Investment Q&A

Q: Follow your balanced portfolio and hold the above etfs for american exposure.. Vgg has performed better over the last 18 months. Thinking of selling vun, vfv and buying vgg. What do you think? T steve

Q: Greetings,
I currently own ZWH, XQQ, and VUN as part of my US focus in my portfolio. I am looking to add another name or two. Time frame 5+ years. I prefer to remain with Canadian ETFs investing in the US. First of all, do you see too much overlap here? I have room to add to all 3. Can you provide 3 stable dividend ETFs you might suggest to add and a couple of growth ETFs that might complement my current holdings? Thanks in advance. KEN

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!

Q: Is the only difference between VGG (Cdn) and VIG (US) the currency denomination and fees? Is VGH the same as VGG, but VGH is hedged to the Canadian dollar?

VGG has higher fees than VIG, so I would assume that over several years, its returns would be less than VIG. However, I have looked on a number of sites and VGG seems to have higher returns. For example, over the last 5 years, VGG has had an annual return of 13.58% and VIG of 11.63%. What is causing this apparent difference in performance?

VGH has 9.11% 5-year performance. The lower performance I assume is due to it being hedged to the Canadian dollar. Can you please confirm my assumption is correct.

Thank you very much for all of your excellent advice.

Q: Hi Team,
Would you please recommend 3 to 4 C$ denominated etfs that are focused on us equities (I already own XQQ and ZUB).
Cheers,

Q: In reference to my last question you made a couple of suggestions. I parted ways with CHR and NFI. You also suggested that I lacked diversification in some areas. I have accumulated cash since my last question to be deployed at an appropriate time. I have listed again the stocks in which I am currently invested in. Percentage allocation in each was listed in my last question. I have wonder if you maintain an investment profile of your clients. Doing so would enable you to provide more appropriate advice and/or suggestions. It would negate the need for clients to keep repeating investment objectives. Thanks

Q: I would appreciate your recommendations for the most tax-efficient ETF's for US equities in non-registered , RSP & TFSA accounts .
Thank you.

Q: Are there etfs that trade in Canada that concentrate on US dividend growers and if so can you recommend any? Is any dividend income treated as US income? Thank you, Bill

Q: Enb in my portfolio has a book value of $42.16
And a yield of 7%. It now represents 10% of my portfolio. This my largest position in a portfolio of $630000. I generally buy for dividend and growth. Maybe I should reduce my position in ENB and take a 5% position in another dividend paying stock with growth potential. eg. CM or other opportunities. Any suggestions.

Q: I have a 2 year old RESP for a 3 year old grand daughter to which I will contribute in about a week on her birthday. It currently holds only VGG. Should I add the $3000 to VGG or can you suggest something else. I actively monitor my own investments but the RESP I look at only at this time of year.

Q: My son is a 22 year old student who would like to start investing his money. He has $2000 to invest within a TFSA and intends to add annually with a long term outlook (he doesn't need the money). Could you please suggest some options that are growth oriented (not averse to risk) and some safer dividend payers, either in Canada or the US?

Q: hi, within a long term focus rip, would you see benefit from holding VGG as well as ZSP ? If not both, which is preferable? Thanks$$

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: I have recently been making significant adjustments to my portfolio, based on the results of Portfolio Analytics. In particular, I am significantly decreasing my financials and energy, and making large increases to my US and international weights.

Despite my changes, I am still overweight by 6% based on the recommended financials, and by 5% for energy. I am underweight international by about 6%. What is your recommended tolerance? How much leeway do you suggest for the recommended allocations?

Also, I am currently invested about 11% in VIGI. What is the maximum allocation you suggest for any ETF? I am a fan of the dividend aristocrats/growers strategy. Is there any other international dividend ETF which you would recommend (if possible, sold in Canadian dollars) along these lines?

For the US dividend growers, I have DGRO, VGG and ZDY.

Thank you for this incredible service that you offer!

Q: Morning
Quick follow up question for clarification
If I hold VFV in a RRSP , will it be subject to the 15% withholding tax?
Holding VGG in a non registered account, is there a way to get this tax back?
Thank you

Q: Thank you for all your help
I am a novice investor learning the ropes
For that reason, although I want to increase my US exposure , I am not comfortable picking individual stocks
Which of the following etf’s would you recommend, and why
VUN VGG XHU. (I already own VFV)
Also,I heard you do not want US in a TFSA. Why is that..?
Thanks again

Q: Where would you recommend I place $30k in a TFSA today (5 year hold). Only other holdings in this TFSA are $12k in iShares MSCI ETF (XAW) and $3k in Kelt Exploration (KEL).
Where would you recommend I place $60 in an RSP today (5 year hold).
Only other holdings in this RSP are $40k BMO Dividend ETF (ZDV), $10K NorthWest Co (NWC), and $15k Richards Packaging (RPI.UN).
Given the size of the portfolios, probably one or several ETF's, instead of more individual stocks? And probably better non-Canadian exposure? Anything else to be sold here before repositioning?
I guess that's 3 or more questions, please charge accordingly. Thanks.

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: 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: My Granddaughter is <1 and currently has $3000 in her RESP. I see that in a past question you recommended VGG for an RESP for 6-8 year old children. Would you stick with that given the longer time frame or would you have a different suggestion? Should we conceder more than one product?
Thanks, John