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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: Hi,
I'm a 35 year old balanced/growth investor and looking to add some fixed income to my portfolio. I have mostly dividend and growth stocks in our portfolios and looking to balance our asset allocation. Currently I manage my margin, RSP and TFSA as well as my wife's.

In my margin, I'm holding some good dividend names, for the div tax credit - FTS, BCE, ENB, CU, TRP, AQN, ALA, EIF, CGX, ENF, ECI, WSP, SPB, PWF, AW/un.TO, SLF, ZDV, VDY, XEI. I contribute weekly to my margin and have been regularly adding to ZDV, VDY, and XEI (questrade allows free ETF purchases which is nice). Do you think holding ZDV, VDY, and XEI is necessary or should I consolidate them? The MER's and sector weights are slightly different in each ETF. These ETFs are my biggest holdings in my margin and I know holding ETF's come with a MER cost, so I have added some of those other mentioned individual names. Is this too much overlap and should I be adding to more growth names vs dividend names?

Between both of our TFSA's, we have many growth names that you always mention - CRH, TOY, ITC, KXS, SHOP, SIS, GUD, CCL.B etc, which I think is setup fine.

In our RSPs, we have more balanced steady growth names such as VEE, ZLH, ZRE, ZWU, ZLB, VGH, VRE, ZWH, XEF, ZUH, ZWA, VUS, VGH, ATD.B, MTY, CXI, PPL, AD, GIB.A, FRU, L, BIP.UN, BPY.UN, NFI, BEP.UN, BAM.A, FIH.U, SJ, T. Do you think there is too much overlap here holding the ETF's and its better to sell some and buy individual names? Also if adding some fixed income ETF's, which names above would you swap out and add for a 15-20 year hold for safety, income and some growth (which I would like to add to my RSP for tax efficiency)?

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Keith on March 23, 2017
Q: Can you please explain he correlation between bonds, stocks, reits and gold?

id like 30% of my portfolio to move differently than the markets in case of market correction but dont want it all in bond funds due to rising interest rates. how would something like this look over the long term or do you have a better suggestion?

10% bond fund
10% REITs
10% Gold half xgd, half bullion
70% equities (CND, US and ITL)
Read Answer Asked by Carla on March 23, 2017
Q: Hi Peter,

I have the following stocks in my RRSP portfolio with the sector weightings below. What are a few stocks would you suggest buying now for a 5-10+ hold that are medium to high risk to help balance my sector weighings? Thanks for all your help and advice!!

SJ, GSY, ATD.B, PBH, TOY, RRX.TO, SLF, BNS, GUD, CSH-UN, CRH, SIS, CSU, SHOP, PHO

Technology: 31.35%
Healthcare: 20.07%
Consumer Non-Cyclicals: 17.39%
Financial 15.01%
Consumer Cyclicals: 6.16%
Basic Materials: 4.44%
Industrial: 3.60%
Energy: 1.97%
Read Answer Asked by Andrew on March 22, 2017
Q: Hi I am looking to further diversify my portfolio. I have about 70 percent in the market and that is the highest I want to go. I have some tips, xbb and hfr and too much cash but having hard time with rates rising to go to bonds. The xhy seems to go with market, I was wondering about individual bonds or will they trade closely with market. I was looking at them. How does one choose the right duration, if it is over valued it could get called? and I loose money. There seems so many when I look at my investorline I don't know where to start. any ideas?
Read Answer Asked by Geoff on March 22, 2017
Q: During significant market corrections in the past, how much have dividend payouts by listed companies been affected? I am planning for retirement and wanted to know if I should use the current value of my dividends (mostly large cap companies) as annual income or whether I should plan that the dividends could decrease. If they could decrease, what would be an approximate percent drop to use in my plan? Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Linda on March 22, 2017
Q: I've recently got a large bonus from work which will represent about 15% of my total portfolio. I am building up my U.S. exposure to get to my target level so all funds will be invested in a S&P 500 index fund. Since we are looking at all time highs how would you suggest to deploy the cash. Normally I would not try to time the market but with such a large part of my portfolio I'm wondering if I should hold off for a while or deploy it in three trades over the course of the next 6 months or so.
Read Answer Asked by justin on March 22, 2017
Q: Would you consider the following a good starting list for a friend's TFSA, 10 years holding. Other sectors + US + international would be in RSP. What would you change if not. 'Congrat Ryan + Lisa!'

GUD Knight Health Care
CRH CRH Medical Health Care
KXS KINAXIS Tech
AIF Altus Group Financial / real estate
ECN ECN Capital Financial
MX Methanex Material
NFI New Flyer Industries Industrial
PBH Premium Brand Holdings Consumer staples
SIS Savaria Industrial / Health
TOY Spin Master Consumer discretionary
SYZ Sylogist Tech
RRX Raging River Energy
Read Answer Asked by Dominic on March 21, 2017
Q: Hello,
I have a tax question.I have capital gains after selling several stocks on Mar20/17 in my trading account.Since I have capital losses carried forward from other years,there should be no tax owing on my 2017 return.My question is,can I repurchase thse stocks in my TFSA,without waiting 30 days?
Most of your recommendations have worked well for me.Thanks to you,I spend less time doing my own research and more time outside.
Read Answer Asked by Allen on March 21, 2017
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