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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: Hi,
I'm 60 years old and have $135,000 cash in my in my RRSP brokerage account that I would like to put to work. I have a defined benefit pension plan, however, I plan on drawing down on this money in approximately 5 years. Would you suggest I mirror your balanced or income portfolio? Or go with a diversified ETF portfolio? Your suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Curtis
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on March 20, 2017
Q: I am relatively new to managing my own investments and understand the importance to position sizing etc. I am 62 with of course the need for solid income portfolio in a few years. However as I review my portfolio and determine forward tactics I wonder if I am getting to heavy in sector sizing. For instance when I look at income I have 27% in financials, 20% in utilities, 14% in real estate etc.. Or for growth 8% in hi tech.

What strategic advice can you offer on sector position sizing?

Thank you


Steve

Read Answer Asked by Stephen on March 20, 2017
Q: Hello.
I need some advice on ETF, one Canadian and one US. I was thinking Spy for US but not sure for Canadian ETF. I own 27 equities 65% CDN & 35% US. I have two accounts that I would like each one to contain an ETF. I would then twice a year take all my dividends and repurchase shares in the same ETF. Seeing that the ETF holds many equities in different sectors to my way of thinking I would not have to think of asset allocation nor the size of my position.? Or should I? Right now all my positions are below 5%. Good Strategy?

Regards.
Read Answer Asked by Robert on March 20, 2017
Q: I've never had any interest in ETFs until yesterday a friend told me the error of my ways. He gave me two names ZSP and ZWB that both have annual combined returns (yield & growth) exceeding 20%. It was a real eye opener for sure.

Do you know where can I find reports on line that rate the performance of most Canadian traded ETFs? As well, do you have other ETF names that are comparable in combined returns with ZWB and ZSP that you can recommend?

Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Victor on March 20, 2017
Q: Planning to increase my stock portfolio with about 8% of SIS and 11% of CSH.UN
Would they be good stocks to add for longer term, conservative and dividend holding?
If you would recommend the stocks then go with the 8% & 11% split or would you suggest a 50/50 split.
Thanks, John
Read Answer Asked by John on March 20, 2017
Q: On Friday Helen suggested an innovative solution re avoiding potential duty but even if it was feasible the solution would not restrict supply which is the goal for the US players.

The softwood lumber trade dispute is not so much about finished lumber crossing the border as it is about land management. In recent years, the largest CDN domiciled companies have purchased 30-40 mills in the US because buying US mills is more profitable than investing in CDN mills. That is evidence against the US claim that gov't subsides make it cheaper to produce in Canada. Also, US owners have been bailing out of operating Canadian mills.

Large US companies want the value of their timber land to increase which is mainly why they attempt to restrict supply. For example, the largest US timber holder is WY, (NY). WY owns about 13,000,000 acres of timber currently valued about $1,000 acre. If they can restrict supply, the average value could appreciate to $2,000 - $2500 acre. The "trade" dispute is more about wanting to increase US based inventory values than unfair subsidies for CDN manufacturers.

Phil
Read Answer Asked by thomas philip on March 19, 2017
Q: This is a comment on Ken's question of this morning regarding LFE. I have analyzed this split share and I thought this might be of benefit to subscribers.: LFE net asset value (NAV) as of February 28 is $ 5.44. The dividends will be discontinued again if NAV goes below $ 5. The portfolio which consists of the four insurance companies Manulife, Sunlife, Greatwest life and Industrial Alliance has to produce a net return of $ 1.825 per unit ($ .625 for the preferred and $ 1.20 for the common) to maintain its dividends. Adding a .75% management fee so the total return for the portfolio has to exceed 11.8 % based on the NAV today. This I think is difficult for a portfolio manager to produce consistently. But if interest rate environment favors life insurance companies this might be achievable. The common share dividends is declared by the manager and to my knowledge the amount is not specific, so it could go up or down. The company uses options to supplement the return and according to their document uses some sort of derivatives which may help increase or (decrease) the value of the unit. Since its IPO, of $25 for both units in 2006 it paid $ 13 ( $ 6.35 for the preferred and $ 6.70 for the common). So yes I consider it risky but the IPO was right before the 2007 crash and lower interest environment which devastated life insurance companies. Although its past is not great, perhaps the future is brighter and it is not without its risk.
Read Answer Asked by Saad on March 18, 2017
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