Investment Q&A

Q: My wife has never dabbled in the markets and has often labelled it as too risky. She has tended to stay with GIC’s or higher interest saving accounts, yeilding perhaps 2-3.5% annually. However, after seeing returns on some of my equities and ETF’s she is reconsidering. While I know you cannot personalize what is best for her, can you please give your highest conviction for lower risk stocks/etf’s for an RRSP (about 130K) with a 3-5 year window. I have shown her RoR on Canoe ETF (about 8%) and HMAX (about 12%). Lower risk stocks like BN or GOOG are also being considered. Your input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for all the great work you do!
Brian

Q: I seem to recall a question quite a while ago (years?) about the maximum % of your portfolio should be by fund company. If I remember correctly, your suggestion was to cap each fund company exposure to 15%. Am I correct and do you still feel the same?

My BMO ETFs are just over 16%.
My iShares ETFs are just over 15%.
I have smaller exposures to the fund companies holding HMAX, HHL, NNRG (around 5% each).

Please remind me again what the dangers are of exceeding your suggested threshold? For the larger fund companies, is the threshold higher?

Thanks for your help....much appreciated....Steve

Q: My granddaughter has an individual stock portfolio which I need to change to an ETF portfolio as she does not personally follow or trades stocks and I am no longer able to manage the account.
Would you please suggest a portfolio of ETFs that is diversified as well as recommendations for ETFs that focus on precious metals, base metals and energy?
With appreciation,
Ed

Q: I have $ 60000 to invest in my tfsa. I am retired. What 3 etfs would effectively give me a good somewhat conservative diversity especially for these chaotic times. Stability and income would be my main focus

Q: I am currently shifting some of my assets into ETFs. I’m looking for some low to medium risk Canadian ETFs with low management fees and a five to ten year investment outlook. Could you give me a few suggestions?

Q: Can you suggest an ETF that will safeguard against a market correction and still provide growth if the market does not correct?

Q: Rainwater Equity ETF (NYSE): As a new ETF invested in mid/large cap companies, in sectors with reliable recurring revenues less sensitive to equity market fluctuations, this would likely be a good defensive stock to own. Is there a comparable ETF/Company based in Canada?

Q: Hi,
Could you please recommend 10 (5 US / 5 CAN) high-quality defensive companies with strong balance sheets, low debt levels, and robust cash flows that YOU believe they can weather economic stress, inflation, or stagflation and they relatively hold up their stock prices during such times? If their current stock prices are overvalued, please suggest your recommended entry prices.

Also please recommend ETFs that mainly invest in companies with the above criteria?

Thank you

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. I have long term holdings in both ZLB and ZUT. Both are in registered accounts...no tax issues.

For asset allocation reasons, I am considering trimming ZUT and adding the proceeds to ZLB. When I use your charts and compare these two, ZLB appears to be the better performer over most timeframes.

Normally I would simply proceed, but this is a minor asset allocation tweaking. Also, I think that the BOC may be reducing interest rates this fall, which should have a positive impact on ZUT. Do you agree with this assumption?

Would you proceed or wait....I know this is a bit of a "market-timing" question?

Thanks for your help....Steve

Q: Hello, which fixed income: ETF/Bond/GIC investments would work best under current economic conditions of lower rates coming from the US FEDS and Canada.? And, do you suggest staying short or long? .. Of course the lowest possible risk.
Thanks
Carlo

Q: I am a senior citizen now with a lower tolerance for risk and accepting of a lower rate of return on my investments for that. When interest rates increased, I invested in MM funds; now with rates going south, I am looking to get back into some more conservative stocks/ETF/Mutual funds with growth prospects.
Can you provide 5 stocks/ETF's you believe would fill this request. I am looking at Canadian but if there isa US one that makes sense, I would look at it.
As always, thanks for your advise.

Regards

Jim

Q: Retired (70 yrs old), dividend-income investor. Been meaning to ask this question for a long time. We run a concentrated portfolio of roughly 10 ETFs and 10 stocks, plus fixed income on top. Our pro-rated MER for the equity ETFs is 0.64 and for the entire portfolio is 0.38.

I use the ETFs above that are sector ETFs (like HHL, NNRG, XIT) as my proxy for the sector and am ok with the trade off of paying fees for a sector ETF instead of having lots of stocks.

I then add my individual stock selections to achieve my targeted Asset Allocation for the entire portfolio (like AD, BCE, FTS, GSY, RY, NWC, PBH, TRP, WSP, etc). I weight each of these relative to my risk tolerance.

Does this make sense to you? Does my "sector ETF" make sense, especially with a potentially large weighting in one ETF. Virtually all of my ETFs are capped at around 7% of the equity portfolio and the stocks are capped at 5% max.

Your thoughts on my strategy and on my MER....thanks...Steve

Q: If I had all of these funds would there be too much overlap? What is your favourite one out of the group?

Q: Do you have any concerns with someone holding these ETF’s for a 3 to 5 year time period?

Q: If one was new to investing, with a $5OK account, interesting in monthly income with some growth would a mix of SPLT and ZLB be good advice i.e. 60% SPLT and 40% ZLB. ZLB to focus on low volitile stocks and SPLT for safe monthly income of 6% with some growth. Any other ideas?

Q: According to my TD research, on a 1, 3, and 5 year basis, ZLB has outperformed ZCN despite ZLB's higher MER and lower dividend. Is that a reasonable apples to apples comparison? I'm wondering if it's worth it to sell my ZLB and buy ZCN or does it all work out to about the same? Thanks. And belated Happy Thanksgiving

Q: Good evening 5i,

I have held ZLB for some time and while happy with the holding as part of my portfolio, I am considering a switch to HDIV. It would continue to be a long term hold.

Based on past perfromance, I don't see that the ZLB provides that much less volatility protection over HDIV to justify the higher fees and lower yield.

I would certainly appreicate your thoughts.

Thanks

Q: I am setting up a TFSA for my wife. I have been managing my own TFSA for 7 years but my wife has maintained her account with a BMO investment advisor. We also both have RIFs managed by the same advisor. My TFSA has far outperformed the accounnts managed by the professional (thanks to your advice) but my wife is very risk adverse. She has about $100 K to invest. We are both in our 70s and don't have pressing needs for the cash. Could you. suggest a basket of Canadian/US stocks/etfs that would provide some low risk growth with a 10 year horizon.

Q: Up to this point I have been a growth investor. Recently retired, I am converting some RRSP into a RIF and want to lower the risk profile. I am 60 y/o.

Kindly advise some ETFs that you would recommend in Canada or US.

Thanks a lot,

Q: My husband mainly holds ETF's in his TFSA - ZLB, VXC, ZNQ, and some BRK. ZNQ accounts for around 5% with the others split about evenly. Which one would you add new cash to today? Another option we have been looking at is adding VUG. I think there is a lot of overlap between VXC, ZNQ, and VUG. Of the three, which one or two do you like best? Thanks!