Hi everyone,
I'm trying to move us to a 60/40 stock/bond split. Right now, we're at about 67/33.
ASSET CLASS Target Actual
Cash 2% 8%Fixed Income Investments 38% 24%
Canadian Bonds
Equity Investments 60% 67%Canadian 10% 11%
REIT 3% 4%
US 32% 33%
International XEF 2.7% 4%
Emerging Markets XEC 2% 3%
Global (ex Canada) 10% 11%
One fund (VBAL & VGRO) 0.3% 1%
Total
100% 100%
1. Does this split look reasonable? I know we're overweighted in the U.S., compared to some simple portfolios of 20/20/20 Canada/US/International, but I love the US returns compared to Canadian and even international.
2. Simplifying our accounts. We have a ton of accounts. I'd like to move from my main one to Questrade, but Questrade won't cover more than one account per household, and I saw one fee schedule that charged $315 to transfer each full or partial account, and we have at least 9. Questrade said the best it could do was offer us some free trades per account.
3. According to the 4% rule and FIREcalc, we're good to retire. By the end of the year, if the stock market holds, we'll be at 3% or lower. But Moneygeek, for example, has a retirement calculator for members only (
https://www.moneygeek.ca/members/retirement-planner/#) that suggests I need to work through 2019 to get us over a 95% success rate.
4. Bond options for business/US accounts? I'm trying to do Justin Bender's suggestion of splitting between GIC's and bond funds:
https://www.pwlcapital.com/en/Advisor/Toronto/Toronto-Team/Blog/Justin-Bender/December-2017/The-Most-Boring-Battle-Ever-Bond-ETFs-or-GICsBut I hate how all my bond funds are in the red, and GIC's will only keep up with inflation if I lock them up for 4-5 years.
I'm struggling to find decent GIC's either in USD or for a business account.
I did buy some preferred shares and already have REIT's.
5. Some people max out their RESP and forgo the Canadian grant. Others say you can invest outside the RESP and transfer it in and still get the grant. We've been doing the latter. Not sure which is best.
I have more questions, but those are the toughies: where to allocate our money right now, and if people think even 3 or 3.5% burn rate is not acceptable to FIRE?
Thanks!
Signed,
Ready to Rock