Investment Q&A

Q: Hi there! Long time subscriber here, and love your platform!

I'm currently developing a plan to align with my goal of purchasing my first home in about eight years, alongside a long-term investment strategy. I’m seeking your insight on how a person in this situation could responsibly proceed (I understand that nothing here is considered actionable financial advice).

I'm currently contributing $400 biweekly to my FHSA, aiming to reach the $16,000 contribution limit this year. I also have approximately $5,000 in my TFSA, with all funds currently held in cash in both accounts.

For the FHSA, I’m considering investing in a high-growth American ETF, such as VFV, IUSG, or IWO, to balance growth and risk over the eight-year horizon. However, I would only like to invest in CAD (I'm not sure which ones only allow USD). Could you provide guidance on which ETF might be the most suitable for this approach, and why? If you have other recommendations, I would appreciate your insights.

For my TFSA, I'm interested in an aggressive investment strategy, potentially utilizing one of your growth or balanced portfolios. Given my exposure to cryptocurrency, I aim to diversify into equities for greater stability while still pursuing substantial growth over the next 45 years. I'm comfortable with higher volatility during this period. With $5,000 currently in my TFSA, would you recommend specific securities or a strategy that balances high growth with diversification?

While I’d prefer to follow your portfolio exactly, my current funds are only 5% of the $100,000 needed to follow it exactly. As an alternative, I'm considering selecting stocks from your portfolio and eventually investing evenly across the entire growth portfolio when my TFSA grows to an appropriate amount. Given my current $5,000 and my $100 bi-weekly contributions, which companies would you recommend selecting from within those two portfolios? Should I allocate $1,000 each to five different stocks or focus on three stocks with an initial $1,600 investment in each (the more I diversify on such a small number the less the potential return)? Your advice on which equities to select for both approaches and your opinion on the most responsible approach would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance! :)

Q: Hi Everyone at 5i!
I have a 27 year old nephew who would like to open a TFSA. He is putting $5000 in to start which he will gradually add to. He is looking for a growth ETF concentrated on the US market. Would VFV suit his needs, or should he consider something else??

Cheers,

Tamara

Q: What are the pros and cons for a Canadian to put money in Vanguard S&P 500 ETF Portfolio (VFV.TO) vs. a Vanguard S&P 500 ETF Portfolio (VOO)?

Q: Hello Team,

I am setting up a TFSA account for my son, he would be saving this money for a house down the road (at least 5-7 years away).

I was thinking maybe purchasing 3-4 stocks and 1 ETF for him to hold, can you let me know what you would recommend. We are going to deposit the max he can deposit which is 19.5K.

Looking to maximize growth.

Thanks.

Q: For ETF’s there are a number of variations of a given index such as market capitalization weighting vs equal weight capitalization vs capped weighting and for Canadian versions of US ETF’s hedged vs unhedged. I’m sure I’m probably missing other differentiating options. For someone who wants to invest in Canadian (rather US) dollars, and given all these different options, I’m wondering what your preferred funds would be for S&P500, NASDAQ100, and an international ex-US ETF and a brief comment for each as to the rationale why? For coverage of the TSX do you prefer a fund that tracks the TSX60 or the entire index and which one would that be? Would these suggestions differ depending upon whether the funds are held in a non-registered account vs an RRSP vs other registered accounts (TFSA, FHSA and RESP)? Thanks.

Q: My daughter is investing about $1500/month into an FHSA until the yearly $8000 max contribution is reached and will repeat this process for the next four years until the plan max of $40,000 is reached. What suggestions would you have in order maximize growth of the contributions given the relatively small $40k amount and short timeline (15 years from plan opening but only 10 years after the full $40k has been contributed) involved? Many thanks.

Q: I look after a RESP for my grandchildren and I have IWO, VFV, VGG, at equal weight. XIC, XQQ at a lower weight and only 2 stocks BN and LMN. Is there any more ETF that you would recommend to go with the ones I currently own? What 2 stocks would you recommend as well? The funds are not needed for 10 years,

Thanks

Q: Question about discrepancy in price action between these two SP500 index ETFs.

As of 10:50 AM, SPY is up 1.45% while VFV is up 1.23%, lagging SPY by 22 basis points.

What explains the discrepancy in price action between these two very liquid funds? For index funds such as these, is there a mechanism that exists to correct and adjust these funds to the actual price movement of their indexes? Especially when it comes to VFV.

Thank you for your excellent service.

Q: H i5i,

I have a question about opening $10,000 RESP for our granddaughter who is 11 yrs old. An extra $2,500 will be added each year to qualify for the $500 from the gov't.

We are newbies to RESP's so pardon our ignorance for our lack of knowledge. Our current service is through a CDN bank so each transaction costs $. That is ok for us as a buy and hold strategy. For an RESP, is it best to open an account with Wealth Simple to avoid fees? We would like a DRIP stock(ETF) and then a suggestion how to manage the additional funds that are added each year. Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you for your service. Without question, 5i is the best value that I have ever found. It is our go to reference and we let everyone know if they pay for one service, 5i is the best choice.

