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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: From your response to Jim's question this morning, MAW150 looks quite good. I need some education on tax issues. I could either add to my TFSA in January or a fully taxed self-directed account. Can you advise on the the tax issues for each account?
Read Answer Asked by Danny-boy on November 10, 2015
Q: I have a question regarding best strategy for my son's portfolio. He is a 30 year old engineer, who has absolutely no knowledge of investments and no interest in learning about them. I finally convinced him that GIC is a bad place to park his money, so here is the question. How would you structure portfolio for a young person who wants to sleep at night, check his investments once every 3 months, and doesn't have much tolerance to loss? He has 120K to invest (incl. 40K in TFSA). I assume ETFs is a route to go here...? What combination of ETFs you'd suggest?
Read Answer Asked by Michael on November 05, 2015
Q: Gooddmorning
For a modest investment in a TFSA what would your preference be of the 3 listed
Thks
Marcel
Read Answer Asked by Marcel on November 04, 2015
Q: In her TFSA my wife currently has 28% between i shares CBO and CLF; about 18% each of SLF, STN and BMO. We are about to add this year's $10,500 which will leave us about $18,000 to put to use. What three stocks would you recommend? Add more to SLF and STN? Add WSP ?;. She would be willing to add more growth potential. Any other ideas? Thanks for your sound advice.
Paul
Read Answer Asked by Paul on November 04, 2015
Q: Hi - My 21 year old daughter has put $11,000 into a TFSA trading account, and has allowed me to manage it while she travels. What stocks would you advise at this time? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Heather on October 27, 2015
Q: Hello 5i team,
My 49 year old brother-in-law finally opened up his first online broker account (after 8 years of me bugging him to start investing). He has $26,000 in his TSFA. I have a few ideas, but I'm wondering which companies you would start a rookie investor in?
Thank you,
Brent
Read Answer Asked by Brent on October 25, 2015
Q: Hello, and sorry for the very general question. Are there any financial actions we could do before the change of governments?
We are retired but find the TFSA very useful. Should it be topped up before the change ? Any other things that could come from left field?
Read Answer Asked by Deborah on October 21, 2015
Q: If I move a stock (in kind) from my unregistered account into my TFSA when I am underwater on that stock can I claim a tax lose for the "disposition" of the stock or how do I treat it at tax time. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Edward on October 21, 2015
Q: Hi, Sorry to belabour the point, but further to my question on this topic today and to clarify the tax implications (if any) of buying/selling stocks in non-registered and TFSA accounts. I had noted from your answer to Chris in his question of March 29th of this year that you had implied that if a stock was sold in a non-registered account and then bought in a TFSA account that one should wait 30 days since this was an 'associated' account. Did I misunderstand the implication, or are there any situations where purchases in the TFSA account could have tax implications with respect to selling in the non-registered account?

Geoff
Read Answer Asked by Geoffrey on October 20, 2015
Q: As a follow up to Kenneth's question today regarding tax gains/losses in different accounts: if the same stock is held in a non-registered cash account and a TFSA account and a stock is sold from the TFSA, are there any implications if the stock is then bought or sold in the non-registered account?

Geoff
Read Answer Asked by Geoffrey on October 20, 2015
Q: Hi Team , I have 10k that I want to invest in a TFSA account, I wont need these funds for 5-10 years, Im thinking of 3 options , invest in your equity model portfolio picking appox 10 stocks with a 10 % weighing, # 2 invest only in ETFS , or # 3 split the 10 k between the 5 banks , BMO, BNS, TD , RBC and NA... does any of these options look good to you? .....or do you recommend an option 4 ???
For option 1 can you recommend some of the stocks to pick ? and also for option 2 can you recommend some ETFS to pick ?

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Costa on October 19, 2015
Q: I have a relatively well diversified portfolio and would appreciate your perspective on how the top-up contribution of $4,500 to my TFSA might be invested. I'm looking for growth opportunities as opposed to income. Please provide a couple of suitable stocks.

Thank you
Rossana
Read Answer Asked by Rossana on October 19, 2015
Q: I just recommended the following to a niece who currently has ALL mutual funds . She wants some growth and income, but probably never wants to look at her investments . As she is likely to continue owning mutual funds, I suggested that she should start a brokerage account and buy the following bit by bit .

1. FINANCIAL BANKS ... BNS, TD or RY
2. FINANCIAL INSURANCE ... SLF or GWO
3. ETFs… XSP, CDZ in Canada , or VGG

What would you suggest ?
Read Answer Asked by Thomas on October 13, 2015
Q: Hello gentlemen,

Does it make sense to utilize my tfsa to the maximum allowable contribution amount first before depositing into RRSP? Im thinking yes since we are having to pay tax when we withdraw from RRSP upon retirement.
I look forward to your reply.
Read Answer Asked by ron on September 28, 2015
Q: Hi Peter.

Came across this useful article on TFSAs. I wasn't aware of the difference between "successor-holder" and "beneficiary" designations and thought other 5i members might find this of interest.

http://www.advisor.ca/tax/tax-news/tfsa-designations-may-cause-estate-planning-problems-183045?utm_source=EmailMarketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Brokers_Newsletter?utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=Personal%20Finance%20Reader&utm_type=text&utm_content=PersonalFinanceReader&utm_campaign=129908129

Cheers,

Scott
Read Answer Asked by Scott on September 25, 2015
Q: My 20 year old son has a question for you as follows:
Hi peter,
I have a tfsa which i am looking to add to. My holdings are the following:
AVO- 10.8%
BNK- 10.1%
ENB- 15.6%
XTC- 15.6%
OTC- 15.4%
PHM- 5.4%
RMP- 7.7%
WIN- 18.8%

I was considering adding BNS & SLF.
OR
I was considering adding a large position in a mutual fund.
Would you please recommend what to add & potentially what i should sell.

Thank you!
Chad
Read Answer Asked by Danny-boy on September 16, 2015
Q: We recently sold a small U.S. property and put the US$ into a US$ TFSA in order to keep US$ available for future travel. My question is regarding the investments - we have most in non-dividend paying U.S. equities/ETF's to avoid the dividend tax issue, but could we purchase CAD dividend paying companies for income in US$ within this plan? Thanks for your always great advice.
Read Answer Asked by Susan on September 09, 2015
Q: Hi,
What stocks would you recommend in a TFSA and in a RRSP today?


Read Answer Asked by Roderick Jay on September 09, 2015
Q: Hi Peter/team I would like your opinion on what stocks of your balanced model portfolio is better to have on my TFSA-RRSP and regular account. Thanks.Jim!!!
Read Answer Asked by Dimitrios on September 02, 2015
Q: With selling FM last week at a loss, my TFSA is less than the $41,000.00 I have put into it. I must be doing something wrong. Most of us have 3 Canadian Accounts ... TFSA, RSP, and Regular /( Income in my case ) . How should one approach these regarding 1.risk , 2. dividends , 3. bluechip or other factors ... I think I am doing something wrong. My Regular account is OK, my TFSA is down and my RSP , meantime , is flying high with tech stocks and increasing my future RRIF tax liability . ᴴᴱᴸᴾ
Read Answer Asked by Thomas on August 03, 2015