Since pharmaceutical patents are expiring left and right, do you have any info on ETF’s that include those who are about to benefit the most, so: pharmacies, generics, medical/pharmaceutical wholesalers…

In USA there’s EVX, PBD, PBW, GEX, PZD, PHO to name a few.

But, I have noticed that they trail the performance of the market as a whole. You do get the peace of mind that you are investing in green etfs, but you may not be able to get a good performance. However, things may change in the future as more and more people decide to go green or the natural resources such as water and clean air become a rarity with the ever-increasing population on our planet.

I’m planning to build with 90% equities, and 10% bonds. I also like the idea of earning dividends and utilizing DRIPs where available. The following is what I’m currently thinking:

20% CDZ
20% XDV
20% VTI
20% XIN
10% XGD
10% XBB

This should leave my MER <0.5%, give me exposure to most of the major indicies, decent diversification, as well as some growth from dividend income.

Comments?

In RRSP:
Developed: Large Cap: DND, EWP
Developed: Large Cap Value: EFV, EWG
Developed: Mid Cap: EWO
Developed: Mid/Small Cap Value: DLS, DGS
Developed: Real Estate: DRW
Developed: Fixed Income/Bonds: FXA (using currency ETF for my fixed income portion)
Emerging: Large Cap: VWO, DWX
Emerging: Large Cap Value: DEM
Emerging: Mid Cap: GULF
Emerging: Small Cap: BRF
Emerging: Fixed Income: PCY, FXM

US: Large Cap Value: VPU
US: Mid Cap Value: CVY
US: Small Cap Value: IWC
US: Real Estate: VNQ
US: Fixed Income: BIV, TLT, BND, TIP, IEF, JNK, HYG

Non-RRSP
Canadian: Large Cap: XMA, XIU
Canadian: Large Cap Value: XCV, XDV
Canadian: Mid Cap: XMD
Canadian: Mid Cap Value: CDZ
Canadian: Real Estate: XRE
Canadian: Fixed Income: XRB, XSB

Of course there is a way around this by doing Norbert’s Gambit

http://www.finiki.org/index.php?title=Norbert%27s_Gambit

http://www.financialwebring.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=198

With certain brokerages it is actually quite easy to do in your SDRSP account.

Can you help me out. Is it possible to hold VBR or VTI within my Canadian RRSP account?

All of my choices are based on what I’ve read from your website, but perhaps my conclusions are funny to some but as a novice investor (no previous experience) I chose what I thought to be logical, but please feel free to share your opinions.

1st off, I don’t hold anything today, so why did I think it best to hold XIC & XIU?;

1 – I see that you like XIU because of the low MER & I also noticed in your RESP post you like to put 30% in Canadian Equity (which I’ve come to the conclusion these are?)
2 – Other posters explained why they prefer XIC (and they allocate 20%) So I thought 10% XIU & 20% XIC was a good compromise, but maybe not…

VBB (US small cap) & VRB (US small cap value) where what Ryan listed higher in this post which I assume are (US Equity) which you also like to allocate 30% to.

As per XRE, guess I missed the boat on that one, but it was also taken from Ryan’s portfolio.

Though I try to be informed about finances I guess the old saying (knowing the path & walking the path are 2 different things) stays true to me. I thought it might be a good time to get my feet wet & join the game.

I’m also thinking of waiting till mid October before I do any buying, after reading your last net worth update I decided to search the internet about a possible market correction in Sept. & Oct. & it sounds like there might be a drop of a good 10% (any thoughts?) I’d hate to jump in and instantly loose 10% on my investment…

I recently visited http://finance.yahoo.com/etf to try and track down the ETFs in what could possibly become my 1st portfolio, but I wasn’t able to find all the ETF symbols (including VRB nor VBB) & there are others like VEA which don’t even look like they’ve made any money since they began & I wonder why someone would like this one… is it because it pays dividends?

What would be nice is if there were an article for someone who is just starting out who knows they will never be a REAL stack trader & believes in ETFs. With a few pics of what one should choose & if they wanted to get into the market, should they start now? or wait till mid October in the event of a market adjustment? & if he/she wanted to invest all year, should he/she open an account with TD to buy e-funds by-weekly following your RESP strategy & sell them off each year to buy more ETFs.

Thanks in advance ;-)

Seems like it would be a good choice to “plunk” a few thousand into ETFs into your TFSA in 2010…

As well, what is VBB and VRB?

One more note, XRE covers REITs which aren’t considered fixed income. It acts more like an equity than fixed income.

Great discussion. Honestly I frequently read about finance, but have been a little slow jumping into the pool. I’ve taken my first steps in opening a discount brokerage account with Questrade thanks to MDJs article.

So the plan is to buy ETFs now (and once a year thereafter) and continue to buy group RRSPs at work which I plan to open an account with TD to buy e-funds by-weekly following FTs RESP strategy & follow Ryan’s suggestion to sell them off each year to buy more ETFs.

I know I’m not starting out with much (just a little over 15K) but I think it will be the least amount I will be contributing each year & I believe we may be selling our house soon (which means I may pay back the money from the HBP of 40K between my wife & I)

By mixing & matching info I’ve gathered on many MDJ threads I will probably shoot to allocate my money as follows (though I’m an avid follower of MDJ I will make an excellent couch potato candidate since I don’t really follow the markets all that much):

Canada – total 30% $4,500
20% – XIC $3,000
10% – XIU $1,500

US – total 30% $4,500
20% – VTI $3,000
5% – VBB $750
5% – VRB $750

Internat. – total 30% $4,500
20% – VEA $3,000
10% – VWO $1,500

Fixed – 10% $1,500
5% – XSB $750
5% – XRE $750

Any feedback would greatly be appreciated. Maybe buying so many different stocks/ETFs is ill advised with such small funds? or I’m really missing some fundamentals? I just don’t know… I read the article about when’s best to switch from e-series to ETFs, but then with many other comments (like Ryan mentioning that buying everything all at once can really cut down on the costs) & ETFs low MER over the long haul, I thought it might be best just to jump in!

I’ve also been thinking about investing inside of a TFSA & have also been thinking since I plan to join the OPP in the near future (with an amazing pension plan) I should consider cutting back a bit on investments inside my RRSPs. Any thoughts?

I’m researching to replace many high MER funds with an asset allocation for long term investing and rebalancing once a year. I’m already using ETFs in my son’s RESP, but I’m currently wondering if I’m not going to buy individual stocks instead of ETFs given the somewhat large dollar amount that’s going to go in index ETFs.

I’ve read that a good diversification is attained for an allocation class with “only” 20 stocks. So lets say you have 100,000$ to put in one sector (for example large caps canadian stocks), that would mean 5000$ per stock with a 10$ commission (0.2%) and no other fees (except when selling of course). For a long term buy and hold investment, saving fees charged by ETFs would be a bonus at the expense of additional research on my part (even though I must admit these fees are tiny compared to what we were paying before).

I’m also not considering buying bond ETFs, but investing directly into bonds to build a bond ladder.

I’ll probably consider ETFs for overseas investments though. It will just be easier that way.

Essentially, how big do you think a portfollio should be before buying individual stocks makes sense? Or do you think picking stocks individually is not worth the trouble giving the low MER of ETFs?

One advantage I see for individual stocks is that you don’t have all your eggs in the same basket, namely the fund company.

So what do you think?

Instead of VEA, what about XIN which trades on the TSX? Pros and cons?

thanks