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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: Hi 5i,
I have $70,000 CAD to invest for 3-5 years and tax is not an issue. I am thinking of ETFs : 40% Canadian Stocks, 32% American stocks, 8% Global and 20% Bond.
Would you please advise what to buy? or if you have better combination.
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Tom on August 19, 2019
Q: What would you expect will be the key drivers of CPD's price in the marketplace? Eg would it likely follow equities down/up (because of reliance on credit of issuers) or moreso bonds ("safe" haven for yield when equities are volatile)? How do interest rates impact it? What would it do in a recession? I'm not looking for a prediction of the future, but a simplified model on how to think about this kind of security. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Chris on August 19, 2019
Q: Hi there,

What are your thoughts regarding the recent yield curve inversion and this signalling an upcoming recession? Markets seem sensitive to headline news and I'm wondering if now would be a good time to devote a decent amount of my portfolio to a low volatility ETF until things subside. If so, which ones would you recommend at this time? I believe BMO has a pretty good product line. In addition to this ETF holding I will also hold the Canadian growth equities listed from your Balanced Equity Portfolio.

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on August 16, 2019
Q: I should increase both our health care and U.S. investments.I have been looking at the investments above.These would be in our TFSA so not too interested in dividends.
I would appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks in advance.
Read Answer Asked by James Robertson on August 16, 2019
Q: i am curious about this,i know shopify and constellation software are 2 of your favorite companies, i also know you like open text and cgi, so these 4 companies represent 82% of the xit with shop and csu representing 51%, why not just recommend the xit to your investor, still lots of risk but less so and you get them all plus smaller amount of kxs and some others.dave
Read Answer Asked by david on August 16, 2019
Q: Again another follow up on the XEC holdings.I have looked at three different financial websites. Yahoo, morningstar and TMX.
I cannot see anywhere that XEC holds IEMG as the US listed ETF.
Isn't this quite concerning as a DIY investor if one is trying to select ETF for account tax advantages? Why would we have to go to the prospectus to find out this information? Do you know of another site which might have this information?
Thanks
Jeff
Read Answer Asked by JEFF on August 16, 2019
Q: As a follow up to my last question re International ETF's, it looks like to me that XEC holds the international companies directly and ZEM holds 2 if not 3 US listed ETF's among some direct companies and thus would be less tax efficient, in a non registered account, as the US listed ETFs (holding the international names) would be subjected to two taxes.
I'm going by the chart put out by First asset that you referenced in a previous question on ETF Structure and tax implications.
Thanks again
Jeff
Read Answer Asked by JEFF on August 15, 2019
Q: I have money parked in a GIC that will expire very soon. Needless to say that the current rate isn't good enough and I'm looking for a higher return without too much risk. As a replacement of my GIC, can you suggest 4 or 5 mutual funds (bond oriented or others - I am open !) that I can rely on for an "adequate" yield ? I am not looking for an homerun with bases loaded. I would be satisfied with a yield of 4-5 % approx. per year. I am not a fan of mutual funds showing yields that vary a lot year after year.

I really appreciate your excellent services !
Read Answer Asked by Stéphane on August 15, 2019
Q: As a follow up to my question on July 30 re International ETF's.
I have quite a significant shift to perform. Reduce Canadian by 30% and increase International by 30% . You gave examples of international ETF's including XEF and ZDI. Did you purposely leave out China especially given the recent tone with the US or would XEC be a decent hold as well? Maybe 1/3 in each ETF?
Is this a good time to start the switch over or would you wait a bit to see where all the markets are heading? This would mainly be for non registered accounts and gather only one layer of withholding tax which is creditable.
Thanks
Jeff
Read Answer Asked by JEFF on August 15, 2019
Q: Thanks for all the help with my investing. I have valued your info on companies as the only one I truly believe. I would like your thoughts on this part of our RIF's. I rely on the dividends for 3/4 of my yearly cash flow and the principle for the rest. I do not want to be out of the market so I keep 2 years of cash in our RIF's but would like to put 3 years and put 2 years of that into PSA-T getting the interest of 2 plus %. This would take the sting out of getting nothing for the cash. My question is does this make good sense. Thanks Gary
Read Answer Asked by Gary on August 15, 2019