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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: I have an unregistered account with about 12 CDN blue chip stocks. The purpose of the account is to generate dividend income for the next several decades, while providing slow and steady capital growth.

I have taken the decision to exit ENB, LIF, NTR and TCL.A and to increase holdings in AQN, NPI, PMO205, XTR.

I know timing will never be perfect, but just looking for some timing guidance due to current market conditions and cyclicality of some of these stocks.

Trying to avoid horrible hindsight commentry: that was OBVIOUSLY a poor time to make that change....
Read Answer Asked by Jim on February 06, 2023
Q: Hi 5i
For income and some growth, I continue to hold Fidelity Asset Allocation Private Pool Series F8 (374), in a corporate account. It is the only investment in the account. I have two questions.

1) In your opinion is this still a good choice?
2) Could you suggest an alternative to replace part or all of FID374?

Thank you, Bill
Read Answer Asked by William on January 31, 2023
Q: A question on a few of my laggards. As a clean up of my portfolio these are back to original purchase price. Purchased 18 months ago and wondering if buy sell or hold.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Craig on January 23, 2023
Q: We are a semi retired couple with RRSP's/RRIF's, TFSA's and a shared open account for dividend income.

In the dividend income account, we have 10 or so of the classic blue chip CDN stocks + CPD. (roughly equally portions), and are considering the addition of another monthly payer such as PMO205 to diversify asset types and stabilize monthly income a bit.

Does PMO205 make sense for this account?
If not, do you have other suggestions?
In the other accounts, our fixed income portion (VAB) has been a dog over the last couple of years.
Read Answer Asked by Jim on January 06, 2023
Q: Hi Guys
I have noticed the distribution has been going down the last year and a half, I would have thought they would have at least stayed around 0.06
Cents but they are now .04
The holdings include a lot of Telcom and pipelines, and other companies that have been raising their dividends. Will they're be higher distributions in the future now that rates are going up, maybe just a lag factor here?
YTD I think the return is down around 3.5 % including distributions.
Finally, do you think I can beat a GIC return here over the next 2 years.?
Thanks Gord
Read Answer Asked by Gordon on December 19, 2022
Q: Hi 5I. I am a small time investor looking to provide income for my wife if I should pass before her. Looking for monthly income to replace Gov. pensions. Can you suggest 2 or 3 ETF's or shares with monthly income. I would appreciate your input. Love your site
Thank you
Read Answer Asked by David on August 22, 2022
Q: I currently hold investments in Fidelity Balanced Income Private Pool and Franklin Quotential Diversified Income. I will be transferring the funds from these mutual funds to ETFs with lower management fees. Please provide a list of 5 suitable ETFs and rank them from 1 to 5. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Don on July 11, 2022
Q: Hello 5i,
I am a value invester with a mix of equities and ETF's. I have done well with VGT and am up $8,000. As I look for dividends I am looking to sell VGT and buy ZWT. Also exchanging XHYy for ZWH, XTR for ZWC and VE for ZWE. Some are underwater but not by much. $75,000 is involved altogether with these exchanges. Do these changes make sense or should I just leave things as they are. The difference in dividends is nice to have (an extra $300 or more a month) but not really needed.
Stanley
Read Answer Asked by STANLEY on April 25, 2022
Q: Hi, looking to start one or two Canadian based etf. Retired, no investment out of Canada. I think I should have some. Would like monthly income, 4%+ ,moderate risk, some growth if possible.
I think Cyh is the only one with a little growth?
Could you suggest two etf’s you prefer, or suggest two from above you might have confidence in.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Brad on March 28, 2022
Q: Can I have your thoughts about these stocks and ETF’s for someone with a 3 to 5 year timeframe and who is in their mid 30’s?

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by David Michael on February 07, 2022
Q: Hi,

What are your thoughts about my current portfolio? I am also looking at adding ZRE.TO and ZWC.TO.

Appreciate your help.
Read Answer Asked by David Michael on January 27, 2022
Q: Hello 5i,
I’m helping a conservative investor with a tfsa. Vbal makes up half of the account.
In trying to boost monthly income I’ve come up with the above etfs.
Based on 2020 distributions,how would each of the above etfs be taxed if held in a tfsa?
Also, can you please verify the sector exposure of zup (similar to pff - usd) I thought the financial % was underweight.
Read Answer Asked by Kat on November 04, 2021
Q: I am looking to finally replace the following mutual funds held in a self admin RSP account, to equivalent ETFs.
FID269 - Fid Monthly Inc;
FID5973 - Fid Global Innovation;
FID207 - Fid Global Concentrated Equity;
RBC460 - Sel Bal Ptf
TDB2760 - Td Retirement Balance
TDB652 - Td Global Entertainment & communication
TDB976 - Td Health Science
TDB2580 Td Tactical Monthly Inc
My goal is to replace these mutual funds with long term, high yielding where possible, low MER, CDN or US $ equivalent ETFs. Please provide 2 or 3 suggestions for each. Please deduct as many credit s as need.
Thank you for all the invaluable investment help you provide.


Read Answer Asked by Mark on October 15, 2021
Q: As retirees we hold XEI and XTR for the Cdn income generation portion of our portfolio . Recently I discovered that there is also XDIV which has a much lower MER. Would you endorse moving completely out of XEI and XTR to XDIV instead?
Read Answer Asked by M on October 06, 2021