Q: Hello,
I have Mawer Balanced Fund fund and Mawer Global Small Cap funds in my RRIF and RLIF to provide some diversification to the individual stocks that I also have. I am happy enough with these 2 funds, and woud like to add Mower Global Balanced Fund, to provide some further foreign diversification , but I do not wish to sell any thing right now to free up the cash, so I am considering
replacing the Balanced fund with the Global Balanced Fund. This might help my foreign diversification problem, but I am wondering if there is a disadvantage to making this swap that I cannot see. the resrt of my portolio is canadian and us stock and fixed income. Please let me know if you think that this is worth doing at this time.
Thank you

Q: Good morning,
I own a small house in Ottawa that is free and clear with a current market value of approximately $350,000.
A recent discussion with my trusted mortgage broker confirmed that a 5 year term (Closed & Fixed) term mortgage can be obtained at a rate of 2.29%. This mortgage is said to be:
a. insured through CMHC,
b. portable, and
c. transferable.
At that rate of 2.29% and given that the interest paid would be tax deductible if I use the funds for investment purposes, I'm seriously considering borrowing around $200,000 and investing this amount for an initial 5 year period with an expected net rate of return on investment of 4.5% .
Q1. With $200,000, what are your thoughts of splitting this amount in 5 different chunks of $40K in the following instruments:
a. Mawer Tax Effective Balanced Fund,
b. Mawer Global Balanced ETF Fund,
c. Vanguard Balanced ETF Portfolio,
d. IShares Core Balanced ETF Portfolio, and
e. BMO Balanced ETF

Q2. As an alternative to the above and given the 5 year time frame, would your preference be to invest the $200,000 in a selection of best in class individual stocks split between different sectors and if so, would you be so kind as to provide me with ya listing of your best ideas at this time.

I thank you and look forward to hearing your thoughts on both of these investment strategies.
Francesco

Q: Mawer is the only fund company I have used for quite some time. I use it in accounts where there is no tolerance for mistakes, e.g. RESP, spousal RRSP, spouse's TFSA.
More recently I've started using MAW105, and MAW150 as well.
Before Mawer I was fond of Saxon funds.
Are you able to name one or two other fund companies that have a similar philosophy with low fees?