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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: Hello 5i - If we have fewer interest rate hikes going forward, or as some expect, 2019 may bring a recession, what could be the effect on bond fund ETFs such as ZAG, VAB or HAB for example? If investors have reduced equity exposure (to reduce risk) and increased "bond investments", are they in for an unpleasant surprise? Thanks, Ron
Read Answer Asked by RON on December 18, 2018
Q: Hello Peter
15% of my total portfolio are HQU shares. 18% of them are in non registered acct. and rest 82% are in TFSA & RRIF's accts. I am down on them 27%.
My question is: because most of my HQU shares are in registered accts. there is no tax losses on them, what would you do in this situation ,sell all and wait 30 days for repurchase if they go down or hold on to them for next couple of years.
thanks Andrew
Read Answer Asked by Andrzej on December 18, 2018
Q: Thinking of selling CPD and averaging down on ECN.PR.A My reasoning indicates that the reset return on CPD portfolio will continue to fall as the yield flattens or inverts.
In the case of ECN.PR..A if 5 year yield is at 1.06 or lower the yield is still 6.25%. Basically I’m saying there is a floor under ECN.PR.A but not CPD. What is your opinion ?
Read Answer Asked by Roy on December 18, 2018
Q: I just transferred 100,000 from an investment company to Questrade because i'm fed up with the high management fees. I was thinking of splitting it between Index Funds and ETF's. I'm 59 and this money is in an RRSP acct. Where would you recommend I invest this money.
Thanks

Brian
Read Answer Asked by Brian on December 18, 2018
Q: I am trying to consolidate my U.S. TFSA into ETF's. On the tech side I own AMZN( nice profit) NVDA ( down 38%) and SPOT (down 4%) I am thinking of selling them and buying QQQ ETF instead.
On the financial side I own JPM (down 2.7%) V (down 1%) and SQ (down 6%) Thinking of selling these and buying DGRO ETF.
Your thoughts on this? Also if there are other ETF's that you think would be better for tech and financials, please let me know. Please deduct two credits if you deem it necessary.
Thanks for your great advice,
Jen
Read Answer Asked by Jennifer on December 17, 2018
Q: I just signed up for Money Saver then noticed the Mutual Fund/ETF offer. I had assumed that Money Saver would provide the mutual fund and etf information I was looking for including 'best of' tables. Can you explain the difference please.
Thanks Peter.
Read Answer Asked by Peter on December 17, 2018
Q:
good Morning 5i,
Jack Bogel has recently noted the troubles in France regarding "taxing the rich" , the Brexit confusion, and an unstable US government as reasons to go more towards bonds in the immediate future. He has always suggested a high level of bond ownership. And he is getting older and possibly more conservative. Was wondering about your take on that pronouncement and possible US bond etf suggestions. I have done fairly well with FLOT over the past while. But, you seem to think that the situation is changing and it may be time to move into somethng else.
Read Answer Asked by joseph on December 14, 2018
Q: I am retired and have these preferred etfs making up about 7% of the income part of the portfolio. There is obvious overlap. Vrp has out performed the others and has a better yield. It is held in a rrif so the US dividend is intact. I am assuming that the downturn in preferreds will level out, as this is a long term income hold. Should I eliminate hpr as it is 50% US and just stay with the other two with the currency diversity? Also what portion of fixed income do you feel preferred should make up? Have a great holiday.
Read Answer Asked by Tom on December 14, 2018
Q: Interesting article by Moez Mahrez; re Future Proofing your Portfolio from the special edition of the Money Saver. Wondering if there are any comparable ETF's in Canada, which one has the most upside potential, and why Mr. Mahrez would not have included one or more of these in the new growth ETF model Portfolio written in the most recent ETF update newsletter?
Thanks
Jeff
Read Answer Asked by JEFF on December 14, 2018
Q: Being retired I have been slowly moving away from equities to more fixed income. I still am 80/20 equities to fixed. My strategy has been to ladder 5 Year GICs. I don't have much in the way of bonds other then some CBO, XHY, and ZEF. All 3 bond ETFs have gone down which kind of confuses me as I thought that Bonds were to preserve capital and pay interest. Maybe you could explain this to me? I just bought a 5 yr GIC that pays 3.47% compounded annually. Seems to me that laddering GICs returns more than a Bond ETF AND has NO RISK. Am I missing something?
Thanks for the help with this.
Read Answer Asked by Rudy on December 14, 2018
Q: Hi - I have no REIT exposure and am considering adding either VRE or XRE. They are both promoted as tracking the TSX/S&P capped REIT index. When I overlay a graph of their 2 year price performance sure enough they are virtually identical. At first glance it would seem a no brainer to go with VRE since the MER is 1/2 that of XRE (.35% vs. 61%). However, it also appears XRE pays a substantially higher dividend ( ~ 4.7% vs. ~ 3% depending on the source I check). Can you shed any light on why the difference in the dividend when they are both tracking the same index? Do you have a preference for one over the other? Thank You
Read Answer Asked by Morgan on December 13, 2018
Q: Hi,
I wish to help fight climate change via investing in low-carbon companies - (renewable energy sources, EVs, batteries, materials from recycled sources, straw bale construction, vegan foods, etc) and also stop investing in fossil fuels, animal agriculture, etc as much as possible. Could you easily adjust your portfolios to make this possible? Are there ETFs that I could invest in as an alternative? I currently use both your income and balanced portfolios.
Thanks,
Helen
Read Answer Asked by Helen on December 12, 2018
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