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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: In order to avoid individual stock risk, my wife (retired) has asked my opinion on investing 30% of her total portfolio in 10% each of Canada, Europe, and the U.S. (The remaining 70% is composed of 5-year laddered GIC's) I have suggested the following... Canada would be broken down into ZWC and CDZ (on a 40/60 split), Europe would be broadly broken down into ZWE and XIN (40/60 split), and the U.S. would be broken down into ZWH and CUD (40/60 split). What do you think of this strategy? Would you recommend different ETF's to balance the covered calls for the three geographic areas? Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Paul W on June 02, 2017
Q: Can you provide some data points around dividend "growers" companies and if not available dividend companies in general. Current P/E forward looking vs. historic average and ranges. Just wanting to get an idea on how much higher than the average these stocks are currently compared to historic levels, how overvalued they "may" be to help assess downside risk. Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Husseinali on May 31, 2017
Q: Hallo I5, is there a tax advantage between dfn, df and zwu, would you please rate or rank them from safety point of view. Perhaps suggesting a couple better ones. I do not have any India holding. Would you consider either of the above safe with reasonable MER, perhaps a suggesting a couple better ones. Many thanks, J.A.P. Burlington
Read Answer Asked by Joseph on May 08, 2017
Q: My Father has finally caught on that paying the RBC +2% for their mutual funds is eroding his returns and asked for some help. He doesn't have the knowledge or temperament to jump into stocks so I am suggesting he move some investments to ETFs. He is 70, has a teachers pension and 250k of RSP "fun money" to play with. Since I view his pension as his fixed income portion of his portfolio I dont see any reason to get him into any fixed income ETFs or match your model ETF portfolio. I plan to suggest he move about 25k each into xwd, cdz and vgg for a start to get his feet wet. Then once he is comfortable move the rest into those same 3 funds ( assuming they are still on your suggested list at that time).

Any recommended adjustments to this approach in terms of ETFs or my equal weighting.
Read Answer Asked by Tom on March 15, 2017
Q: Hi 5i, I'm moving money from my broker (40+ stocks, 500K) to a few ETFs (Equal Weight) , I'm considering the following ETFs: XIC, IWO, CDZ, SPY, FDN, and FIE; would you please help me choose four or five ETFs from the list, I'm looking for moderate growth, and of course preservation if capital.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Fernando on March 15, 2017
Q: What etf (or more than one) do you like to cover the broad Canadian market? There are so many, and they are so overweight in financials and resources. I would be most interested in one that has a lot of holdings, but welcome your opinion/advice if you think a smaller holding is more appropriate. This is for a non-registered account, so tax-deductible investment ideas are welcome.
Read Answer Asked by Elizabeth on January 20, 2017
Q: I asked this question several hours ago but did not get a response.I don't know if you respond the same day...so I am asking again. I have a non-registered account and would like to buy an eTF that is Canadian in content, to reap possible tax benefits. Can you recommend one that holds many stocks. There are so many - it is really hard to pick the one that holds the most stocks representative of all sectors. Or do you feel an S&P/TSX EFT holding just 60 is the way to go? Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Elizabeth on January 20, 2017