Investment Q&A

Q: Hi Peter & 5i,
Wishing you and the staff a joyous holiday season!
Would you see any red flags in this portfolio for a conservative investor needing the dividends for cash flow. The portfolio would be 50% equities and 50% fixed income - 5 year laddered GIC's.
Here are the stocks and their proposed weightings:
Financial Royal Bank RY 5.7%
TD Bank TD 3.6%
Sun Life SLF 4.4%
Power Corp POW 4.0%
Utility Fortis FTS 5.7%
Brookfield Renewable BEPC 4.2%
Algonquin Power AQN 2.2%
Comm TELUS T 4.7%
Bell BCE 4.1%
Cons Staple Costco COST 4.3%
Loblaws L 4.0%
Cons Discr. Magna MG 3.8%
Restaurant Brands QSR 2.4%
Industrial CN Rail CNR 5.2%
Savaria SIS 3.6%
Energy Enbridge ENB 4.6%
Suncor SU 2.9%
Materials Nutrien NTR 4.3%
Real Estate BMO-Equal Weight ZRE 4.2%
Tech Thomson Reuters TRI 4.8%
Health Evolve Global Health LIFE 3.8%
ETF BMO-Low Volatility US ZLU 8.7%
iShares-US Equity-Hedge XSP 4.8%
Thanks so much for the fantastic service.

Q: Hi 5i;
Just a follow up to my question and your answer about IDR this morning, so that I can better analyze ETF's which I have to say I find to be a perplexing exercise.
You wrote that IDR has "fees" of 1.28%, but both CIBC and BMO indicate that its MER is .98% - approximately a 30% difference, so quite significant. Is there more to the cost of ownership than just MER which I should consider when reviewing ETFs that would account for the difference? If so, where do I look to find this information?
You also indicated that IDR 's "small size" is $61M while CIBC seems to peg it's value at $107.4M and BMO at $109.8M - again quite significantly different. Am I missing something in my understanding of the value as stated by the likes of CIBC/BMO that I should be aware of when looking at ETFs, going forward?
Thanks - I appreciate your advice.
Peter

Q: Hi 5i,
I gather from your answers to the few questions that have been asked about it that you are not great fans of IDR for real estate exposure, and my initial question is basically why and what should I be concerned about?
If I'm reading the information correctly, IDR's 10 year growth rate (2011 - 2021) is 167%, with YTD sitting at 29%. It's annual yield meanwhile is 5.60% (or more) and it is diversified through holding residential, industrial and retail REITs in Canada (67%), USA (24%) and the UK (2%).
Could one potentially do better and risk less through holding individual REITs instead of the basket afforded by IDR and, if so, which ones would you recommend for the real estate portion of a portfolio in the current economic climate?
Thanks!
Peter

Q: Good afternoon!
This is one of Dorr Capital's funds that invest in mortgages (assumedly higher risk), and are speculating (pun intended!) a return of 7.5% annually, with distributions monthly.
The management fee is 1.25% (Series "A") or .85% (Series "F"). There is a cost to redeem on 30 days notice of 2% if in 1 year or 1% if in the second year.
I don't think this is much of a good idea, but was wondering:
1) Your thoughts on this specific investment?
2) Would there be any equities you could steer me towards that do this type of investment but without the management fees or the slow redemptions?
Thanks!
PaulK

Q: HI
I am woefully low in real estate and notice you have only 1 REIT in your three model portfolios combined albeit an equal weight REIT but your total real estate sector allocation would still be low. Are you bearish on real estate?

What if any real estate stocks do you like or would you still just favor ZRE for diversification for an RRSP holding? What would you suggest for real estate sector allocation percentage?

Q: Hi 5i, I started my stock market investing in March 2020 in order to get 'skin in the game'. I am a daily learner whose investing personality is that of an 'individualist'. I have determined my investing goal to be for income (mostly through dividends) and growth (for capital appreciation). I have found lately that my risk tolerance feels lower due to increasing volatility, talk of market decline/crash, increasing inflation, shortages, rising rates etc. As a result I would like to cash in the individual stocks I own that have given me good capital appreciation and replace them with ETF's and/or Index Funds. Income and growth plus diversification to my portfolio is my objective here. Since I hold more than enough physical precious metals and an emergency stash in US dollars I feel I have enough insurance/hedge against a worst case scenario happening in the economy. Please comment on these following ETF's. I am also open to other suggestions you might have as well. Please note that my entire TFSA is in my brokerage account so taxes are not an issue for me. Thanks

ZCN BMO S&P/TSX Composite Index
CIC CI First Asset Canadian Bank Income Class
ZWB BMO Covered Call Canadian Banks
RIT CI First Asset Canadian Banks
ZDV BMO Canadian Dividend
CDZ iShares Canadian Aristorcrats
XRE iShares Capped REIT
XEC Emerging Markets ETF

P.S. I assign an equal dollar amount for each investment in my portfolio. The ETF part of my portfolio are for long term holds.

Q: Hello Peter,

The ETF's above are in the income portfolio. All have different yields that are paid out monthly. My question is, do any of these "dividends" increase over time? Not the yield but the actual payout per share?

