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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 asked about these 3 ETF's in May of 2025. As I noted, I purchased these with a view to moving away from equities. I am retired and interested in dividend income. Has much changed since your answer in May 25 ? Would you continue to hold through 2026 and just take the healthy dividends ? Or is more capital depreciation likely in 2026? If you could only keep 2, which would they be?
Read Answer Asked by Randy on February 02, 2026
Q: Are target maturity bond funds a good investment for the fixed income portion of a portfolio if held to maturity? How is the yield and return impacted as the fund continues to purchase bonds for new investors in the future? Is there a cutoff date when the fund will no longer issue new shares? Can you list the advantages and disadvantages of this fund as compared to purchasing an individual bond and hold to maturity. Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Brad on February 02, 2026
Q: I understand the debt to equity is 55%. Being around 20 years, what was there worst year??
Regards
Capital direct income fund
Read Answer Asked by Bill on January 29, 2026
Q: My daughter's mortgage is up for renewal and she is getting calls from the bank with early renewal options?

What are your thoughts on the direction of mortgage rates? I am reading, from here, they might go down another 0.25% once or twice during 2026.....or not, depending on future inflation data. So no more big rate moves.

Which would you prefer....fixed or variable rate mortgage?

How long a term would you sign up for?

Thanks for your help....Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on January 26, 2026
Q: Last week I sent you a question about etfs and my portfolio. You answered my question and suggested I put some money in fixed income because I am 60 and retired. GICs currently appear to yield about 2.5%. Bonds seem to vary greatly. Can you suggest a fund where I would get a steady return.
Thanks Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on January 22, 2026
Q: I am looking to establish a 10-year bond ladder within my RRSP as part of a broader effort to balance my portfolio. At present, I’m finding that my brokerage platform (BMO InvestorLine) does not consistently provide all of the details I need to make well-informed bond purchase decisions.

Question 1:
Can you recommend reliable sources or tools that provide key bond information such as credit rating, yield to maturity, seniority, and call features for Canadian bonds?

Question 2:
Is there a bond ETF you would recommend that closely replicates the structure and cash-flow characteristics of a bond ladder, as a DIY alternative to purchasing individual bonds?

Thank you for your guidance.
Read Answer Asked by Ronnie on January 22, 2026
Q: Hi 5i team,

I hold this US $ mmf for my US cash and now I am told I cannot buy more at TD DI because it has trailing commisions. What is a good alternative to hold us cash for a few years, safe and good return. Thanks, George
Read Answer Asked by George on January 21, 2026
Q: Could you help me to understand ZCS.L - accumulating units - ie. the nature and merits of " accumulating units ".
From the BMO web-site , this ETF appears to be identical to ZCS -their S/T Corporate Bond ETF except that distributions are made only annually .
Is this correct ?
Is this the only difference ?
For someone who does not need / want the income from ZCS's monthly distribution but just some FI allocation , is this a better option ?
Chart suggests so .
And would it also be a better option in this respect than HBB which makes no distributions but has a much longer ( undesired ) duration ?
Thank-you for the clarifications
Read Answer Asked by William on January 14, 2026
Q: Hello 5i Guys

I have GIC maturing soon and looking for substitute as rates are too low.

I've looked at ZCS and ZLC as replacement.

I understand Bond funds are not without risk compared to GCI

But do these 2 Bonds funds look like suitable (Low Risk) investments rather than a low rate GIC?

Thanks as ever
Ken
Read Answer Asked by Kenneth on January 13, 2026
Q: Hello 5i. I'm below on my fixed income. ZAG is almost 7% of my total portfolio but I am looking to increase this to almost 10%. Is this too high for a single ETF, and/or are you still happy with ZAG, or would you suggest an alternative. I'm looking for something fairly safe with a reasonable yield. Thanks again for your excellent service. John.
Read Answer Asked by John on January 13, 2026
Q: XLB and ZLC are my primary bond holdings. With the rather abrupt steepening of the yield curve, would you recommend selling both of these and replacing them with shorter term funds ? If so, which funds would you recommend ?

Thanks,
Mark
Read Answer Asked by Mark on January 06, 2026
Q: Hi, just starting to look at the bond market, do not want anything to do with U.S. tax filings. Would like like your three recommendations for Canadian bonds. Do you have a Canadian equivalent for BND? (Low mer and nice yield) also corporate bonds eg.XCB could you touch on risk compared to your three recommendations.
Thanks, happy, healthy New Year
Read Answer Asked by Brad on January 05, 2026
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