D&J

Q: Writing in again because I keep hesitating about how to start a high growth all equity portfolio..

For context, I am 39 years of age, with a comfortable income, and planning on working about 25 years. This would be for retirement money.

You previously answered you would be comfortable with an SP500 index fund as VFV of SPY as opposed to an all in one equity fund such as VEQT or XEQT, from what I understood.

Can you please suggest a porfolio of 5 to 7 all equity ETFs that you believe to be superior to the all in one variety. I don’t necessarily care about the truisms about absolutely needing to be geographically diverse. And I certainly prefer to avoid Canadian home bias.

Thank you.

Q: Hi 5i Team,

In a recent question by Kyle (July 15), you recommended ZSP. Any reason for choosing ZSP over the usual VFV? MER a drop higher for ZSP although liquidity looks better.

Q: HI Everyone,

My portfolios (Non-Registered, RRIF, TFSA) consist of only 100% Canadian equities and Cash. I am retired and would finally like to add some excitement and diversity to my holdings. Can you please suggest some Global/International or US ETF's and/or other funds that I could consider.

In my current mish-mash of holdings; I presently own: BCE, T, ENB, AP.un,H&R-un,BN, CSU, TOI, LMN, EDV, K, VET, WSP, LSPD, Anergia, Copperleaf, Softchoice, ATD, and WSP, etc.

Thanks very much,

Dean

Q: Hi Your opinion please : US fonds TDB 410.

Fonds Fidelity Situations spéciales Série F
Categorie Fidelity Innovations mondiales Serie F
thanks
Jean Guy

Q: Hi,

I've gone through the questions/answers but I don't see this precise question before.

What would you recommend holding between VFV and VUN?

Thanks,
Robert

Q: I will be providing some funds for my grandson to invest in the market. My grandson is 15 years old and is interested in investing some funds for his retirement years (40+ year time frame). He has indicated that he has a moderate to aggressive investment risk level. Please provide your top 5 large cap ETFs and top 5 small cap ETFs with a comment on each ETF. Please provide your top 5 large cap companies and top 5 small cap companies with a comment on each company. Please include general comments on the anticipated returns for the ETFs and companies. Thank you. We

Q: Hi 5i,

I have a question about currency as it relates to investments made to the TSX or US stock exchanges.

I am embarrassed to ask given this was likely a rookie move; posting publicly in case it helps others.

I have made investments via my TFSA, LIRA, RRSP and self directed investment account in some US equities (above).

What I perceive now to be a "problem" is that all purchases of US stocks (including those with dividends) were made out of my CA account of said RRSP, TFSA, LIRA etc. given I did not hold any USD$ in my investment accounts.

Yesterday there were a few questions around Norbert’s Gambit approach (which I am not familiar with) and I have since realized the error of my ways. Here are my questions - knowing you cannot personalize responses - but if it were YOU :

- 1) As a Canadian, should the purchase of any US equity always be purchased using US funds in said investment account? OR when available - should you purchase on the CA stock exchange?

- 2) What is the best way to transfer CAD from said investment account into the US corresponding account if one wants to be mindful of fees, exchange rates etc. (is that Norbert's approach?)

-3) What would you suggest I do for the US equities I currently own in CA accounts? Is there anything to do?

Please use any credits you see fit.
Thanks a Million.

Q: My daughter has 50 thousand in her TFSA in cash, what would you suggest for a mix of stocks or should I just go to ETF's ?

Q: My son has held VFV and XIC in his RRSP account for a few years now. That was based on your recommendation around starting an ETF portfolio for him at that time.
He will have extra cash to contribute this year, and I'm wondering if he should maybe add some other ETF's at this point, or just continue to stick with these 2.
If he should add, what other ETF's would you recommend?
Also, for the 2 he already has, do you still think VFV and XIC are the best choices, or are there other ETF's you like better right now?
Thank you!

Q: Hi 5i!
Piggy backing off one of my last questions on building a solid portfolio from scratch through diversification et al(THANK YOU!). Knowing you can’t get personal; looking for some mid to long term hold recommendations (either US or CA) in the following sectors with growth upside in mind as I have significant cash (250K+) sitting in my RRSP doing nothing. I am currently quite top heavy in Tech – and own the above in registered and non-registered accounts.

If you have several recos for a sector, can you please rank in order of preference. Additionally, if there is a sector that can be put to the side with the idea of prioritizing others, I would be keen to know. Also open to add ETF's to represent a sector. As always, thanks a million. I love your service.

• Consumer Staples
• Healthcare
• Industrials
• Communications
• Energy
• Real Estate
• Utilities
• Materials

Q: For the average person with a long time horizon and want to invest in stocks in the form of ETFs, what do you think is the optimal distribution of US, Canada Europe China etc? S&P 500 seem to have done better historically than other markets. But does that mean I should only invest in vfv?
And what do you think of the weighting of VEQT?