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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: I am looking for an ETF to replace my maturing corporate bonds as part of my fixed income portfolio. I am thinking of buying HAB. I also currently own HFR which I bought last year. Any thoughts on HAB or do you you suggest something else to provide reasonably stable returns.
Read Answer Asked by David on May 11, 2017
Q: Many comments are made about diversifying outside Canada; Europe is thought to have good potential. I would like to take a look at it and thought to go with an ETF. But I am very uneasy about "Brexit" and every fund I look at has a 20 % or more weighting in Britain. Can you suggest an ETF or other suitable product that has no British exposure? Thanks for your help. BTW, first time question for me...I quite enjoy your work. Leonard
Read Answer Asked by Leonard on May 10, 2017
Q: I think it's time that I put some money back into emerging markets. Currently my only holdings (other than ADR's held on International stocks thru New York) is my investment in ZDI. All in, these current investments represent less than 3.5% of my equity portfolio. So my two part question is as follows: 1) what rough percentage would you recommend for international holdings in total (tough question I know), and 2) please give me your opinion on the relative merits/demerits of VEE vs ZEM (on a line chart they track almost identically in terms of performance, so I'm wondering if there's something "under the hood" in either of them that might be important for my decision)? Many thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on May 08, 2017
Q: Hello 5i,

I am a 20 year old university student. Through my CO-OP position I have built up just over 2000 dollars in savings that I am able to invest right now with an additional 500$ a month until September. Due to the fact that it is such a low amount of money I have been strongly considering putting all of it into one or two ETFs in order to avoid hefty fees. I am looking to grow my money as much as possible over a 3 – 5 year time period. I am new at this and therefore was wondering if you guys had any recommendation as to what I should do and which type of ETF I should put my money into.

Thank you so much for your help and have a great day.
Read Answer Asked by Patrick on May 08, 2017
Q: Hello 5i

My wife and I will retire in 6 years. We plan to take 15/yr out of our RRSP's at full retirement.

After pulling most of our investments from mutual funds we have the following:
- 250k RRSP to invest into non-CDN (most likely ZWE, VUN, EXC, and a few stocks or XAW)
- 100k RRSP Mutual funds in bonds (transfer to ETF's or stocks over time to reduce fees)
- 100k RRSP for CDN investment (VCN or portfolio stocks?)
- 25k for TFSA now + 20k/yr to add to TFSA

We are not sure if purchasing 100k of VCN is the right choice.
Would you recommend 100k into the balanced and/or income portfolio instead, or a combination of VCN and balanced portfolio?

If RRSP funds are allocated to portfolios, which stocks are best suited for an RRSP? We can purchase the remaining stocks through our TFSA (higher growth stocks).

Please take the appropriate number of credits for the question.

Thank you for your great service.

Jerry & Debbie

Read Answer Asked by Jerry on May 08, 2017
Q: Dear 5i
My current financial adviser has me in a large position of a global bond etf. I can`t continue with this etf when i switch toQuestrade as it is not tradeable there .
The question is should i continue to remain in global bonds and if so what would you suggest in terms of an etf or should i just stick with North American bond etf`s?
Thanks
Bill C.
Read Answer Asked by Bill on May 08, 2017
Q: Hallo I5, is there a tax advantage between dfn, df and zwu, would you please rate or rank them from safety point of view. Perhaps suggesting a couple better ones. I do not have any India holding. Would you consider either of the above safe with reasonable MER, perhaps a suggesting a couple better ones. Many thanks, J.A.P. Burlington
Read Answer Asked by Joseph on May 08, 2017
Q: I would like to move to a portfolio with at least 30% exposure to the US. I already own VFV and VUN which comprise 10% of my portfolio. Rather than attempt to buy individual US stocks, it makes sense to me to continue to buy these very low cost ETFs, both of which provide significant diversification into the US. With VFV there is the added diversification bonus that almost 50% of the companies listed have business outside the US. I would appreciate your opinion of this strategy.
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on May 08, 2017
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