Investment Q&A

Q: Hi 5i,
I have $70,000 CAD to invest for 3-5 years and tax is not an issue. I am thinking of ETFs : 40% Canadian Stocks, 32% American stocks, 8% Global and 20% Bond.
Would you please advise what to buy? or if you have better combination.
Thank you.

Q: My daughter is opening up an resp for her three month old son. She will initially be putting $10,000 in. What are three ETF's that would be suitable. She is looking for some growth and little risk.

Q: 55 years old,will work at least to age 60 and will have a large pension.Have about $100,000 to invest long term with no need to use any of it in the foreseeable future,
Please recommend an ETF for Canadian market (moderate risk,and tilted more to growth than to income) and an ETF for US markets (moderate risk and tilted more to growth than to income).
If you think two ETFs for each of Canada and US would be better than one for each,please elaborate.

Q: I'm 61. I'm getting to the point in my life where I want to spend less time following stocks and just start to enjoy my life more. I have 5 accounts, 4 are registered. I'm thinking to just sell everything in all of them and buy XGRO in all of them. One fund across all accounts. No more following stocks or rebalancing and the MER is just .18. I realize I'll lose some tax advantages by putting certain investments in registered or non registered accounts, but I'm willing to give that up for the simplicity and hands off approach of a one fund portfolio.
Problem is one of my RRSP accounts is in USD, so I'm looking for a US domiciled equivalent to XGRO. Any ideas? Thanks

Q: Since the tax benefits for HXT, HXQ, HTB, HXS have or will be diminished, is there any reason to continue to hold them or should we be switching to other etf's, is so which ones would you recommend?
Thanks for your service.

Q: I would like to set up a passive portfolio for my mother. Could you please recommend indexes in Canada and the United states that would reflect the market while giving diversification.

Q: Hi.

XIU is mentioned in your latest newsletter (February 10 2019 I Volume 25 I Issue 2) under 'iShares S&P/TSX 60 (XIU)', but XIC is used in all three of your model ETF portfolios. Can you explain which one you prefer and why.

Thank you.

Q: my wife currently has unregistered money invested in this mutal fund and continues to put money in it every month. I would like to know if there are etfs that are just as good or better with much lower fees. Thanks for your help.

Q: Hi Peter, Ryan & Team
In addition to my current 5i Balanced portfolio I want to build an additional RRSP ETF portfolio.Time horizon 3-5 Years and my risk level is moderate.
I am thinking to invest in the following ETF. Appreciate you advise on the distribution, concentration and risk level.
XMD 30%
VUN 20%
XIU 10%
VEE 10%
VXUS 10%
IXC 10%
IWO 10%

Thanks,

Q: Dear 5i
What ETF`s would you recommend for a TFSA account with regards to CD and US equities ( re the TSX ).
Thanks
Bill C

Q: I am a new retiree and interested in income, with some growth. What ETF or ETFs would you recommend for a non-registered account? Thank you.

Q: Good morning,
I'm 70 years old and with yet a new year upon us and a review of the holdings in my non reg equity portfolio, I'm concerned that my $650K non reg equity portfolio has slowly grown into a "hodge podge" of miscellaneous holdings that need to be trimmed, better concentrated (minimum 5% per holding) along with the addition of a few additional names in sectors that are not currently represented. My current holdings are as follows:
AQN (3.3%),BCE (11.6%)BAM.A(3.8%),CU (4.5%),DIV(2.8%),EMA (2.4%),KEY(2.2%),XIU(5.2%),XIC (33.2%),XDV(18.4%),SLF(3.6%),T(2.9%),T(2.9%),MAW120(3.1%)MAW102(3%).
I would very much appreciate your suggestions on how to best to adjust my current non reg equity portfolio to make it easier to manage and follow. I'm open to adding an appropriate mix of ETFs or Mawer equity funds as need be. My RRSP and TFSA are pretty much all populated with a mix of relatively low MER Mawer equity funds which have performed well over the years. I thank you in advance and look forward to hearing your sage advice and recommendations.
Francesco

Q: Two questions on Canadian equity/dividend ETFs:

1) The holdings in DGRC are selected based on market cap, expected earnings growth, return on equity, and return on assets. How is it that none of the Big 5 Canadian banks qualify for inclusion in their portfolio? This is puzzling to me. What is your opinion of this ETF for the core Canadian equity component of one's portfolio, for a longterm hold?

2) You continue to recommend XIC despite reminding members, many a time, of how the TSX index is heavily concentrated in financials and energy. Why? It is a cheap ETF, but other CDN equity ETFs (like DGRC) are modestly more expensive but I can't help but think that the few extra basis points in cost are worth it if it allows for a more balanced sector allocation overall. You continue to recommend CDZ even though it is very expensive, with a MER of 0.66. Why? I know it is analogous to VGG/VIG, which you (and I) love, but I don't think they're comparable, since VGG/VIG contains many companies with a much longer history of dividend increases (including many so-called 'Dividend Aristocrats' and 'Dividend Kings' whereas inclusion in CDZ only requires that a company has a history of increasing its dividend in at least four of the last five years. It almost seems like the continued recommendation of XIC and CDZ is due more to historical reasons rather than their merits as of right now, relative to other ETFs that may not have been available when XIC and CDZ were first made available.

Q: From your answer on November 23rd:
No, an individual would still need to hold global exposure to the US, europe and emerging markets as well as fixed income. In terms of Canadian exposure, we would be pretty comfortable with the portfolio as a more growth-tilted proxy to Canada but an investor may want to overlay one Canadian broad ETF just to smooth out the volatility a little, depending on portfolio size. This, or adding a selection of larger company stocks, would help overall diversification.

Can you suggest % or guidelines on each type of exposure to have a well-diversified portfolio? (US, Europe, emerging markets, fixed income, Beport, one Canadian broad ETF or larger company stocks).
Thank you

Q: Which etf's or index funds would you use today to allocate $100k in a Canadian registered acct. for a longer term hold and in what proportion?
Thanks.

Q: I'm a new DIY investor who is 15 yrs from retirement with a full DB pension.
I will be transferring my big bank mutual funds into an online brokerage and borrowing a lump sum to invest within TFSA and non-registered accounts.
Currently, I'm considering XIC, XAW, and QQQ with, say, a 30/50/10 allocation. The remaining 10% would be for 'conviction' stocks.
Is this a reasonable approach? How would you improve on it?
Thanks!

Q: What stocks and sectors(weighting’s) would you add to balance XIC?

Q: XIC/SPI were 2 suggested ETF funds for a beginner. I'd like your opinion on XSP vs SPY because it is traded in Canadian funds vs U.S. funds. It was suggested that as a beginner I should study the market more and not plunge into U.S. dollar funds a this time. Opinion?

Q: Hello - I am very new to this web site and investing with minimal knowledge. I have investments with TD Waterhouse and set up all my accounts to self invest. It was suggested I start with ETF's. From there I don't know where to go or what to do. Can someone guide me?
Thank you

Q: My daughter is 51 years old, and has just sold a rental property for a profit of 240,000. She does not have a pension, though her husband does. She would like to invest the money in a conservative way, so as to not lose sleep, but would like to use this as her own pension in a few years time. How should she proceed?