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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: who are the 70 canadian companies that pay their dividends in u.s. dollars?
Read Answer Asked by don on November 22, 2019
Q: I am thinking about adding IHI to my RRSP but understand that there may be a withholding tax given that it is a US based fund. What is a withholding tax, how much is it, and what are the implications when I go to file my canadian income tax? (I am relatively new to the investment world and don’t want things to get too complicated when having to report losses/ gains)
Thank you for your guidance.
Read Answer Asked by Heather on November 22, 2019
Q: More and more analyst seems to believe we’ll have a not so bad start of 2020 finally. Industrial signals have been weak, but it appears to have a good chance for a come back. What do you think of a 5% position in vaw, because material (chemicals among others) have been underperforming as a way to play a recovery of the general industrial sector. Rest of the portfolio is well balanced.
Read Answer Asked by Olivier on November 22, 2019
Q: Why would you advise holding these five ETF's in a TFSA, given that the foreign withholding tax is unrecoverable?
Read Answer Asked by Terry on November 21, 2019
Q: Greetings 5i,

I will be adding the following ETFs / Mutual Funds to my portfolio over time in order to round out my sector and geographic imbalances. Could you please suggest the prefered account to hold each of these in. RRSP, TFSA, or Regular Trading Account.

VXC, MAW108, ZWU, QQQ, VEE, ZCH, EWL, REET, ZDI, ZWE

Cheers!
Read Answer Asked by Duane on November 20, 2019
Q: Hello 5i,
To clarify my previous question: I hold bonds at 40% for my fixed portion of my value blue chip dividend retirement portfolio.These include CBO $30,000 2.31%, XHY $25,000 1.86% and XLB 87.000 6.76%. I also hold a $60,000 5 year GIC ladder. I would like to change the CBO for VCB for more income and stability instead of watching CBO's constant descent into the nether regions of the market.
Is this consideration appropriate, should I just leave things alone or can you suggest a better alternative given what I already have?
Thank you
Stanley
Read Answer Asked by STANLEY on November 20, 2019
Q: Hello, I have about 10,000 in physical gold and silver (in safety deposit box) that I’am thinking of cashing in. Would probably buy one or two material or gold stock to collect small to medium dividend .
Question is would you just keep as is or switch to stocks ? And could you suggest two or three quality stock with good management, lower debt etc. ( maybe ETF?)
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Brad on November 19, 2019
Q: Hello 5i,
I am currently holding CBO at 2.3% portfolio weight. I would like to exchange it for XCB with higher yield and apparently not dropping like a rock as CBO has done. Would this be w worthwhile exercise, can you suggest a better alternative, or should I just leave things alone. I would be taking a $1,500 loss on $30,000 a holding.
Thank you for the great service
Stanley
Read Answer Asked by STANLEY on November 19, 2019
Q: Two questions: One, would you consider ZMI as "fixed income" for that part of my portfolio? Or is there too much of an equity component? Second, so many ETFs have a return of capital; when the fund reports a yield, does this include the roc? If so, isn't that reported yield misleading? Is there a way to learn what the actual yield ( ie without my own capital) being included? Thanks for your excellent service.
Read Answer Asked by Leonard on November 19, 2019
Q: There has been a lot of discussion in the financial press, including articles you quoted, on how value will overtake momentum strategies. However, when I check the holdings of US momentum ETFs, such as IVE, most of these holdings are juggernauts, some of whom have done very well. What am I missing in this interpretation of value stocks?
APPLE INC 9.24%
JPMORGAN CHASE & CO 3.38%
AT&T INC 2.35%
BANK OF AMERICA CORP 2.26%
UNITEDHEALTH GROUP INC 1.98%
CHEVRON CORP 1.91%
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC CLASS B 1.84%
WELLS FARGO 1.76%
WALMART INC 1.41%
CITIGROUP INC 1.37%
Read Answer Asked by Walter on November 19, 2019
Q: Dear 5i,

XUU has a reported MER of 0.07% and consists of 4 underlying US ETF holdings.
Is an investor paying two layers of MER's when owning XUU?
Vanguard has a competitive ETF called VUN which has a surprising higher MER
of 0.16%. Which ETF would you recommend and why?

thanks
Read Answer Asked by Ian on November 19, 2019