Thanks,

Kelly

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor, who usually follows a fully invested, buy-and-hold strategy for the long term but trims-adds around core positions to achieve the targeted asset allocation. I currently have <4% cash in the combined family portfolio.

Question #1 = for new monies into my wife's account as they become available, please rank the order in which you would invest into BCE, LNF, NWC....and why? I'm looking at where is the most Total Return upside over the foreseeable future. Ignore asset allocation, I've got that covered.

Q#2 = ditto for my account, please rank for new money investment into LIFE, ZRE, BNS, WSP...and why?

2 questions...please deduct 2 credits.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.....Steve

Q: Hi Team,
Could you suggest Canadian ETFs of the following sectors for Senior incomes :
1 /Reit 2/ Utility 3/Prefer 4/Bank/Financial 5/Energy.
Please deduct as many question credit as needed.
Thanks as always,
Tak

Q: I have a non-registered account which is invested in roughly equal weights of 13 Canadian blue chip dividend payers (NTR, RY, BNS, TCL.A, T, BCE, SLF, QSR, ENB, FTS, LNF, BEPC, AQN) and CPD. I am in the process of re-organizing it a bit and have some additional cash to invest.

I have tinkered with SYZ, FSZ and LIF in this account and none of these quite fit the profile I'm going for (steady eddies thru next economic cycle, decent and reliable dividend).

Over the last year or so, I have been tweaking this account to get it to the point where it will be very low (or no) maintenance. Game plan is to drip for another few years, then start to take the dividend in cash to live off. Capital preservation and dividend reliability are obviously key.

Looking for some guidance on choosing 2 or 3 additional holdings from the following list:
EIF (nice div, needed industrial exposure)
AW.UN or ZRE (are these OK in an open account?)
CVD or XHY (some fixed income to smooth out any upcoming lumps) or other fixed income idea.

Do CPD, CVD, XHY make sense now with tapering about to begin in the US?
All comments about this strategy and my stock selections are most welcome.

Several questions here - please take several credits


Thanks in advance,

Jim

Q: Hi I have this etf in my account . Should i sell some and buy stocks or add some i am looking for dividend income.

Thank you

Q: Hi gang, can you please help me look deep in this
Accounts:
Mfc5786
Dyn3361
Nbn1120s
Eqp107
Che.in
Are this funds good to hold for2-3 years in rrsp accounts. Are this company strong and are dividends safe. Should I keep them. Thanks
Alnoor

Q: What are some of your top value stock and ETF picks to protect against inflation during the next 1-3 years. Thanks as always.

Q: Hi group need more exposure to real estate and health care - could you recommend a few in each sector also a few ETF would be helpful. I have some ready cash to deploy but am a bit queasy about investing into todays market feels oversold? also India , South America are struggling with COVID what's you thoughts (leaning towards waiting until Virus is better controlled. Wait or jump in Appreciate your thoughts

Q: I had a portfolio review many years ago when you did them individually, personally by human! At the time your suggestions were right on and cleaned up my ETF's. Now I have over ten and according to your metrics it should not be so. Given those above, is there anything that is not required? I am up 25%- 150% on all of them. I am happy with all of them. I have a balanced portfolio in all 11 sectors with 44 stocks all doing quite nicely thank you. Following the income portfolio with some of my own additions from 15 years ago. I do not see any major conflicts.I am s a buy and hold dividend investor with some growth ( lightspeed, Leon's).
Thank you for your million dollar service!
Stanley

Q: In what circumstances should an investor hold a REIT ETF? Does it make sense to hold an income stream such as this in an RRSP that you are looking to grow long term?

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. A question earlier today has motivated me to finally ask this question....been thinking of it for quite a while. It had to do with potential rising interest rates and your response was that dividend investors should be prepared for a bumpy ride in the short term (my paraphrase of your answer).

I own the above securities and for the most part trim-add around core positions that I hold for the long term. Is it possible to divide the above securities into two camps....one that would be "ok" in a rising interest rate environment and the other that I should consider trimming a bit or maybe selling? I am ok riding things out for the long term and do not normally react to short term volatility.

Thanks for your help....Steve

Q: Hi,

Thinking of dropping a 5% stake in a REIT`S. I see you hold ZRE in the income portfolio. There are two others that with US exposure(PHR) and CGR is a global reit.

Since I am overweight CND stocks does it make sense to go with either PHR or CGR.

This will be held in a LIRA account and I am aware there could be withholding taxes if I go with PHR or CGR.

Thoughts?

Thank you

Rino

Q: Bought a small position of ZRE last year for a dividend payer.
You recommendet it back then. It went up nicely and also pays a nice dividend.
Thinking about buying more. Your opinion?
Thank you.

Q: For those who hold ZRE and/or ZUT:

After multiple attempts via phone and RBC's internal secure email system, I finally spoke to a RBC Direct Investing representative today regarding ZRE and the Dec 29/20 RBC announcement of their 1.048:1 stock split. The rep was excellent, but had to check higher up the food chain to get an answer. Within minutes she got back to me with the answer.

The share split announcement for ZRE was simply a mistake on their part. There is no share split. Ditto for anyone holding ZUT (I don't).

It was as I suspected, but I couldn't let it go until I had it confirmed to me by RBC. End of story.

Steve