Investment Q&A

Q: Hi - I'm trying to beef up the fixed income side of my portfolio and non-convertible debentures such as the ones above look like a very interesting alternative to bonds. Their yields are >5.5% and CSU.DB even adjusts its distribution for inflation each year. What am I missing here? It seems like people should be all over these, but their prices don't reflect that.

Q: Please list the above in order of preference. Would all three, equally weighted, be sufficient for a conservative portfolio? Two of three?
Thanks.

Q: I have 2% of my portfolio in this bond fund in my US margin account. It has a mix of bonds from AAA to BBB. Do you know if there is a ETF bond fund which holds most of its bonds in 30 year AAA rated US treasures?

Thanks.

Q: I need some fixed income suggestions for my RRSP. Anything you particularly like at this time? I know its fixed income but I do have some risk tolerance and a 17 year investment horizon so open to something that pays more than .0000012% interest. Appreciate your thoughts :)

As always.. amazing job team!

Q: Bonds are one place that I do not understand well. Can you point me in a direction where I can learn more about bonds, especially related to predictions of interest rate rises over the next few years.

Q: Hi,
I'm curious about CEF's and came across this one that appears to offer a decent dividend, with a bit of growth. However, I don't know anything about these types of funds, so would appreciate any thought you might offer on them. Are they a reasonable investment, or very risky? They talk about these funds being leveraged and that makes me nervous - should I be, or is that just my lack of understanding how these funds work. I'm much more familiar with ETF's and certainly comfortable with stocks - either Canada or US markets. Thanks for all your great advice over the years!
Dawn

Q: Is it time to start letting go of these long term bond ETF? Or do you see a role as part of a laddered portfolio? If so, what percentage of these long term bond holdings would you suggest at this point? Unless we have negative rates the only way is up? Not sure I believe that rates will be kept so low for much longer.
Thank-you.

Q: If one believes that interest rates can only go up, should one own bonds as part of owning a balanced ETF or balanced mutual fund?

Q: Hi, is the reason for the downward trend in XGB due only to the fact that there is increased optimism with equities? Are there other factors at play?
What would be the reasons for the downward trend to continue for the XGB fund?
I'm considering ZCM as well which will provide another percentage point return.
Thanks.

Q: If I buy:
ZWC ((BMO CDN HIGH DIV COV ETF) for Canadian exposure and income,
ZWS (BMO US HIGH DIV COVER ETF) for US exposure and income, and
ZWE (BMO EUROPE HI DIV COVER CALL HEDGED CAD) for European exposure and income,

that will give me about 7%+ income and exposure to about 120 very decent world wide companies. As a retiree, would I need to do anything else?

Q: Hi Guys

Really appreciate your opinion. Given interest rates at near zero, where do would you invest the fixed income part of your portfolio?

Thanks

Q: Hello could you tell me of any ETFs you could recommend with high interest saving for putting cash in that you are not using say in a trading account and typically what do they pay,... thanks for the great service
PS Peter will you or Ryan be on BNN anytime soon

Q: For my USD TFSA, could you please recommend a US ETF short term bond equivalent?

Thank you.

Q: Hello 5i,
I have $21,000 in XSB and the same in XLB. Should I sell these and just get ZAG or does it really matter and stay as is?

Q: 1. With reference to the likelihood of interest rate increase (and increase in inflation rates) over the next 3 years, are these factors such that they are more likely than not to depress the value of CSU.db?
2. Do you rate these debentures reasonably safe given general business conditions faced by CSU in the next 3 years? I do not know what sources are reliable to check ANY issuer’s credit worthiness.
3. If you had a largish amount ( 8% of a portfolio that has no other fixed income) would you trim the holding? If yes, what would be your suggestions to buy in lieu of CSU.db? I am hard-pressed to find other securities that would be equivalent in the current TINA world.

Q: I have transferred my RRIF account from a broker and I plan to self-mange that account. The cash balance as of today is $290,000. I'm 88 years old so I need strong cash flow and/or capital gains to meet the required annual distribution. Please provide a list of stocks and ETFs that 5i would recommend for that purpose. Thanks for your valued assistance.

Q: I'm re-balancing my RESP account. Can you recommend a bond ETF for a 4 year holding period. My thought was XBB.

Thanks,

Joe

Q: I have allocated 20%-25% of my portfolio to Fixed Income. Would XBB and CBO be sufficient to cover the fixed income component? (say 50-50).

Thanks again for the great advice as always!

Q: Good morning all,

To add to the discussion/confusion about CDIC insurance (Pierre's question of Jan 21 and James comment Jan 25) - I have Cash, TFSA and RRSP accounts at TD. I was informed that in order to get CDIC coverage on more than $!00,000 in the Cash account they have several CDN$ options, TDB8150 which is TD Bank, TDB8155 which is TD Mortgage Corp and TDB8159 which is Canada Trust Corp. Was I misinformed?

Q: Hello Peter, you may want to clarify your response to Pierre's CDIC question of Jan 21. He wondered about coverage if he has both a $90,000 GIC and a $90,000 High Interest Saving Account at the same financial institution. While it is true that he would get coverage of $100,000 coverage for each account if they were in two separate categories (e.g., non-registered, RRSP, TFSA, a joint account with another person or a trust account), he would NOT get 'double coverage' for up to $200,000 if both the GIC and the savings account were just in non-registered accounts in his name alone, nor if both were held in his RRSP or another single category. CDIC will aggregate the deposits in each category, even if they are in multiple separate accounts. Thank you.