Investment Q&A

Q: Hi,

I have $50,000 to invest in my TFSA for 2026.

Could you provide your top 5 ETFs to invest in for US/Canadian, Top 3 foreign ETFs. and Top 3 dividend ETFs.

Holding for approx. 10 years. Risk level Moderate to high.

I have an ETF in SMH that has 108% ROI in the last 2 years. Would you advice on putting more cash into SMH?

Thank you

Q: Hi Gang
What are your top 5 etf. At this time
Thanks Mike B

Q: I would appreciate your guidance on investing available cash in my portfolio. I recently sold my NVIDIA holdings, and as a result, approximately 50% of my RRIF investments are currently in cash, and about 5% of my non-registered (open) investment accounts are also in cash. I currently hold VFV, VGRO and XIC in my open account along with approximately 20 equities. I do not currently hold any ETFs in my RRIF account. My objective is to fully invest this cash before the end of 2025. I would appreciate your recommendations on the following:
• Top five investment ideas (ETFs and equities) suitable for my RRIF account, and
• Top five investment ideas (ETFs and equities) suitable for my non-registered (open) account,
with the following parameters in mind:
• Investment horizon: 5 to 10 years
• Risk profile: Moderate
Thank you in advance for your assistance. I value your research and look forward to your recommendations. Best wishes to you and your team for the Holiday Season, and warm regards for a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Q: Everyone, if your portfolio was only ETFs how many would you have and what would they be? Clayton

Q: In your response to my earlier question on Canadian ETFs, you offered to expand your answer to include other Canadian traded asset categories. I would appreciate if you could please do so.

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: Hi team,

Could you come up with a list of « sleep at night » ETFs, with a 5-10 years horizon, ranking them from best to lowest potential growth and from highest to lowest risk ?

Please deduct as many credits as you see fit.
Gratefully,

Jacques IDS

Q: We have $50,000 we want to invest and leave alone for 3-5 years. We understand there is a good chance of a market correction, and unknown market volatility the next couple years. Would you suggest putting it into an ETF, and if so, can you give us 3 or 4 names to consider?
Or, a couple sectors, with company names, to purchase shares in. Thank you.
Grant

Q: I currently hold the above ETFs in a RESP and wonder if I should add any other ETF or this is good enough and just keep adding to these ones. Money not needed for 9 years.

Thanks

Q: If a new Canadian investor wanted to get into the North American market and use low cost index investing to achieve both diversification and simplicity what would you consider for such a portfolio. And if international exposure was desired what could be considered as additions for that.

Q: Hi 5i,

Looking to start an RESP for a newborn. Any recommendations in how to configure an ETF portfolio? If you had to limit yourself to a selection of 3 ETFs, which would you choose and why?

Q: Peter, I’m also tiring of underperformance of MAW funds. Could you suggest alts for these two please? Thanks,
Rod

Q: What two ETFs would you recommend for my Canadian part of my portfolio?

Q: Hello Peter
I have been a member since the early lunching of 5I and I have done very well thank you. I also managed my family portfolios with success. My approach was and still is 100% Stocks with a growth tilt and no Bonds.
Now 86 years old, I am starting to transfer gradually to my heirs the proceeds of my stock portfolio. My heirs a son and a daughter both professionals have no interest in managing a stock portfolio.
I am thinking of converting gradually my stocks and their portfolios to ETFs such as ZSP 30%, XIC 30%, VMO 15%, VIU 10% and QQC 15% with the intention of rebalancing once a year.
Is this approach and suggested portfolio viable for the next 5 to 10 years, please do not hesitate to suggest appropriate changes to achieve for the long term capital preservation, a reasonable return of 8% and a certain peace of mind with minimum effort.
I always valued your wisdom and advice and above all I would like to thank you for your help to manage my moneys with success.
Raouf

Q: Hi 5i Team,
My husband and I are in our RRIF years so we have large injections of withdrawn cash into our investment accounts throughout the year. We also sell stocks from time to time when they reach a target price and end up with more cash. The intention is to reinvest but often deciding what and when to buy means that large sums are sitting idle for long periods. HISAs, GICs and other interest bearing alternatives are generally not worth the effort given how they are taxed.

We would like your recommendations on what to do with these funds while researching and waiting for appropriate investments to surface. I’m thinking index funds and ETFs - things that are taxed efficiently and are liquid.

Have you any specific, short term recommendations? They could be Canadian or US as long as they can be bought and sold easily and quickly.

Thank you for your thoughts!

Q: Hello 5i team,
I hold a concentrated stock portfolio. If I was to start buying ETF's; which 5 or 6 would you recommend me buying slowly over the next few years that will give me a diversified portfolio. Five or six ETF's that I can continue to dollar cost average into over the next 5 years.
Thank you,
Brent

Q: I currently hold these ETF's in a RESP. I have only XIC ,ZNQ and IWO at a 11% weight , would you be comfortable bringing them up to 15-20% each ?

Is there any other ETF you would add ?I am looking at XAW.

Thanks

Q: I asked a question last week but it must have got lost. This is a follow up question regarding my question about if you could only hold 3 ETF's what would they be. You answered ZSP, XIC and ZNQ. Can you please explain the rational for owning both ZSP and ZNQ. Is there not a lot of overlap between the two? And if I were to hold only these # ETF's can you also explain why you wouldn't include another international exposure ETF? I believe ZNQ is currency hedged which usually means higher fees. Is there another option to ZNQ that isn't hedged with a lower MER?
Thank you for your service.

Q: what is the annualized return of SPY, QQQ and XIC over the last 20 years. I thought I read an answer where you said the S&P only was 2% including dividends which seems too low.

Q: I would like to help my 12 year old granddaughter with a RESP. Can you recommend a few choices?