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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,

What US ETF's do you think would be a good way to play the US market for the next 2-3 years. I really for longer than that but I think there's going to be a lot volatility in the next couple years. I'm underrepresented in cyclicals, consumer discretionary, banks, energy and big Pharma, but not technology. I own QQQ.
Read Answer Asked by Graeme on September 23, 2019
Q: Hi,
I'm currently in my late 30's and have some funds in a LIRA from a previous company pension. They were invested in some funds with Sunlife before but now just sitting in cash waiting to be in invested. I'm looking for long term capital appreciation as I won't be able to take these funds out until retirement. Looking to increase my US and Intl exposure, which ETFs would be best? Currently own VGG, VUS, XEF and VEE. Should I increase these weights to my desired % or add any others? Looking for low MER core positions. Also should I approach investing in my RSP and LIRA in different ways or would you view them as the same? For example, would you buy stock A in your LIRA instead of RSP or vise versa.

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Keith on August 23, 2019
Q: Good morning gentlemen, which one would be the safest from this three. Parking for 2-3 years. Thanks. Alnoor
Read Answer Asked by Alnoor on August 20, 2019
Q: My daughter is opening up an resp for her three month old son. She will initially be putting $10,000 in. What are three ETF's that would be suitable. She is looking for some growth and little risk.
Read Answer Asked by john on June 26, 2019
Q: My daughter is 20 and has maximized her TFSA allotment in an annual lump sum for past three years, and is likely to maximize every year going forward. I'm trying to simplify her investing so what ETF's would you recommend if she doesn't need the money for three years? Would you recommend different ETF's if she doesn't need for 10 years? What about 20+ years?
Read Answer Asked by Valerie on June 14, 2019
Q: We have( for me) a quite large sum of money invested in managed products. Any new money is going into Canadian equities ( 30%) following your portfolios and a mix of ETF roughly
30% USA at 10% SPY, 10% VIG, 10%IWO
30% International currently VE
10% emerging currently VEE
( I know "where is your fixed income" you ask, my spouse has a federal government pension which I count as our fixed income)
To date these sums are relatively small. As I start to shift large sums from our managed products to my self managed portfolio ( following the above ratios) I am ok with the mix in the USA spread to 3 etfs run by 3 different companies. With the international and emerging I am a bit concerned about putting all that cash with one fund (and company). Is this concern silly or should I have some diversification within my ETF holdings ( both in terms of funds and companies). For example instead of having 30% of my holdings in VE I would split it 15% VE and 15% XEF. So I guess the short questions are:

1. What is the max an investor should have in any one ETF( %)
2. What is the max an investor should have with any one company ( $ or %)
Read Answer Asked by Tom on June 12, 2019
Q: Hi
I am increasing US exposure by 15-20% to a total of 35-40% from cash into ETFs. Portfolio Analytics suggests VUN for this exposure. I am thinking of using a more factored ETF, IWO or VGG. The US exposure would be the similar, the latter two have a lower financials weight (helpful for sector balancing also needed at this time), and possible relative out performance with small cap or dividend growth. Do you think 1, or a combination of 2-3 is better than the other? Any suggestion on weight (1/3 each)? Do not want to overlap too much nor one factor negate the other.

Any suggestions for adding some torque to passive component of US exposure welcome.

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by John on June 07, 2019
Q: For the purpose of simplicity I would like your opinion on these 3 ETF portfolios.
My idea is to rebalance 1 / year.
non registered: VFV 30% VDU 30% VAB 40%
TFSA: VFV 50% VDU 50%
RRSP: VOO 30% VIG 30% IWO 30% VAB 10%
Any suggestions as to changing the etf's used for better tax purposes ?
Are there better etf's that you would recommend using?
Thanks for your help .
Victoria
Read Answer Asked by Anna on June 05, 2019
Q: we are just starting a resp and wondered if there is an Canadian ETF that is like the IWO but in Canadian funds as the moment we have just under $1000.00 in this account but it will grow over time with contributions.
Thnaks
Read Answer Asked on June 03, 2019
Q: Hi, I have opened an RESP account with 5K for initial deposit, and will also be contributing $150 on a monthly basis. I don't plan to do a withdraw from this account for about 10 years. I am new to investment world and am curious on strategy or what would be best to invest in. I am not afraid of risk. Thanks in advance for your advice/opinion.
Read Answer Asked by Mitchell on May 24, 2019
Q: Tried searching questions on these, but could not find. Can you suggest ETF equivalent to these 2. if CDN denominated even better. thanks
Read Answer Asked by RUPINDER on May 06, 2019
Q: Hi, I will like to thank you for the investment service you are providing. I am learned a lot about investing in the last 2 years or so, from your answers to questions alone. It has instilled in me virtue of patience far more than I had before I started subscribing to your service.
I will like to know how IWO, a USD security in a CAD account ( a sizable position in growth model) , will work out if the CAD appreciates versus USD. Will it be OK to invest in USD securities in CAD accounts at the current exchange rates? What time horizon one should be thinking about for such a move?
Regards
RR
Read Answer Asked by Rajinder on May 06, 2019
Q: 55 years old,will work at least to age 60 and will have a large pension.Have about $100,000 to invest long term with no need to use any of it in the foreseeable future,
Please recommend an ETF for Canadian market (moderate risk,and tilted more to growth than to income) and an ETF for US markets (moderate risk and tilted more to growth than to income).
If you think two ETFs for each of Canada and US would be better than one for each,please elaborate.
Read Answer Asked by George on April 29, 2019
Q: Thank you for for answer yesterday about setting up my parent's investments. To summarize, they are very conservative, above 80 years old, and looking for safety and income.

I would now like to ask you about the distribution of the equity component of the investments (composing only 17% of the total, the rest being in bonds, preferred, and GICs). Those below are all in equal weight. What do you thing?

BEP.UN, BCE, BNS, CM, CU, ENB, TRP
XHC for healthcare exposure
IWO for US growth
VGG for US exposure
XEF (in a half position) for international exposure
VEE (in a half position) for emerging market exposure

Could you please suggest some more to round things out? I need another 5 or 6 stocks.


Also, do you have any objection to using ZAG and HYGH as bond substitutes for their conservative portfolio? I am buying individual preferred shares for that component.

Thank you once again,

Fed
Read Answer Asked by Federico on April 29, 2019
Q: This is a follow up question about a portfolio for my parents. Thank you for your response, yet again.

You suggested an ETF for growth as another option. How about XHC and IWO? Any other suggestions?

You mentioned that tax reporting for trusts are a nuisance. I agree. But if I put it in an RRIF, which would you suggest?

Thanks again,

Fed
Read Answer Asked by Federico on April 25, 2019