Investment Q&A

Q: The vanguard ETFs make up 13% of my portfolio. In the tech space I own PNG & LSPD.
A little bit overweight in both due to increase in value . If I were to buy another tech stock which would you suggest. My portfolio contains mostly dividend stocks with some Growth. My biggest risk would be if interest rates were to rise.

Q: I have very little US exposure and have US$40,000 in my RRSP that I am looking to invest. I have looked at questions and profiles on VIG, VIGI, VYM, VTI and DGRO but I am unsure which of these or others ETFs would be best and am looking for some direction. What low cost, large US $ ETF or ETFs would make the most sense with the goal of maximizing US$ dividend income. This will be a long term holding.
Thank you

Q: I hold vgg in in TFSA and RRIF accounts , 5 % of my total portfolio. VIG in non registered US account 5% of total portfolio. I’m gradually moving from individual stocks to ETFs to reduce the time required to monitor my investments. Getting up in years .As an aside I’m an experienced investor, previously worked in the investment business. Right now I’m looking at reducing my position in vet and investing in vfv or convert C$ to US$ and buy VOO.
Your thoughts Peter on this or should I look elsewhere?

Q: I am trying to determine how material the withholding tax difference is if I hold vgg in my rrsp vs vig.

At first glance, the yield on vgg is 1.229% and on vig is 1.764%, according to the 5i website. However, according to the Vanguard website the vgg "MER" is 0.30% and the vig "Expense Ratio" is 0.06% (quite a difference in fees if indeed this is an apple to apples comparison). So if I compare before expense yields I get that the cdn vgg yields 0.295% less (1.764 + .06 - 1.229 - .30) or , as a proportion the cdn before expense yield is 84% of the us before expense yield (1.529/1.824). So the w/h tax costs me 16% of the yield -- does this analysis seem correct? Thanks. Also, why would there be such a large difference in fees between vgg and vig?

Q: For eft’s. v f v and v g g , what are the advantages/disadvantages of holding in a
r r s p , t f s a , or a non registered account?

Thank you for your help,
Michael

Q: This question is about non-registered accounts and the non-Canadian ETFs and stocks that pay dividends. If the DRIP is activated, does the stock still attract witholding tax, or would it be taxed separately on both the dividend and the capital gain?

I've learned a great deal from you about investing.

Many thanks.

Q: I currently owned these 2 ETF , VIG and VXUS at 5% weight and I can add to these 2 names or buy another US ETF for a 5% weight. If you suggest that I buy can please tell me what the next best ETF would be to own .
Thanks

Q: Hi 5i,
I have $70,000 CAD to invest for 3-5 years and tax is not an issue. I am thinking of ETFs : 40% Canadian Stocks, 32% American stocks, 8% Global and 20% Bond.
Would you please advise what to buy? or if you have better combination.
Thank you.

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: I have most sectors covered thanks to your Portfolio Analytics. Thanks so much. However I have a very large and growing allocation in Vanguard Dividend Appreciate (VIG:US). My international investments (non-US) are small and need a boost. What would you suggest I do to diversify internationally using ETFs?

Q: I am continuing to try and "perfect" my portfolio allocations. Your Portfolio Analytics program has been a huge asset, and has caused me to really re-think things. I am close to retirement, and can accept some risk but not looking to create an above-average risk portfolio.

For equity investments, I am aiming for about 35% US, and 35% international. I would like safety and growth, and am willing to have some risk. Once I am happy with the final portfolio, I hope to be able to "walk away" for the next few years and let it grow. I have a preference for the "dividend growers" strategy.

Does this allocation make sense to you, for both international and US equities? Are there any changes you would recommend?:

US Dividend growers (e.g. DGRO, VIG): 20% of equity portfolio
US Quality: 10% (e.g. VOO)
US SME: 5% (e.g. IWO)

International dividend growers (e.g. VIGI, iGRO, ZDI): 20% of equity portfolio
International Quality: 10% (e.g. XEF)
Emerging markets: 5% (e.g. VEE, ZEM)

Thank you so much for this amazing service!

Q: Which one would 5i prefer, VIG vs DGRO?
Thanks!

lil

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: Which would you prefer to beef up US exposer in an RRSP

Q: these 4 holdings are held in equal weight in a RRSP account and have some US cash and wonder what you think the best ETF would be to complement what is currently owned?
Thanks

Q: In my registered accounts I have a full position in VGG. Doing very well.
In my US account I hold WMT. Gone from $98 to $112 over a relatively short period of time.Thinking of cashing in and buying VIG.
Ignore sector allocation. Purely for performance ,dividend growth and a little more diversification .WMT seems to have done well in its competition with Amazon. Has it run out of steam.

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: 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: Hi,

Would you prefer one of these over the other for US dividend exposure?

Q: Total portfolio $632000: 2 RRIF’s, 2 TFSA’s , 1 non registered C$ account and 1 non registered U$ account.
In registered accounts 4.3% of total portfolio In VGG.
In non registered U$ account WMT with BV of
U$ 9294.55.
If sold at today’s MV would return 10.3% in a little less than 6 months.
What is your opinion on selling WMT and using funds plus additional cash of 6000U$ to buy
VIG.
This would make approx 7% in US.
I also own , what I consider quasi US, AQN in TFSA and ENB in several of the accounts.
Appreciate your input.
Thanks