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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: Making some adjustments based on portfolio analytics.
Whats your best growth suggestions for:
Health care (us/ international)
Industrial (us/ international)
Consumer defensive (us/ international)
Consumer cyclical (us/ international)
And what is your favorite way to add a fixed income component?
Take appropriate credits as nessacary.
Thx for the great service.
Read Answer Asked by Todd on October 15, 2021
Q: Two separate questions on the same theme I guess. First, Can you comment on CAE’s ability to deal with an inflationary environment, especially if interest rates were to rise? Thinking of their balance sheet, “pricing power” and so on, as well as their current P/E versus historic. Second, wondering how XHY might fare in the near term as well? Looking at the last number of years it has held up pretty well considering the yield, but it seems like a fair number of storm clouds gathering on the horizon that make me wonder about defaults etc.
Thank you,
Read Answer Asked by Stephen R. on October 14, 2021
Q: I have a non-registered account which is invested in roughly equal weights of 13 Canadian blue chip dividend payers (NTR, RY, BNS, TCL.A, T, BCE, SLF, QSR, ENB, FTS, LNF, BEPC, AQN) and CPD. I am in the process of re-organizing it a bit and have some additional cash to invest.

I have tinkered with SYZ, FSZ and LIF in this account and none of these quite fit the profile I'm going for (steady eddies thru next economic cycle, decent and reliable dividend).

Over the last year or so, I have been tweaking this account to get it to the point where it will be very low (or no) maintenance. Game plan is to drip for another few years, then start to take the dividend in cash to live off. Capital preservation and dividend reliability are obviously key.

Looking for some guidance on choosing 2 or 3 additional holdings from the following list:
EIF (nice div, needed industrial exposure)
AW.UN or ZRE (are these OK in an open account?)
CVD or XHY (some fixed income to smooth out any upcoming lumps) or other fixed income idea.

Do CPD, CVD, XHY make sense now with tapering about to begin in the US?
All comments about this strategy and my stock selections are most welcome.

Several questions here - please take several credits


Thanks in advance,

Jim



Read Answer Asked by Jim on September 15, 2021
Q: I own ZHY, XHY and ZEF bond ETFs. They do pay some income, but the capital is getting constantly depleted - I am 10% down on ZHY/XHY and 5% down on ZEF after holding them for many years. Is there a point of keeping these funds or should I get rid of them?
Read Answer Asked by Mirjana on August 26, 2021
Q: In a flat or a rising interest rate environment which ETF is preferable i.e XHY, PFIA, MFT, ZHY OR PYF?

Thanks for your service!
Read Answer Asked by Ozzie on July 12, 2021
Q: Hi I have this etf in my account . Should i sell some and buy stocks or add some i am looking for dividend income.

Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Francis on July 12, 2021
Q: Hello,
I am nearing retirement. I have CBO, CPD, VAB and XHY at 20% of my fixed income portfolio. All these ETF's exist in my unregistered account. I wanted to add XBB in my RRSP account. Any concerns about too much overlap by adding this position? This will add 7% to my fixed income position. Portfolio analytics recommends a 30% position.

Thanks for all your help.
Read Answer Asked by Mauro on June 02, 2021
Q: Good morning,

Two general questions:

1. I am fortunate in that I have now maxed out my TFSA contribution. Could you give me an idea of what sort of investments I should have in a TFSA vs. a cash account? 

2. According to portfolio analytics I am underweight in Fixed Equity. Underweight, in that I have none. Could you give some direction as to what to include for the fixed equity portion of a portfolio and provide some suggestions. 

Thank you for your help!
Read Answer Asked by Stefan on May 25, 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 had a portfolio review many years ago when you did them individually, personally by human! At the time your suggestions were right on and cleaned up my ETF's. Now I have over ten and according to your metrics it should not be so. Given those above, is there anything that is not required? I am up 25%- 150% on all of them. I am happy with all of them. I have a balanced portfolio in all 11 sectors with 44 stocks all doing quite nicely thank you. Following the income portfolio with some of my own additions from 15 years ago. I do not see any major conflicts.I am s a buy and hold dividend investor with some growth ( lightspeed, Leon's).
Thank you for your million dollar service!
Stanley
Read Answer Asked by STANLEY on April 26, 2021
Q: Hi!

I used to own these ETFs for my fixed income exposure. I went to 0% fixed income during the downturn last year, instead using the proceeds to buy stocks that were crushed. I'd like to slowly start to build a position again in my RRSP. Am I too early? It seems like rates have started to rise and where they go is anyone's guess, but if bonds have an inverse relationship to rising rates, aren't I setting myself up to lose money? Does a laddered approach negate that somewhat? Maybe its best to start with CBO since its Corporate credit and laddered? How would you rank these in general and in order of which I should accumulate first. I realize XHY is riskier than the others.

Thanks,
Jason
Read Answer Asked by Jason on March 19, 2021
Q: As a follow up to my earlier question, where in you mentioned "if the focus is on bonds....", last line. I am looking for opportunities in fixed income investments. So where should the focus be, other than fixed deposits . Thanks for the excellent advice you have consistently provided over the years.
Read Answer Asked by Vinod on March 10, 2021
Q: As a follow-up to my question last week on interest rates up/down, please also advise which funds/ETFs perform best when interest rates move in either direction.

Thanks again.
Read Answer Asked by Arthur on March 08, 2021
Q: I am not familiar with fixed income investments. I am looking at investing 30k in fixed income . Your portfolios show investments in CVD, CPB, and XHY. Looking for best optimization of rising rate environment and falling bond prices in the future. Just going through your question answer background material , I find VGRO, ICVT, and CSU.DB, very interesting. What would be the best combination in addition to any suggestions you may have. Thank you for your valuable guidance and a great job 5i is doing.
Read Answer Asked by Vinod on March 05, 2021
Q: I've been working with your Portfolio Tracking tool, which is absolutely great, and it's telling me I should hold more bonds. Okay, that's clear enough, but what I'm unclear about is the number of Bonds (ETFs) I should hold. I know it's not really your thing, but is there a recommended bond portfolio you would recommend (for someone about to retire)? Also how important is it to hold international bonds VS only Canadian ETFs? Any advice is truly appreciated. Thanks as always for all your great work!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on February 19, 2021
Q: I need some fixed income suggestions for my RRSP. Anything you particularly like at this time? I know its fixed income but I do have some risk tolerance and a 17 year investment horizon so open to something that pays more than .0000012% interest. Appreciate your thoughts :)

As always.. amazing job team!
Read Answer Asked by Don on February 10, 2021
Q: Could you suggest 3 ETFs for the fixed income component of a portfolio of recently retired individual.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Francisco on January 26, 2021
Q: For the fixed income portion of the portfolio, do you have any recommendations / suggestions (ETF, private fund, mutual fund, specific bonds). Realistically, hoping for a return between 3 and 6%. I am ok to take some risk. Looking for a decent risk/reward investment. Long term hold.
Read Answer Asked by Pierre on January 18, 2021