Investment Q&A

Q: I'm re-balancing my RESP account. Can you recommend a bond ETF for a 4 year holding period. My thought was XBB.

Thanks,

Joe

Q: I have allocated 20%-25% of my portfolio to Fixed Income. Would XBB and CBO be sufficient to cover the fixed income component? (say 50-50).

Thanks again for the great advice as always!

Q: First a big thank you for the terrific returns we received in 2020 thanks to your stellar guidance (our largest holdings we first discovered through 5i -hello LSPD,XBC and WELL!). We gifted our kids memberships in December and praise your service to everyone. This is truly an invaluable service.
Now to the question, my brother is tired of paying high fees for his CIBC pension holdings. When I looked into this for him last year, some pools had MER in the 2% range! He’s moved the following into cash and is looking for lower fee/higher return alternatives in the following areas of his pension account:
-Imperial Canadian Dividend Income Pool
-Imperial Canadian Equity High Income Pool
-Imperial US Equity Pool
-Imperial International Equity Pool
-Imperial Short Term Bond Pool
-Imperial Long Term Bond Pool
Please charge as many questions as required.

Q: Do bonds rise when interest rates rise? If so, can you recommend a few dividend paying bond funds for a RRIF.

Q: For the fixed income portion of the portfolio, do you have any recommendations / suggestions (ETF, private fund, mutual fund, specific bonds). Realistically, hoping for a return between 3 and 6%. I am ok to take some risk. Looking for a decent risk/reward investment. Long term hold.

Q: Setting up an 40K RRSP with a 6 to 10 year time frame. What is your opinion and/or alternatives to ZEB, VXC, ZDV, XBB in equal proportions.

Q: Please comment on the timing of taking a position in RBF1650 as an income investment. What is the risk compared to XBB? Inflation is one of the biggest worries for Canadians currently. Happy New Year to everyone at 5i. Thank you

Q: Fixed Income portion of portfolio is 40% and some deposits came due so need to deploy that cash into fixed income. Thinking of putting 25% of the 40% FI into these two ETFs. I would appreciate your thoughts on this plan please. Alternatives are welcome. Thanks again.

Q: Hi, I currently don't have any bonds and would like 2 etf's you recommend to start with for fixed income. Currently a few years from retirement.
Thanks for all the help!

Q: I had a GIC come due last week in my RRIF, which is managed by an advisor.
They advised buying a bond fund, Dynamic Edge Conservative Class A, MER is 1.89%. What do you think about this fund, it is a fund of funds?
What would you suggest ( for a senior) as an alternative. The amount $30,000.00. The GIC rate is about 1%.
I value your opinion.
Shirley
I really value your advice, as I am a senior

Q: Ishares US REAL ESTATE ETF (not in your data base)
can you comment on this ETF for a diversified real estate play. Do you view this as a decent entry point.
What's your view of starting a portfolio of these 5 ETFS with a 20% weighting in each, then rebalancing every year back to the original 20% weighting. Im hoping maintaining the 20% cash position will help smooth out the portfolio in these uncertain times, maybe it will outperform the more popular 60/40 portfolio.
thanks Gordie

Q: What are the best bond etfs to own in Canada and US in your opinion? Please provide several options in both countries. Thank You.

Q: I just recently retired and within my portfolio have approx 60% in Bonds (As per above) - while these have been a great hedge against the equity holdings, I am considering either selling some of the bonds listed above - approx 10% and moving these monies into either high yield bonds - ie CHB or ZHY or if not into high yield bonds possibly a high yield dividend fund like XEI or ZWC or ?
While I would like to increase the income on these monies - do you think this is a good time to make this move?

Q: Hi Folks,

I know your main focus is stocks, but if you have some cash to invest and you don't want it it equities, would you prefer XBB or XSB right now? Or is there another bond fund alternative I should look at for $CDN. This if for a long term hold.

Thank you. Michael

Thank you.

Q: What are the best government bonds for a retired 70 year old, that presently has no fixed income????

Q: My husband and I are in our mid 60's and were hoping to retire in the next 2-3 yrs (however we may need to postpone depending on how 2020/2021 goes). At the moment our asset allocation is 67% equities and 33% fixed income and we feel we need to shift toward fixed income.
2 questions:
1. Undercurrent conditions, would you suggest a 60/40 split,a 50/50 split or do nothing for next 6 months?
2. If it make sense to make some adjustments now, which of the following fixed assets would you add to and which equities would you recommend trimming: current fixed positions are 10% each in XBB, PMO005, ZIC; equities over 5% are TD(6%), ZUT(8%) and XIC (7%).

Q: Dear 5i,

Can I please get your opinion regarding these 3 Canadian Aggregate Bond ETF's.
MKB and HAD have MER's approx. 4 times higher than the passive XBB ETF. It looks like the overall Total Return performance is better with MKB and HAD but, only by about 0.5 to 1%.
1. Do you think it is worth paying the extra fees for MKB and HAD?
2. If yes, which one would you choose between MKB and HAD?
3. With interest rates already very low does it make any sense to purchase any Canadian aggregate bonds?

thanks

Q: Good morning! I would like to add to the fixed income side of my portfolio ... pls recommend the best fixed income investment today (retired, long-term hold, dividend investor). Thank you for this Q&A service!

Q: Hi,
I'm trying to create a well balanced bond fund for that portion of my portfolio and have come up with this: HFR-T, CBO-T, CLF-T, TLT, XBB-T, CVD-T, SHY, FLOT, IVOL, BNDX, VSG-T
I guess I should have something that will generate monthly income as well? If I am overdoing this, please let me know...it seems like a lot of holdings. Is there a better way? A mutual fund?
Thanks.

Q: Hello, I would like to get your best guess as to how the cdn bond market would react under 3 different scenarios.

1. Rates stay static for the next couple of years as we slowly make our way out of this and there no other real shocks to the system.

2. Rates rise as things improve much quicker than expected and the economy booms along with higher inflation than expected.

3. The situation slowly get worse and prolonged and rates fall to below zero.

I am confused at the best of times but these days are setting things to a whole new level.

Currently own xbb and vcit as fixed income. Better options?

Thanks for all you are doing it really is helping.