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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: Would you buy any Cdn REITs at this point...and if yes, what 3 (and in what order) would you buy at current prices.? Thank you as always for your great insight.
Read Answer Asked by Doug on January 26, 2023
Q: Hello 5i team,
I currently have XRE for real estate coverage in my TFSA for income. I was thinking of switching over to ZRE since it gives a slightly better payout.

I was wondering if there is any advantage for either of these ETFs? Aside from stock purchase limitations (XRE is capped, ZRE is equal weight), does one hold a better real estate portfolio overall?


Thanks,
Andrew
Read Answer Asked by Andrew on December 23, 2022
Q: I hate asking market timing questions as much as you hate answering them but...I have always been a bit light on real estate and am wondering if now is a OK time to add a position in either xre or zre. Second question: You have XRE in the income portfolio, today would you stick with XRE or I was looking at ZRE that has outperformed XRE recently. My concern about timing is with rising interest rates and the jittery markets that I might be better off just parking in the banks or consumer deffensive and worrying about real estate in a few years,
Read Answer Asked by Tom on September 23, 2022
Q: I'm looking for some inflation protection via investing in REITs and came across RQI and ICF. I'm trying to determine the difference between these two. They appear to have similar holdings, yet the payout appears to be quite different. In a response to someone's question back in May you mentioned that RQI's payout is taxed quite a bit more than a Canadian dividend - even if held within an RRSP, which by the way is where I would plan to hold it. Is it the same case for ICF ?

Which would be the better buy? Or is better to stick to a similar Canadian alternative?
Read Answer Asked by James on September 14, 2022
Q: Hi 5i,
I gather from your answers to the few questions that have been asked about it that you are not great fans of IDR for real estate exposure, and my initial question is basically why and what should I be concerned about?
If I'm reading the information correctly, IDR's 10 year growth rate (2011 - 2021) is 167%, with YTD sitting at 29%. It's annual yield meanwhile is 5.60% (or more) and it is diversified through holding residential, industrial and retail REITs in Canada (67%), USA (24%) and the UK (2%).
Could one potentially do better and risk less through holding individual REITs instead of the basket afforded by IDR and, if so, which ones would you recommend for the real estate portion of a portfolio in the current economic climate?
Thanks!
Peter
Read Answer Asked by Peter on December 09, 2021
Q: Hi 5i, I started my stock market investing in March 2020 in order to get 'skin in the game'. I am a daily learner whose investing personality is that of an 'individualist'. I have determined my investing goal to be for income (mostly through dividends) and growth (for capital appreciation). I have found lately that my risk tolerance feels lower due to increasing volatility, talk of market decline/crash, increasing inflation, shortages, rising rates etc. As a result I would like to cash in the individual stocks I own that have given me good capital appreciation and replace them with ETF's and/or Index Funds. Income and growth plus diversification to my portfolio is my objective here. Since I hold more than enough physical precious metals and an emergency stash in US dollars I feel I have enough insurance/hedge against a worst case scenario happening in the economy. Please comment on these following ETF's. I am also open to other suggestions you might have as well. Please note that my entire TFSA is in my brokerage account so taxes are not an issue for me. Thanks

ZCN BMO S&P/TSX Composite Index
CIC CI First Asset Canadian Bank Income Class
ZWB BMO Covered Call Canadian Banks
RIT CI First Asset Canadian Banks
ZDV BMO Canadian Dividend
CDZ iShares Canadian Aristorcrats
XRE iShares Capped REIT
XEC Emerging Markets ETF

P.S. I assign an equal dollar amount for each investment in my portfolio. The ETF part of my portfolio are for long term holds.
Read Answer Asked by Lucy on November 02, 2021
Q: Hi Team,
Could you suggest Canadian ETFs of the following sectors for Senior incomes :
1 /Reit 2/ Utility 3/Prefer 4/Bank/Financial 5/Energy.
Please deduct as many question credit as needed.
Thanks as always,
Tak
Read Answer Asked by Tak on October 12, 2021
Q: What are some of your top value stock and ETF picks to protect against inflation during the next 1-3 years. Thanks as always.
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on April 29, 2021
Q: What do you think of this twenty stock dividend portfolio for a taxable account? I am focusing on high quality and it yields about 3.8% . Any changes you would make?
Read Answer Asked by Stefan on April 29, 2021
Q: I currently own XAW and XTR in my RRSP and looking to add some more Canadian ETFs/stocks for diversification. Have about 20 year time frame. Can you please recommend some?
Read Answer Asked by Fiona on February 05, 2021
Q: Hi

I am retiring in the near future and am looking at increasing my income based positions. I am looking for a REIT or ETF. Can you suggest any? Currently I am not holding any.
Read Answer Asked by Stuart on September 21, 2020
Q: REITs are beaten down. For a long term investor who wants real estate exposure, is this a time to get in? Can you suggest (1) two or three REITs or other entities and (2) an ETF for this? Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Chris on September 08, 2020
Q: Hey 5i,

As a follow up. What are your top picks US/CDN REIT ETF's
You'd recommend for a longterm hold.

Thank you for all the great advice!
Read Answer Asked by Adam on June 04, 2020
Q: Morning 5i,

Looking to diversify our portfolios
Longterm hold.
Wanting to add a real estate position(s)
Obviously we could go up or down due to covid and a rougher than expected recovery.

Looking for advice on which to do first.
ETF, such as above OR pure play such as CAR.UN?
Which is a huge portion of XRE anyways.
*your top rec's in this sector would be greatly appreciated as well.

Understanding the risks and dynamics our thought was adding an attractive pure play at lower valuation and then the reit assuming it may be depressed for a longer time period.

Looking forward to your advice and thank you for the great stuff here! The info is tremendous.
Read Answer Asked by Adam on June 01, 2020
Q: My daughter is 27 years old and is looking to invest around $35,000 as her first investment. She is considering investing 40% in Canadian equities (ZLB, PDC, and XRE), 50% in US Equities (VUS and DXU), and 10% in International Equities (FCIQ and VEE).

As an initial investment, does this balance seem reasonable or would you have other recommendations? Is this sufficiently diversified or are there too many funds?

Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Geoff on April 23, 2020