Thanks for your help .
Victoria
Read Answer Asked by Anna on June 05, 2019
Q: I have cash sitting in most of my accounts. I am retired and would like to put some of this cash to work for me. I don't even think my bank is providing interest on some of this cash. I have DRIPs in several bank stocks and telecommunication companies. Can you suggest some ETFs that might be useful here. I am interested primarily in ex-Canada and in seem of the other industries besides financial and telecommunications unless they are based outside of Canada. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Lynn on June 05, 2019
Q: From your suggested ETF list you provided for my Portfolio Analytics which ones would be best to incorporate in my RRIF and TFSA? Hope you have access to those ETF's. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Terry on June 05, 2019
Q: Greetings Team,

I am headed into retirement and own both these funds in both my registered and non-registered accounts. Don't really have a need for capital appreciation - just steady income. What max % would you recommend on each of the funds. Overall which would you say has the highest risk profile of the two - MFT has the higher fixed income assets but given they use leverage to increase the return. just want to make sure i completely understand the risks in owning each.
Read Answer Asked by kelly on June 04, 2019
Q: Hello, my question is about CVD, CBO, CPD and XHY. I know you like these ETFs for income, and most of them are in the Income Portfolio. When one looks at their 5-year chart, one can see a downward trend for all of them. What will it take to change that to an upward trend? Would you invest in these ETFs today? Regarding XHY, the Fact Sheet says “Exposure to a broad range of U.S. high yield, non-investment grade corporate bonds, based on market-value weighting”, does the low quality of these bonds bother you? Thanks, Gervais
Read Answer Asked by Gervais on June 04, 2019
Q: Hi, Continuing with portfolio alterations, currently need Basic Materials, communications and utilities. As well, US and International. Any namesyou could recomend to fill these criteria? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Lavern on June 03, 2019