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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: I feel considerable empathy for the person who's throwing in the towel on HCG, as I have watched my holding plunge by 10, 20, 30, 40 and now 50%. i have decided to take the advice of the poster suggesting ignoring the day to day noise; I've gone a step farther and decided to treat it as "lost" money now that it's become a fairly insignificant portion of my portfolio. I'm not at a stage in my life where I can wait for a seriously long term recovery, but thanks to you, I'm sufficiently diversified that I do't need to.

On another note: an earlier poster was looking for an ETF with a lower financial holding. At 23%, I think CDZ is lower than most.
Read Answer Asked by M.S. on October 03, 2016
Q: I have opened an in trust investment account for my two children aged 9 and 10. At this time I have $5000 for each. This money is not intended for their education as I a saving for this separately. I would like for this money to sit for them long term and grow. I would like to buy one or two stocks for long term growth and a decent dividend is a bonus. Can you suggest one or two stocks that fit this category. I do plan to add small amounts over time for them.
Read Answer Asked by Sarah on September 30, 2016
Q: I have these prefs in my rrsp,they are down a lot,paying between 5.5 and 6.4%,would I be better off holding them and hope they recover or selling them and buying etfs such as cdp,zdv or cdz.Any suggestion you guys have would be greatly appreciated.
Read Answer Asked by terry on September 30, 2016
Q: My friends who invest in the housing I.e rental apartments/townhouses seem to be making outsize returns...I personally feel this is because their purchases are highly leveraged. They require only a 20 to 25% down payment to buy a rental property. I personally think it is much safer and easier using a diversified groups of stocks.. especially with the great advise from 5i.but to make outsized returns one needs to borrow money..Banks give preferential rates for home purchases.whereas equity purchases are treated as riskier investments.What are your thoughts on this? I would also like it if your members weigh in on this subject.
Read Answer Asked by Shyam on September 29, 2016
Q: When calculating sector distribution I include all equities, both foreign and domestic. Have I missed the point, since sector correlation will be different overseas relative to US/Canada, except for cases such as commodities that are global in nature. With that in mind, how should I break down the analysis? 1. Domestic, US and international each separately, 2. combine US/domestic and treat international separately, 3. don't bother tracking international sector allocation (mostly market ETFs). I tend to use US companies to fill sector gaps where Canada is weak (e.g. health care).I also wonder how to treat the US megacap multinationals.
Read Answer Asked by Benjamin on September 28, 2016
Q: I have the (dubious ?) honour of being age 71, and as such I must convert my RRSP into a RRIF by this year-end. I am also aware of a rule that allows me to use my spouse's age (younger) to determine the minimum percentage that must be withdrawn each year. I further understand that the CRA rules do not allow any change once this choice is made.
The minute CRA says there cannot be any changes, a red flag goes up, and I wonder if I am missing something. Do you (or other subscribers) know of any reason why I should re-consider choosing the lower withdrawal rate. Thanks for your great service. T.
Read Answer Asked by Terrance on September 27, 2016
Q: Hello Peter and team:

You may want to perhaps address this question through your Blog or answer it here. Whatever you think is appropriate is fine with me.

What do think of the article in the Globe, Report on Business section, Saturday September 24 2016 edition by David Milstead on Big companies using non GAAP methods to report their earnings, profit, write downs and such. Except Imperial Oil, all the companies fail GAAP standards his article claims.
Many of the companies that you recommend don't fare well in the analysis by Veritas. For example Agnico, Manu Life, Magna, Interpipline etc., In fact 4 out of 5 companies negatively highlighted by the Globe are your favourites! Interestingly all the banks fare reasonably well which surprised me! The same bankers who "forced" the Govt to enact "opt in" measure come out as "reasonable"?
I went through the table provided by Veritas very carefully. I find that the following companies seem to have the least variance between GAAP and non GAAP measures: AGU ATD, BCE, BMO, BNS, CM, CNR,CTC, DOL, EMA, GIL, IMO, MRU, NA, POT,POW, PPL,RCI, RY, SAP,SJR,SNC,T, TD, WN.
Am I right in interpreting that these companies are "reasonably" clean in their corporate governance? Does this list by Veritas correlate with other lists by other companies that measure or evaluate ethics of a company by entirely another set of variables?

Do you folks consider this accounting issues when you choose a stock?
Thank you for your patience in advance. My apologies for this rather verbose question.
Read Answer Asked by Savalai on September 26, 2016
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