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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: If you had to pick 4 ETF's as a core of a portfolio. What would they be? US listed ETF's are ok.

1- Can Equity
2 - US Equity
3 - International Equity
4 - Bond
Read Answer Asked by Joe on July 13, 2022
Q: Hi Everyone at 5i!!!

My son is building his RRSP holdings. What 5-10 stocks or ETFs would you consider to add for long term, sleep at night positions in the RRSP.
Cheers, Tamara
Read Answer Asked by Tamara on July 10, 2022
Q: For a ultra conservative retired income based investor can you please give us your 10 best portfolio building blocks starting a new portfolio?...many thanks...
Read Answer Asked by adam on June 10, 2022
Q: My sister has an RDSP with BMO. She has 75,000.00 in each the above funds. The lifestage money will mature in June and automatically go into a money market fund. The money will not be needed for years. She also has a trust fund. Do you have any suggestions for the 75k? Also, I believe the Cad and Usd equity funds are mutual funds. Should I move them to a lower cost ETF?
Read Answer Asked by Andrea on May 26, 2022
Q: My son has uninvested $ in his RRSP, and no other investments at all. Can you suggest 3-4 positions to get him started? He'd like something that he doesn't have to pay too much attention to. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Kim on May 26, 2022
Q: for an 18 year old buying TFSA of 6 000, summer work earnings, but not needing money for a long time, probably targeting first home buy 10 + years down the road (education covered) what would you suggest if ETF, 3 suggestions please. Also, plan B, basket of 5 growth stocks, (being 18, she is interested in apple, alphabet, amazon and Microsoft)

thanks
Read Answer Asked by Ernest on May 13, 2022
Q: Hello 5i Team,

We recently settled my parents estate and the 3 sons (me included) received a fairly large transfer in the form of 5 ETFs including ZAG (9%), XEF (11%), XUS (3%), XIC (13%) and VFV (12%). This now represents almost half of the total portfolio whereas the remainder is invested in diverse stocks and some other ETFs mostly on your advice. I think you like ZAG for bonds but I’d like to ask if any of the other ETFs seem problematic to you or would you switch any with a similar focus? We also own some XQQ, WXM, IWO and VUN (all at about 2% each). Looking to retire in 10-15 years and with a pretty good risk tolerance.

Thank you for your help!

John

Read Answer Asked by John on May 10, 2022
Q: What ETFs/mutual funds ( not limited to Canadian equities ) would you recommend for a young couple (in their early 30s) for their TFSA. It will be for a long term hold. If more than 1 ETF is advised, what percentage in each ETF. Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Teresa on April 22, 2022
Q: Would like a current opinion on this mutual fund?
Is the fees worth the returns or would a global ETF perform better?
Greatly appreciate your opinion.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on April 11, 2022
Q: Good morning,

Truly enjoy reading your reports and answers to queries asked by members!

In your response to Chris, on April 8th, you outline a starting strategy for a young 16 year old investor.

You state: "we might start out with a broad market ETF that pays a dividend"

Would you be comfortable listing a few broad market ETF that fit this criteria taking into account a 10 year lock up of the funds?

Perhaps suggesting a few for high, moderate and low risk tiers.

Have a great weekend!

Art
Read Answer Asked by Arturo on April 11, 2022
Q: Please help me balance out one of my portfolios. It is tilted heavily to quality us stocks- GOOGL, TMO, MSFT, DIS, SYK, NVDA, BKNG, ACN,BLK, SBUX,ADP,IDXX, ADOBE, EL, AND XYL.
My canadian stocks are BAM,TD, CNR, FSV, SHOP AND TSU.

I would like to increase canadian exposure--- would you suggest gradually
adding to an etf such as xic or could you suggest a few canadian stocks
that would be suitable in this investing envioronment such as energy, materials etc to balance out this portfolio.

Regards, Ajay
Read Answer Asked by Alka on April 07, 2022
Q: My son (30) has some money and wants to put it in your small cap growth model. He wants to include a number of ETF's to have some other exposure. He would put 30% of his money in the small caps and 70% in ETF's. Here is the list of ETF's he is considering, but is worried it is too many. Can you please help with the ETF list as he is concerned that he has too many. Please take as many credits as needed. Thanks.

XIC 15%
XIU 15%
CDZ 5%
QQQ 10%
IWR 7%
DIA 10%
SPY 10%
SDY 5%
VTI 8%
IDV 5%
VXUS 5%
VEE 5%

Read Answer Asked by Gregory on March 18, 2022
Q: 65 yr old retiring this year. I hold the following: XAW (35%), XBB (20%), XIC (12%), CDZ (7%), ZSP (7%), VTI (7%), ZIC, VTI and ENB at 5% each.
In view of the current conditions, would you increase the fixed asset portion and reduce equity? Which ones would you add to and which ones would you reduce/remove?
Read Answer Asked by Rosemin on February 25, 2022
Q: Q.

Would you recommend one ETF for a 12 yr+- time frame for my sons RESP?
One that I can add to over time, growth minded, MER friendly with CDN & US exposure taking into consideration US taxation.

Thanks,
Dan
Read Answer Asked by Daniel on February 01, 2022
Q: Hello,
I will be switching to an indexing strategy in the near future and have a few ETFs that I would like your comparisons/advice/opinions. All ETFs will be held in TFSAs or RRSPs over a long term.

1)S&P/TSX: XIU, XIC, HXT*

2)S&P 500: ZSP, HXS*

3)Emerging Markets: ZEM, XEC*

*denotes commission free trades.

4) In registered accounts, is there a long term advantage to having capital gains vs dividends distributions as is the case for HXT and HXS? I would reinvest any potential dividends in other ETFs.

Thank you.

Read Answer Asked by Dave on January 25, 2022
Q: Hello. I have ~$50K cash to deploy for investing. Given current volatile market, I am thinking of investing all in ETF (which might be safer), unless you feel strongly about some undervalued stocks. I'd like expose to world economy including the US, Canada and perhaps others. The investment can be long term as I don't need these money right away. But in case of decent gain in a short term, I probably would take money out for real estate purchase. Can you please recommend 3-5 ETF? I understand you don't timing the market. But given the outlook for rising interest rate, would it be better just hold them as cash for now?

Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Yiwen on January 24, 2022
Q: Hello Peter,
For an RESP today and future contributions with focus on Canada and USA, I was thinking of allocating more monies to indexes such as xic and xsp and less to sectors such as xfn or zeb , and xit. What are your thoughts? Also, i noticed that xsp has not done as well as SPY. i am assuming it is do to currency. In an RESP, I would think xsp on toronto and SPY on NYSE, both have withholding taxes.. Please comment. Thank you
Read Answer Asked by umedali on January 20, 2022
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