Investment Q&A

Q: From a tax perspective, which of the above ETFs are best suited for:

1. TFSA
2. RRSP

Q: Hello Peter,
I tried to balance growth and income as well as dividends (no with holding tax in RRSP for US stocks but there is in TFSA), and hence, can you let me know if these make sense for a mid 20s person starting off to have a more growth in TFSA and more income in RRSP.
TFSA: veqt, vgg, and xfn and maybe xic ( veqt has cdn exposure so thought i would exclude xic )
RRSP: vbal, zuq, xic, and xuu all of these trade on tsx. Much appreciated.

Q: Hi- I’m looking for a long term, somewhat diversified CG hold for my TFSA. What do you think of FEQT. Do you have others you prefer?
Thanks,
Guy

Q: Hi,
I believe VEQT pays an annual dividend at the end of December. What would be the pros and cons of borrowing some money, depositing it in an RRSP, buying VEQT and repaying the loan when the tax refund from this and other RRSP deposits earlier in the year comes in April 2025? I realize the loan interest will have to be paid as a cost, and the higher dividend amount on the added funds would be the benefit. Thank you. Michael

Q: What are some ETFs that I can use to diversify my portfolio and have as a buy and hold strategy. 20+ year hold in TFSA. I want a portion of my portfolio that I don't have to look at at all. I currently have VFV and VEQT.

Q: Hello Peter,
For a 30 year old that wants to invest for the long term and not have to worry about following the markets constantly, what is your opinion on investing on the 5 ETFs: 40 % to VBAL ( as it contains bond portfolio) and 60 percent to the rest of the 4 ETFS. I know there is some duplication but wanted your opinion.. thanks for the service.

Q: These are on my watchlist. Do you see any problems with these?

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: Apologies if this has been answered previously. This is a follow up to Ross’ question about these one stop shop ETFs. You mention, in this particular answer, that you consider them to be ‘more than acceptable’.

Assuming one doesn’t mind complicating their lives a little, what would be your optimal all-equity ETF portfolio for an aggressive investor ?

Thank you

Q: I am looking for a US ETF that has a similar distribution weight has VEQT, I looked at VEQTF which is the US counterpart but it trades on the Grey exchange. Thanks, Jean

Q: I am looking for a US fund like VEQT , I tried VEQTF and it is listed on the grey market, what would be good in a balanced fund with majority US, Then smaller CDN and International stocks?

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?

Q: Hi, l have some cash to deploy in my cash account. I have a full position in ZCN. Thinking of buying full position in BRK and also VEQT full position.
My question is for a conservative investor 65%safer, 35% conservative growth.Would this be too much overlap of similar positions and sectors? Do you have an alternative? Thanks

Q: I would appreciate your general comments regarding these two ETFs, in particular with regard to these as a long term hold for my nephew at age 30. That person also intends to have other funds invested in more speculative, higher risk equities (play money!)
1) Are these a safe hold that should increase in value with general market appreciation over the years?
2) Would you believe the current dividend is sustainable?
3) Are there other options in the ETF world that you might recommend for a long term hold?
4) Again for a long term hold would you prefer something along the lines of buying equities directly, with something like holding one of your portfolios, knowing that he will not be paying much attention to these investments.
Thanks! Paul

Q: Further to my prior question, in looking at ETFs, I often thought why not just buy their top holdings, and that is quite often what I do. However, in trying to find out that info for these two I noticed something I thought was unusual.

For example, the XEQT ETF lists holdings as follows ...
iShares Core S&P Total US Stock Market ... 44.8%
iShares Core MSCI EAFE IMI ETF ... 24.96%
iShares Core S&P/TSX Capped Compost ETF ... 24.86%
iShares Core MSCI Emer Mkts IMI ETF ... 4.97%

This seems to be the total of their holdings (99.59%). I assume these also generate management fees, which seems like an approach to increase fees paid by "layering" their offerings!
Would a person not be generally better off just buying the 4 separately in the percentages to match the XEQT ETF?
... or possibly digging deepr in the layer and finding out what equities they really are holding?
Thanks! Paul

Q: XEQT. Can you give me comparable ETF’s that are as good,or better that charge a lower expense ratio
Thank you

Q: Good morning,

In one response to a question on the choice of a International exposure ETF, the 5i preference was VEQT, XEQT and XWD in that order.

Q1. Has you opinion of the order of these Global ETFs changed in any way and given XWD's 5 and 10 year performance?

Q2. Would you kindly explain your rational for ranking XWD ahead of VEQT and XEQT and even HEQT.

Thank you in advance and I look forward to hearing your response.

Q: What do you think about this ETF?

Q: Hi there,

Can I please get your opinion on HEQT. The asset allocation looks to be different from VEQT and XEQT with its NASDAQ exposure. Do you suspect that over a long period (ie: multiple decades), this will help this etf outperform? How would you rate it relative to VEQT and XEQT?

Thanks!

Q: RESP allocation for 10 & 12 year old kids is currently 100% in VEQT. If it were your account, at what ages would you consider transitioning to VGRO and then VBAL if money was required in 6-8 years. I realize there isn’t a right answer and purely subjective.
Thanks