Investment Q&A

Q: I just signed up for Money Saver then noticed the Mutual Fund/ETF offer. I had assumed that Money Saver would provide the mutual fund and etf information I was looking for including 'best of' tables. Can you explain the difference please.
Thanks Peter.

Q: In relation to an earlier question regarding bonds you said,
TLT, for example, has returned close to 4% in the past month alone.
Sorry for the return question but I don't have any idea what TLT is?
thanks

Q:
good Morning 5i,
Jack Bogel has recently noted the troubles in France regarding "taxing the rich" , the Brexit confusion, and an unstable US government as reasons to go more towards bonds in the immediate future. He has always suggested a high level of bond ownership. And he is getting older and possibly more conservative. Was wondering about your take on that pronouncement and possible US bond etf suggestions. I have done fairly well with FLOT over the past while. But, you seem to think that the situation is changing and it may be time to move into somethng else.

Q: I am retired and have these preferred etfs making up about 7% of the income part of the portfolio. There is obvious overlap. Vrp has out performed the others and has a better yield. It is held in a rrif so the US dividend is intact. I am assuming that the downturn in preferreds will level out, as this is a long term income hold. Should I eliminate hpr as it is 50% US and just stay with the other two with the currency diversity? Also what portion of fixed income do you feel preferred should make up? Have a great holiday.

Q: Interesting article by Moez Mahrez; re Future Proofing your Portfolio from the special edition of the Money Saver. Wondering if there are any comparable ETF's in Canada, which one has the most upside potential, and why Mr. Mahrez would not have included one or more of these in the new growth ETF model Portfolio written in the most recent ETF update newsletter?
Thanks
Jeff

Q: Being retired I have been slowly moving away from equities to more fixed income. I still am 80/20 equities to fixed. My strategy has been to ladder 5 Year GICs. I don't have much in the way of bonds other then some CBO, XHY, and ZEF. All 3 bond ETFs have gone down which kind of confuses me as I thought that Bonds were to preserve capital and pay interest. Maybe you could explain this to me? I just bought a 5 yr GIC that pays 3.47% compounded annually. Seems to me that laddering GICs returns more than a Bond ETF AND has NO RISK. Am I missing something?
Thanks for the help with this.

Q: Hi - I have no REIT exposure and am considering adding either VRE or XRE. They are both promoted as tracking the TSX/S&P capped REIT index. When I overlay a graph of their 2 year price performance sure enough they are virtually identical. At first glance it would seem a no brainer to go with VRE since the MER is 1/2 that of XRE (.35% vs. 61%). However, it also appears XRE pays a substantially higher dividend ( ~ 4.7% vs. ~ 3% depending on the source I check). Can you shed any light on why the difference in the dividend when they are both tracking the same index? Do you have a preference for one over the other? Thank You

Q: Can you please coment on the proposed tax efficientiancy promoted by horizon.ie total return distribution yearly if any.does it mean you only have capital gains to be reported? Great service and tks

Q: On my US portfolio I have: VGG @ 33%, HXQ @ 25%, HXS @ 25% and a combination of IWO,XSU, XMH @ 17%. I am trying to minimize taxes (dividends & form 1135) while maintaining US exposure/growth. Would you comment on this set up? Thank you for your service.

Q: Hi,
I wish to help fight climate change via investing in low-carbon companies - (renewable energy sources, EVs, batteries, materials from recycled sources, straw bale construction, vegan foods, etc) and also stop investing in fossil fuels, animal agriculture, etc as much as possible. Could you easily adjust your portfolios to make this possible? Are there ETFs that I could invest in as an alternative? I currently use both your income and balanced portfolios.
Thanks,
Helen

Q: Total Return ETFs... Do you have an opinion on this type of vehicle? I am setting aside monies for a niece with special needs> I do not expect to use the funds for many years - it is for her years as an adult. I do not want dividend income.

Q: Why have bank rate-reset preferred come off so much in the past two months after holding up well with rising rates prior to October? I hold HPR which is off about 15% since the beginning of October and holds mostly bank rate-reset preferred which I would have thought would hold up much better in the current environment.

Q: I AM FED UP WITH BONDS. DURING THE LAST 5 YEARS I HAVE LOST IN ALL OF THEM .I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY ALL ADVISER SUGGEST BOND FUNDS AS A PART OF INVESTMENT. ONE HAS BEEN LOOSING MONEY .I APPRECIATE YOUR COMMENT AND ADVISE RE ABOVE STOCKS.EBRAHIM

Q: Thanks so much for your reply to my earlier question. You suggested the following ETFs and I was wondering what a good portfolio allocation would be for each (I was thinking 50% allocated toward your BE portfolio however if a lesser/more percentage makes sense then please advise):

XWD (global expoure), VFV (S&P 500), VGG (US dividend growth), HXQ (US technology), XSU (US small-cap)

Thanks!

Q: Could you tell me why HBB & HTB are trading close to their 52 week highs, whereas similar eft's are closer to their 52 week lows?
Thanks for your service

Q: Hi,

Do you have a preferred ETF and/or mutual fund for gaining exposure to European Equities?

Thanks

Q: These ETFs are described on their websites as active floating rates bonds with very similar timeframes. HFR has more US focus thought. However, their yields are drastically different; FLOT~5% and HFR~2.3%. Can you explain why the big difference. Which would you recommend?

Q: In the past I have had very good results from investing in Mawer Equity Funds. In world markets, I have found that they typically outperform the comparative benchmark. I have virtually no exposure to emerging markets so thought that I would invest a small percentage of my assets in the Mawer Emerging Markets Equity Fund. Currently, because it is a small fund, the MER, all in, is in excess of 1.9% and at mid year they were underperforming the emerging markets index; however, I believe they have outperformed since that time. I understand it can be a very volatile area of the world to invest in but thought I should be there so hopefully have picked the fund that will perform best over a 10 year or so period of time. I recognise that this fund has a much higher MER than an ETF but thought that this may have value in this area of investment. I appreciate very much your comments. Thank you.

Q: I've been comparing these two funds and while they appear to be essentially taking the same approach. HFR has Canadian & US holdings and FLOT has exclusively US holdings. Yet their is a substantial difference in their yields. But FLOT yield is 4.3% and HFR 2.3%. I don't get it.
Yield is nice to have but I'm more concerned with capital preservation through the end of this business cycle. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Q: Hi there, going into 2019 I'd like to re-balance my portfolio to start the new year. I'd like to use your BE Portfolio as the Canadian exposure of my portfolio and add ETFs to add diversity. I'm in my mid 30's and have a 15/20 year outlook with a private DB plan at work. In terms of risk and volatility tolerance, I am okay with the profile growthier names in the BE Port (ie: SIS, KXS, TOY, CSU, PBH etc) but usually stay away from the Growth Portfolio names, as the volatility is usually too much for me. At first glance I was thinking of the following but am not very experienced and am completely open to your advice and expertise:

50% BE Portfolio
40% HXS/VFV
10% HXQ

Could you suggest a 1) TSX ETF only listed portfolio make up and 2) TSX and/or US listed ETF make up? Please remove as many question credits as required.

Thanks for your advice and guidance!