Investment Q&A

Q: I am a new retiree and interested in income, with some growth. What ETF or ETFs would you recommend for a non-registered account? Thank you.

Q: Hello,
I am thinking about buying VGRO for my RRSP account and have a question about management fees. According to Vanguard Canada website the management fee for this fund is 0.22%. However, the only holdings for VGRO are seven other Vanguard ETFs... will I be paying these 0.22% on top of management fees for these seven ETFs or this number is a weighted average of management fees for holdings?
In other words, if I buy a Vanguard ETF that holds other ETFs, will I be paying just the management fee for main ETF or I will indirectly pay management fees for both main ETF and "nested" ETFs?

Q: Good morning,

All four of our family TFSAs and RESP are invested in a mix of Mawer equity and balanced funds.

I'm reading a number of very favourable articles on the benefits of holding a one etf solution for a well diversified portfolio and was wondering if I should consider:
a. keeping the Mawer funds in our TFSAs and RESP but purchasing either VBAL or CBD.A for new TFSA and RESP contributions;
b. Sell all of our MAWER funds and buy either VBAL, CBD.A and perehaps some VGRO for the RESP given that our grandchildren are only 7 years old.

Your thoughts and adjustment suggestion to our TFSA and RESP holdings would be appreciated. Thank you.

Franco

Q: Hello: I am in the process of setting up a TFSA for my 25 years old daughter with ETFs where she can contribute whenever she has money. My questions are: 1) Is the ETF portfolio a simple way to invest? 2) What do you think about portfolio with just one ETF - VGRO? 3) Since it will be a DIY portfolio, is there any advantage in opening the account with Questrade/Wealthsimple in comparison to with TDwaterhouse? 4) if I don’t go with VGRO only, what ratios of XWD, VFV, VGG, HXQ, XSU +/- any other ETF do you recommend while keeping costs/MERs very low?

Q: In addition to some individual stocks, I'm invested in the above ETFs in a (hopefully not foolish) attempt to diversify my portfolio but also increase my exposure to the US tech market; in particular tech companies involved in cloud computing. Generally, I've been splitting my funds about equally between these four ETFs. Can you give me your thoughts on this strategy and in particular, the weighting of these ETFs (investing roughly equally between these 4 ETFs)?

Q: Would this be a suitable ETF to begin a TFSA for a young person just established in a job? They have student debt and other expenses to focus on, but I would like to give them a bit of a start on saving/investing with a small TFSA.

Q: Hey Guys,
Would you buy these ETFs today?
Are there other ETFs you prefer today.
This is for a long term hold.
Thank you,
John.

Q: I'm considering investing my entire TFSA in either VGRO or VBAL.
Would you recommend one or over the other, or perhaps a different strategy?
Thank you.

Q: 5i team: would you please advise on your opinion on these ETFs. Is it a good opportunity to buy into a new etf when the initial price is about 10$ or is this a misconception on value. In contrast to say vbal & vgro at the 25$ range? Also can you coment on mpcf . If it was a core holding what could compliment it as for diversity. Do all of the above have enough canadian exposure? Tks

Q: Setting up a dollar cost averaging buy of VGRO. From your experience is there a time of month where stocks tend to under perform, for example, triple witching events at the end of a month?

Q: Hi,
Im young (33) with good income and savings for investment for the long term. Im thinking of putting my portfolio 50% into etfs for long growth and 50% into equities for faster growth. I like the etfs since it has been shown time and time again that it is rare to beat the market long term with just selecting individual companies. With the 50% in individual equities, I would rebalance probably once per year (unless large bumps in price happen) to take profits and move them to the etfs to maintain the 50% split for a while and protect against losses. Do you think this is good approach? What basket of etfs would you recommend for this approach? Or would you look at something all in one like VGRO? If a basket of etfs is recommended would you prefer hedged or unhedged? I have read/heard a lot about a coming recession and potential dive in the US dollar (from people like Peter Schiff), so Im not really sure how to protect against that (other than growing my cash reserves also to be ready to purchase on a large drop). Or would you use a combination of ETFS and gold somehow? Thanks for putting up with my rambling here, please deduct what you need to for credits.

Thanks

Q: Our 35 year old son parted ways with his financial advisor and I have been chosen to invest the sizeable cash balance in his rrsp. I get that you discourage market timing. Many are talking about a late 2019 correction; who knows. I can average in over 6 months, but that is little help if the above correction happens. I can average in over 18 months; is this practical. I don't want to be the one responsible if he suffers a large draw down.

Based on your years of successful investing, please help me benefit from that experience and comment what you would do in this situation. The etfs mentioned would be the investment vehicles.
Thank you for your input.

Q: I have about 7 years before i will need to withdraw and money from my RSP's. With $100K to invest how much would you recommend to put in each of the above managed ETF's. Just want to invest and not look at them until the 7 years are up. I am open to other suggestions?

Q: My son was very disappointed with his financial advisor so I have been asked to assist in the setup of a retirement fund that will consist solely of a RRSP for now. He is very hands off right now, but I hope to change that.

I like Vgro for the diversification, automatic rebalancing and low mer. Can you suggest a companion multi factor or rafi global etf for further diversification. I am having difficulty finding something with reasonable daily volume. Thank you.

Q: For portfolio diversity using ETFs. what do you think of simply buying VGRO instead of an XAW/PMIF type combo or would you recommend another equity/bond mix?

Q: What would you consider good weightings in a portfolio for the above ETF's? If you were building a fairly aggressive growth portfolio with these as your base what other ETF's would you suggest to get a start on diversifying a bit?

Q: My children (early 30s age) have $25,000 each in their TFSAs. What might you recommend for them? Thanks.

Q: What do you think about Vanguard's VGRO ETF as a one stop measure for long term investors?

Q: I currently hold 3% on VBAL should I increase to 5% or would you suggest to add another ETF VRGO. Currently ETF portfolio I hold VE, VEE, XSP, VBAL - 3% each
Do you recommend I add another VGRO ETF or just add 2% each on above ETF?

Thanks
Hector

Q: I have been happily and successfully managing my own investments for 15 years primarily with the help of independent analyst services such as 5i (Thank You). I have always dedicated 5 - 10% of my portfolio to small and micro cap investments and met with great success until recently. The last two years I have seen really poor results from my small/micro cap investments with several big losers and none of the big 2, 3 or 5x winners. IOM is the latest kick in the head for me. I am finding that these sudden big losses stick with me emotionally more than they used too, probably because I am now fully retired and the absence of earned income is pushing me to a more conservative approach. Accordingly I am considering revising my strategy away from individual company investments and simply buying a good small cap and/or micro cap fund or ETF. Could you please comment generally on my strategic thinking here and also suggest some ETF or funds I might want to consider. Low Management expenses preferred of course.