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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: All different holdings, but what would be your order of preference (based on expected total return) with the next 12 months in mind. Thanks as always, great service.
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on March 06, 2024
Q: I am interested in buying some mid- to small-cap stocks. I am tracking some of the ones you mentioned and am considering them.

For non-experts though, it seems like it would be better to go the ETF route on such companies. Do you agree and can you recommend a couple of options in CAD and USD.
Read Answer Asked by Kevin on March 06, 2024
Q: Thank you for the Money Saver's email " Avoiding The Yield Trap " on covered call ETF's. Garth’s question and your answer from February 25, sparked more questions. Also read all the Q&A on HBND.

My understanding HBND is 50% covered call on Treasury ETFs (eg: TLT, VGLT, VGIT, etc.) with target yield of 10%. Dividend growth is reliant on interest rate rising. You answered on Oct 6, 2023: “…But if rates stagnate or decline….the yield on this ETF may come under pressure, but its unit price can see capital appreciation”. Expectation is interest rate may go down this year.

Is it better to invest in HBND or dividend grower in the long term? So, I created a spreadsheet to determine the breakeven period where a dividend grower will match the annual dividend paid by HBND if dividend yield stays around 10%. I choose four random dividend growers FTS, SLF, TD, T with average historical annual dividend growth of 5%, 9%, 6% and 7% respectively. Starting point: Annual dividend payment as of January 2, 2024, no DRIP and no additional stock purchases.

If HBND dividend yield target yield remains around 10%, the number of years, when the annual dividend grower payment would exceed HBND annual dividend payment for FTS in 18 years, SLF in 13 years, TD in 16 years and T in 8 years.

Based on these results, if a person requires dividend income is the next 10-12 years, than HBND is a possible income source. However, if the dividend income is not required for more than 10-12 years, a viable option is to purchase a dividend grower since the annual dividend amount should exceed HBND and continue to grow.

Note: This is a simplistic point of view since HBND target of yield may drop with interest rate expected to drop later this year, a dividend grower rate may drop, no drawdown in capital for more than 10 years or black swan events. This exercise is focus on dividend not capital appreciation. This exercise could be applied to other income stocks (eg: XHY, HPYT),

Is this logic flawed? What other points should I consider? Is there a role for HBND or other high yielders in wealth accumulation portfolio vs wealth decumulation phase? Inflation in the last couple of years has reinforced (for me) to consider dividend growth to be able to fund retirement income for hopefully a few decades.

Thank you for your thoughts.
Read Answer Asked by Karen on March 05, 2024
Q: I have read the following from Morgan Stanley's CIO:
- S&P 500's forward price-to-earnings ratio is over 20.4, the equivalent for the MSCI ACWI ex U.S. is around 13.5.
- That discount of nearly 35%, a 20-year low, is a two-standard-deviation event.
- Dividend yields for non-US equities are running above 3% - more than double that of the U.S. benchmark.

Do you think there is an out-sized opportunity to invest outside the US, beyond one's normal global diversification strategy? If so, what sectors, stock and/or ETF's do you recommend? Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Ben on March 04, 2024
Q: India is now or about to be the most populous country in the world and its economy appears strong. This should point towards solid growth going forward. What are your thoughts on this? If one wanted to invest in this scenario, how would they do it? Can you suggest ETFs that would mimic their future?
Read Answer Asked on March 04, 2024
Q: Dear 5i
I`m sure i`ve asked this question before but i cannot find your answer to this question .
Do you have to include ETF's that are Canadian listed that hold US stocks such as HXS and ZSP as part of my foreign reporting re foreign assets on my taxes ?
Also i have 3 ETF's that apparently have Trust or Partnership income (ZLB,CDZ,ZSP ). I have not received this notification before from my brokerage firm so i'm assuming this is a relatively new structuring of these particular ETF's . That said , is trust and partnership income taxed more or less than other forms of income ? Are you taxed on this income derived from capital gains , dividend or interest income ?
Thanks
Bill C
Read Answer Asked by Bill on March 04, 2024
Q: Hamilton has the tax breakdown of their ETF's for 2023 posted on their website. I see both HMAX and UMAX distributions are 84% Return of Capital. This seems high. Do you think this is an aberration or potentially the norm? If an aberration, could you please quesstimate a percent range that you'd expect Return of Capital to usually be.
Read Answer Asked by Brent on March 01, 2024
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