skip to content
  1. Home
  2. >
  3. Investment Q&A
You can view 3 more answers this month. Sign up for a free trial for unlimited access.

Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: Thanks for your very helpful and informative service. I have the following stocks in an RESP for three young grandchildren. Could you kindly suggest any of them that I should sell or add to along with three other names in order of preference which I could buy with new money. THX.
Read Answer Asked by Dona on December 24, 2020
Q: In our investment accounts, reg and non-reg combined, we have: PSLV @ 3.5%, PHYS @ 3.5%, BCE @ 9.72%, BNS @ 6.6%, KEY @ 3.5% VSC @ 5.7% and ENB @ 6.6%. I have a significant cash balance which is available for the right opportunity. Thus far nothing jumps out as “buy me now”.
We have smaller allocations [2% to 3%] to FTS, MFC, ALA, KEY, SU each and a number at less than 2%.
Given we are retired I’m wondering about increasing some of these allocations on any market general pullback? I usually focus on liquidity and free cash flow as two of my selection criteria as well as comments you make to questions asked of 5i.
Thanks for an advice you can provide.
Read Answer Asked by Ronald on December 22, 2020
Q: Hi,
What is your general opinion of investing in segregated funds? I understand that there are some great benefits for estate planning purposes as you get older, i.e. bypassing probate/estate fees, quick transfer of funds to beneficiaries, guaranteed death benefit, etc... but are the high MER fees (>2%) really worth it? I was helping my mom who is retired look into some of her investments in her TFSA and her advisor has her in invested in these two Manulife products, MPS4959 and MPS4980. Thoughts on these two funds? Do these two funds pay dividends or have a distribution yield? Could not find it.
Aside from the benefits I mentioned above where you only get with Seg funds, and looking at just the pure investment return/structure of the funds, could you suggest 4-5 other attractive ETF's that she could invest in that would outperform these over the next 10-20 years? I would like to switch her into some low cost ETF's or an all in one fund that are either comparable(balanced fund) or better than these two expensive products. She is close to 70, won't need to draw any of this money to live on (she has other sources of income) and looking for some steady and stable growth assuming life expectancy for another 15-25 years. Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Keith on December 18, 2020
Q: hello 5i:
You were recently asked a question about which stock would be your first purchase if you were a fund manager and you chose CRWD. A different type of question: you are now the fund manager of a Canadian Income fund: what would be your first purchase? If the answer is different, what would be your first purchase for a stock that would act more like a GIC, but with a better yield?
Paul L
Read Answer Asked by Paul on December 15, 2020
Q: I am looking at reducing the number of holdings that I currently have. Please rate the sell order you would have for the above companies
Read Answer Asked by James on December 14, 2020
Q: Thinking of adding some telecom/media exposure to my portfolio. BCE is the only one in your portfolios. Would you buy BCE right now or do one of the others offer a better buying opportunity currently. 5 year hold, I follow a hybrid of growth and income portfolios with more recent moves toward income thus the interest in these names. Or is it evan a good time to buy into this sectors?
Read Answer Asked by Tom on December 11, 2020
Q: My wife has the above shares in a RRIF and we have to sell a few shares of one of them to provide enough cash for the monthly payout.
They each have, or have had their benefits but I'd be interested to know which ones I should start with at the present.
I've been inclined to sell losers as opposed to winners in the past and I am wondering whether to ditch ENB which is in the red, but if there were to be turnaround with ENB, the bounce might mean that BCE, which is a slow lumbering beast might be a better choice. Your thoughts?
Read Answer Asked by John on December 03, 2020
Q: Could I get suggestions for long term dividend paying stocks for a young investor to add to these stocks.
Read Answer Asked by Roy on December 03, 2020
Q: Have $12,000.00 to invest, current BMO Inv Line allocation is as follows:
Communication 8%
Cons Disc 21%
Cons Staples 13%
Energy 6%
Financials 32%
Health Care 11%
Info Tech 1%
Companies held AW, RBC, SLF, SBUX, WMT, BCE, PFZ,SIS, BB, ENB, TNY, HEXO,VTR,ParkLawn

Would appreciate your thoughts on how I could deploy the cash.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on November 30, 2020
Q: Hi 5i,
Please rank the safety of current dividend payments over the next 3 years for the companies listed below. Assign a 10 for absolutely no chance of a reduction and a 1 for almost certain a reduction will happen in the next 3 years. Although I do not want to influence you on the rankings, I would give the Royal Bank a 10 as an example.

AP.un
ALA
BCE
BIP.un
BPY.un

Please deduct as many credits as you see fit.

Thanks
John
Read Answer Asked by John on November 24, 2020
Q: Good day,
I have built my daughter's RRSP with your wise direction. She is up 15 to 25% on BAM;EMA;FTS;L;OTEX;RY; BEP and RBF 1030.(My choice) Wonderful. Thank you. We are down in descending order on ENB;CSH;BCE and MFC.

Overweight in Utilities and Financials but okay with that.

Would you add to the latter group? Add any new ones.

Looking forward to Peter on BBN Tuesday.

Long term 25 years+. Many thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Paul on November 16, 2020
Q: What is your take on the move by Telus into health data management and now agricultural data? Is this a long way from their core business? Do you think they will be able to compete with those already in the precision ag space (Ntr for example)? Most importantly, if I already own BCE, are they also getting into these sorts of data management activities, or should I be adding T to my portfolio?
Read Answer Asked by David on November 13, 2020
Q: I currently hold BCE, and I was wondering if it might be worthwhile to sell BCE to purchase Cogeco, as there was previously an offering by Rogers and Altice to buy the remaining shares at what sounded like roughly a 60% premium to current prices. I know the offer was explicitly rejected, but could this mean that either another offer is on its way, or perhaps that there is significant untapped potential in Cogeco? If this is a worthwhile trade, shares of CCA do more volume than CGO - would that be the more prudent purchase? As always, I appreciate your insight, and look forward to reading your comments. Thanks again!
Read Answer Asked by Domenic on November 12, 2020
Q: Hi,
if you were putting a fund together comparable to VGG, but for Canadian equities, what might be your first 5 top picks assuming the same criteria for the ETF? Also, what would be your 3 honorable mentions?
When comparing CDZ and VGG what are the main differences in terms of the stocks that make up these two ETF's?
Many thanks,
Dan
Read Answer Asked by Daniel on October 27, 2020
Q: You have referred to some stocks and ETFs as CORE. What percentage of portfolio would you recommend as core (relative to satellite holdings) and what would be the number of core stocks and ETFs for diversification. What core stocks and ETFs across all sectors would you recommend?.
Read Answer Asked by sam on October 22, 2020