Q: I'm retired and am interested in building an income portfolio. A recent contributor provided a list of 6 utilities Aqn, Bep.un, Bip.un, KWH.un, FTS and VNR for a total of 15%. 5I was OK with the choices. I've been considering ZWU @ 15% for the utility sector. Comments, ideas please.
Q: As I grow older I find myself more risk adverse. You receive many questions regarding going to more cash when one fears a market correction and you claim, and I agree, that market timing is very difficult to pull off. None the less I am fearful of large loses similar to those encountered 10 years ago.
Now to my question. If one is investing for income, as I understand it, if the dividend is safe then a capital loss while not good can be tolerated with the hope of recovery because of the steady income flow. I am setting up a RRIF and am concerned about equity draw downs from a recession as well as increasing interest rates. In conclusion an income investor should be able to sleep at night knowing there is a steady income stream. I am trying to generate a 5% annual dividend stream. Thank you.
Q: Hi,
If I were to buy & sell options as a strategy to create a monthly income flow, would any proceeds (profits or losses) be considered as Capital Gains or Income for income tax purposes?
Also, if trading options, is there any consideration to be aware of in regards to option-able stocks that pay dividends?
Thank you.
Q: On June 17th there was an article in the Globe entitled " Are these preferreds a 5 percent solution", by Rob Carrick. It spoke of many different perpetual preferreds paying close to 5%. What is your opinion as to how any perpetual preferreds would fit into any investment portfolio in today's investment climate. Would you ever recommend them?
I am looking at moving out of a managed portfolio for which I pay about 1.5% management fee plus the fees for the products in the fund ( averages about 0.29% for a net of about 1.79%). The managed fund has not beat its benchmark net of fees in last 5 years so I am giving my manager and the product the boot.
Main reasons are:
1. I am paying for an "actively" managed fund that really is performing like a index fund ( I can buy the fund benchmark as ETFs for %0.23 mer)
2. I dont really need it to be balanced due to my other investments. It was useful when I had less money, less time and less knowledge.
3. I have the time, temperament and knowledge to move it all to be self managed
My plan is:
1. Not have any fixed income holdings as my wife's federal government pension counts for all required fixed income/bond. It is also the anchor that allow me to be more aggressive with our other investments
2. All Canadian exposure will be via stocks loosely following your balanced equity portfolio.
3. For the US-global exposure I am considering adopting the US/global portion of the CME ETF portfolio with the following weighting: 10% VEE, 10% VE, 20% SPY, 25% VIG, 25% IWO, 10% ZWU. ( ie cut out most CAD and bond stuff and kept the same weighting as CMS portfolio for the rest)
4. Simplify the number of products I have across multiple account. In other words balance globally vs balancing within each individual account.
So my questions are:
1. At a high level what if any changes would you suggest to this approach
2. My portfolio is a mess with multiple products across TFSA, RSP, RESP, and unregistered accounts for both me and my wife. Very generally can you remind me which products should be in which account for tax efficiency.
3. Any suggestions on how best to transition...general plan is all new money goes to ETFs, move 1/3 each year out of managed fund to ETF portfolio.
Q: Hi Great Service With ETF's gaining popularity and taking over from mutual fund investments ,how will they react with a 30 to 35% correction to the market? These investments have not been tested in a mass sell off. Question is about ETF's on the US and Canadian Markets
Q: for my sons RESP can I get your opinion of the 3.25% 5 year GIC being offered by Home Capital? The amount is far below the $100,000 threshold.
Is a safe 3.25% a reasonable rate of return for an RESP that I need in 5 years time? Alternatively, would I be better to off with the investment strategy your team outlined which would have a higher potential yield but principle risk.
Q: It would appear that a 5% exposure to the Oil and Energy Sector is the current recommendation. Should energy midstream and infrastructure companies be included in determining ones exposure?
Q: A book I am reading says that the nominal return for bonds going back to 1928 is 4.9% represented by 10-year U.S. government-issued treasuries. How is this return calculated? How is the return on 10-year bonds transformed into an annual compound return?
Q: Morning Peter,
While the declines in oil prices are well assessed, whats the reason that other commodities like Coffee are hitting long term lows even though demand is high ? Is it also over supply ?
Q: My wife and I are voting these days on a number of proxy votes. My questions are about directors:
-- For some companies, particularly oil and gas companies, the proposed directors sometimes seem to be affiliated (director or executive) with a competitor. Is it reasonable that directors are affiliated with competitors?
-- Some directors who are a Chairman or CEO of one company are also directors of multiple other companies. How can they have the time to do this? How many outside directorships is it reasonable for a Chairman or CEO to have?
Q: Hi.
Anecdotal?
During the past 5 months, my computer screen did not contain enough space (I had to scroll down) for all the new 52 weeks highs that came furiously
Just noticed over the past week my computer screen did not contain enough space (Ihad to scroll down) for all the new 52 weeks LOWS.
My personal A/D line.
CDJ
Q: Could you confirm that dividends of companies domiciled in Canada, regardless of the exchange they are listed on, and paid and received in US dollars still qualify for the Canadian dividend tax credit? As such, I assume that there would not be any US withholding tax (non-reg accounts). It would only be the US dividends from US corporations that would have 15% withheld?
Q: Just a suggestion - we often see new members join, buy a portion of the portfolio and then are disappointed by the short term results. It may be helpful if you provided new members an overview of your philosophy, the portfolios, and the 'portfolio' approach to investing. i know this would have been helpful when i first joined.post if you wish!
Q: My question concerns a robust method to estimate free cash flow.I have been running some calculations as part of my investment process and I make use of Free Cash Flow extensively in my models.
Usually I just use Operating Cash Flow - average of last five years CapEx. However in many cases such as GIL there are large variations in working capital from one year to the next. Management can boost operating and free cash flow by reducing working capital in the short run. This is a one-off rather than permanent boost to cash flow and can give a misleading measure of sustainable cash flows. The opposite is also true and management can make short term investments.
Some authors recommend removing changes in working capital from the calculation and defining free cash flow as Post-tax profit + Depreciation and amortization - stay in business CapEx. The stay in business CapEx is then estimated as the greater of the average of last five years CapEx or 120% of depreciation. Sometimes this adjusted definition of Free Cash Flow is also called owner earnings or Cash Profits.
With respect to GIL this approach certainly seems to give a much better free cash flow figure, but I wonder if this is wishful thinking? Is a company that over five years or more has to constantly deplete its working capital really showing us that it actually has a higher CapEx requirement? I would appreciate your comments.
Q: There are several answers today explaining that Friday's big drops in various stocks are due to Friday being a "quadruple witching day." Just wondering if it would be possible (and perhaps save you some time) if a Heads-up could be posted a day or two before to warn your members a "special" day is upcoming and we should all expect some unusual trading?