Investment Q&A

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.

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?

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 %)

Q: What investments would you recommend for a teenager with $10,000to invest for long term.
Thank you Drummond

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

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

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

Q: I was looking at your Growth Portfolio and see 14% allocation to ETF Russell 2000. Aside from US exposure what is your thesis behind this pick in particular?

Thanks again,
Dan

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.

Q: Twenty five years old- new self managed account -6 thousand dollars -what to do? Thank you. Anne

Q: for a 34 year which ETF would you recommend for a LIRA for US exposure and or Emerging market? Has 20+ years before using the LIRA.
Thanks

Q: Tried searching questions on these, but could not find. Can you suggest ETF equivalent to these 2. if CDN denominated even better. thanks

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

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.

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

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

Q: Hi 5i
I am completely new to the world of ETFs but, according to Portfolio Analytics (and I did know it was a good idea before being told, really I did) I need to add US and International exposure to my portfolio. I think the only reasonable way for me to do that given I don't/can't follow non-Canadian equity markets is through ETFs.
I would like to place 55K in US ETFs and 45K in International ETFs and this will, for now, comprise the entire non-Canadian portion of my portfolio.
I am not adverse to some above average risk and while I'd like income I'm more interested in growth.
In researching where to place this money I've concluded that I might not have the candle power necessary to make rational decisions about ETFs because of the distinct possibility of purchasing ETFs that hold the same or similar underlying equities from the same or similar geographies in the same or similar sectors (assuming I'm not just concentrating on discrete sectors). Left to my own devices I feel that I could very possibly purchase a little bundle of different ETFs that are all essentially but unintentionally quite similar.
My question is two-fold:
1. Is my concern about concentration valid or have I misinterpreted the lay of the land, and
2. Could you suggest 4 or 5 US ETFs and a similar # of International ETFs that I can consider and that won't have the type of overlap I'm worried about.
I realize this is a broad and general (and perhaps rambling) question - so please deduct as many credits as you think is warranted.
Thanks a lot!
Peter

Q: Can you please offer your 3 best ideas to add to a TFSA. This may include, Canadian, US Stocks or ETFS.

Thanks Valter

Q: Hi Team, Can you suggest one or two ETF on Cdn Small Cap.
So that I can replace my wife's RIF a/c, 2% holding of "TDB628 TD Cdn s/c EQ-1/NL'Frace" mutual fund.
Thanks as always.
Regards, Tak

Q: CIF 823 is the last remnant from the portfolio of my former financial advisor. How would you assess this mutual fund? Would an ETF (or several) be a preferred replacement?
Your input is always appreciated!