Investment Q&A

Q: Im 27 and Im looking to become financially independent VIA my investments by 35. I currently have $120,000 invested (90,000 in my TFSA, 20,000 in my RRSP, and $10,000 in cash) I also have $130,000 worth of equity in my rental property, which I intend to liquidate within the next few years to invest. I’ve got a mixture of investments including dividend stocks that’s are set up to DRIP, index funds, stocks that I researched, and some speculative plays. What do you recommend I focus on going forward? I’m looking at adding $2000/ month to my investment program. Thanks!

Q: I'm beginning to take socially responsible investing more seriously. If possible, would you please suggest 5 Canadian and 5 American companies that you consider to be socially responsible, AND at the same time, economically investable.

Q: CIBC Investor's Edge will allow you easily to journal Cdn stocks to your US side and collect the dividend in US dollars - no fees! 6.95/trade fyi

Q: Hi,
How concerned should we be over the increase in US corporate debt? There seems to be an increase in ratings downgrades and I am wondering about the overall effect of this in time should it continue.
As always, I appreciate your input and enjoy the Q&A regularly.
Dawn

Q: Responding to Richard comments of this morning at TDWaterhouse the security has to be in the US account for the dividend to be credited in US. At BMO investorline and Questrade margin accounts dividends are credited in US for US dividends.

Q: In response to Richards inquiry about US dividends. I deal with TD. I have an unregistered account. I opened a US unregistered account and journaled the shares over. I get paid Div’s in US funds for stocks like MG, CSU, MX, BAM and GIl. No fees at all. If I want to sell any sticks I journal the back and sell. Again no fees. I can do it myself or TD will do it for me.

Q: some time ago I asked a second question about Canadian companies that pay dividends in USD(eg bar its etc). my broker Scotia McLeod will only credit these dividends in CAD. despite the fact that I asked them to hold relevant companies in the USD side of my cash account. my second question was does 5i or any of its members have the name of a broker that will deposit the dividends always in USD. thanks for your help Richard

Q: This question my be too "personal", so if you choose not to answer I would understand. I find your responses to questions to be quite expedient, especially around earnings season, and exceptionally informative. I'm wondering how large your staff is?

Q: What is the gap between selling and buying back a Canadian company with a loss please?

Q: Hi Ryan,

Just read a recap of your appearance on BNN today. How come you do not own any of your past or current top picks?

Q: Commentators often talk about a company’s yield in reference to its “dividend”. Many companies have “yield” to which the dividend tax credit does not apply. Is there a website out there that lists the TSX companies that have dividends that attract the credit? Thank you. Bill

Q: I've been looking at your Key Ratios for company profiles and I see a lot of numbers but how can I tell whether these numbers are good or bad. For example Liquidity ratio, Total Debt to Equity is 1.00 good or bad. Leverage ratio of 5 , good or bad. Same goes for Price To Comparisons, Efficiency Ratio, Profitability Ratio etc.
Could you write a Blog on this?

Q: Hi

My question is on warrants and options.

Is there a web site that tracks when warrants and options are exercised?

I recently called a company asking if the warrants were exercised, but they did not reply. I know in the next quarterly report I will see if they were exercised but I would like to know sooner than later.

Gilles

Q: A recent article in The Economist ("Why everybody is concerned about corporate-bond liquidity - Investors expect to find sellers at all times, but dealers lack capacity to buy") predicted that the corporate bond market may be headed for trouble and a lot of BBB rated bonds may become junk. I own VSC ETF which contains about 33% BBB.
Looking at the daily VSC quotes I notice that "bid lots" have been vastly outnumbered by "ask lots" every time I have checked for the last few weeks. Is this a sign that the prices of corporate bonds (and corporate bond ETFs) are due for a drop?

Q: Hello Team,
I am overweight in technology growth names and have been caught in this “sector rotation” from growth to value. My question is do I now hold steady and ride out the storm, or trim back my growth holdings and switch to value? I am a buy and hold investor typically and believe the names I am invested in are best in class in what they do, and believe the way the world is going that technology will continue to advance and should be where the biggest growth is now and into the foreseeable future. So, with the names listed do I buy more , hold, or sell?Thanks for your input on the matter.

Q: Just finished reading Peters article in the latest edition of Canadian Money about High yield dividend payers. Question about payout ratios. Its confusing.
Example; In Morningstar for 2018 the payout ratio was quoted at 134%(unsustainable)
Using operating cash flow the calculation is 230M/388M = 60%(sustainable)
Using free cash flow the calculation is 230M/322M= 71%(probably sustainable)
Peter you have said the calculations should use either free or operating cash flow for the calculations of payout ratio.
I contacted Morningstar asking about their calculation and they said they use what the company sends them.
So which is right when trying to figure out whether the payout ratio is too high?
There are multiple other examples, Enbridge to name one.
Stated payout ratio 282%, operating. cash flow calc, 3844/10502=37%
Free cash flow 3844/3156 = 121%. Quite a variance. I'm confused.
WHICH CALCULATION IS THE BEST ONE TO USE TO HELP DETERMINE SUSTAINABILITY?

Q: According to Portfolio Analytics (and certainly by any other measure as well!) I am over allocated to Apple. I really think their products remain sound (look at new AirPods Pro) and they seem to keep a considerable amount of cash on hand. I first bought at the time of the Brexit vote in 2016 at just under $93 USD per share and have been handsomely rewarded to date. Am I foolish not to rebalance some of the gains? I am thinking that if they have a big miss such as a larger hardware issue they have a lot of means to fix it and move on. Are they well positioned for 5G? Any thoughts appreciated.

thanks,
Marilou

Q: The Spectrum of Wealth: Very insightful; worth a read:

https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/the-spectrum-of-wealth/

Q: There were a couple of questions recently about dividends/distributions being 'return of capital' (ROC) which made me wonder how a company raises money to pay ROC? Does it sell shares ahead of the dividend date?

Q: In years past, I attended 3 of Larry Berman's travelling roadshows held in major cities across Canada. I like him and find him very personable. Also, he's a polished seminar presenter. However, what I took away from each of those events was "impending recession" and "lower for longer". Eventually I stopped attending. Since then, when a local roadshow would be planned, I'd be e-mailed (maybe 2x). This past month, I was e-mail 'bombed' with no fewer than eight (8) reminder emails from Larry (over a two week period) inviting me to register for his seminar. What do you think that might mean ;-)