My financial adviser told me stock portfolio is better than ETFs?!

[julia]

I just called my adviser and told him that I will be switching to Questrade (I pay him 1.6% yearly). He told me that my portfolio (made up of mostly individual stocks) has outperformed the market when it went down end of 2018 and that my portfolio was actually up when the rest of the market was down. He told me he doesn't agree that ETFs are better than individual stocks.

I spent weeks researching and coming up with an ETF portfolio that I would implement once I switched over to Questrade. All my confidence went out the window in a 20 minute call.

This was going to be my portfolio if I invested on my own in Questrade btw:

TFSA: 55k XAW.TO,   2.5k BYND
RRSP: 2.5k XIC.TO (or whatever amount to get my 2019 income below 43k)
Taxable: 4k XIC.TO,   4k ZDV.TO,   16k VAB.TO

-TFSA is maxed out, I have 14800$ in RRSP contribution room, I'm 25, and I'm aiming for an 80 equity/20 fixed split

Why wouldn't I just ditch the ETF idea and continue with my stock portfolio if it has returned positive numbers for the last 5 years?

[utaca]

TFSA limit is $63,500 (https://www.advisor.ca/tax/tax-news/tfsa-limit-for-2019-released/).

Your advisor has a vested (conflict of) interest in convincing you he can beat the market. He could be the extremely rare genius who can consistently beat the market over a long period of time. He's probably not.

[daverobev]

 "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
-- Upton Sinclair

It really is that simple. By the way, I very much doubt you're paying 1.6% a month.

Just get the money out. EJ are serving themselves, not their clients. The stock market has done very well, any numbers they show you will be cherry picked.

[daverobev]

TFSA limit is $63,500 (https://www.advisor.ca/tax/tax-news/tfsa-limit-for-2019-released/).

Depending on how old you are, and if you have been resident in Canada the whole time. If you weren't 18 in 2009, you don't get room until you were.

https://www.milliondollarjourney.com/how-much-tfsa-contribution-room-do-i-have.htm

[Prairie Stash]

Classic. Tell him you want to compare returns for several years. Anyone who cherry picks a single month is talking down to you; its insulting. If I ever do that I should be kicked in the ass and I apologize if I ever have.

My portfolio has returned positive for much longer. You can actually look at my returns and see what they were for the last decade. All that information is on the prospectus for each of your picks and for mine.

For example; XIC (as of Aug 31, 2019) has returned 4.40% over the past year including December 2018, whats your overall return on the year? Over the past 3 years for XIC, 7.20% (so 1.072*1.072*1.072=1.23; that means $1000 invested 3 years ago is worth $1,230 today). Over the past decade, 7.18%/year is the average (since its compounded it actually means 1000 invested 10 years ago is worth $2000 today, the investment has doubled in value). You can get more exact numbers if you know buy/sell dates but in general, the annual returns tells you to a close enough degree.

Over the past 10 years did he do better than 7.18+1.6%=8.78%, would your money (after fees) have doubled? Over the past 3 years that's 8.80%/year he would need to beat.  Fees really bite into your returns, you should only ever compare returns after fees; unfortunately its common to post returns before fees to make it look better (sneaky).

https://www.blackrock.com/ca/individual/en/products/239837/ishares-sptsx-capped-composite-index-etf

I'm not disputing a thing, instead of arguing lets let math do the talking. I have only asked for EJ to provide numbers that allow you to judge better. I try to avoid one sided arguments with people hiding information, so I'll attempt transparency. XIC has provided you with all the information you need, now its EJ's turn. On your side you need to do a weighted average of the ETF returns, I just used XIC as a quick example.

For fun, the rule of 72. A compound  interest rate of 7.2% over 10 years will double the initial amount. The rule of 72 is simply this, you take 72 and divide it by the rate of return (72/7.2%) and you get the number of years until you double your money. so a rate of 10% means you double your money in 7.2 years, fun math!

Does that make sense? We can all be friends (EJ rep too) and let math tell us the truth of the matter.

[julia]

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
-- Upton Sinclair

It really is that simple. By the way, I very much doubt you're paying 1.6% a month.

Woops sorry! Thanks for catching that - 1.6% spread out over the course of a year.

TFSA limit is $63,500 (https://www.advisor.ca/tax/tax-news/tfsa-limit-for-2019-released/).

I wasn't 18 in 2009 so my contribution amount ain't that high sadly.

[julia]

Classic. Tell him you want to compare returns for several years. Anyone who cherry picks a single month is talking down to you; its insulting. If I ever do that I should be kicked in the ass and I apologize if I ever have.

My portfolio has returned positive for much longer. You can actually look at my returns and see what they were for the last decade. All that information is on the prospectus for each of your picks and for mine.

For example; XIC (as of Aug 31, 2019) has returned 4.40% over the past year including December 2018, whats your overall return on the year? Over the past 3 years for XIC, 7.20% (so 1.072*1.072*1.072=1.23; that means $1000 invested 3 years ago is worth $1,230 today). Over the past decade, 7.18%/year is the average (since its compounded it actually means 1000 invested 10 years ago is worth $2000 today, the investment has doubled in value). You can get more exact numbers if you know buy/sell dates but in general, the annual returns tells you to a close enough degree.

Over the past 10 years did he do better than 7.18+1.6%=8.78%, would your money (after fees) have doubled? Over the past 3 years that's 8.80%/year he would need to beat.  Fees really bite into your returns, you should only ever compare returns after fees; unfortunately its common to post returns before fees to make it look better (sneaky).

https://www.blackrock.com/ca/individual/en/products/239837/ishares-sptsx-capped-composite-index-etf

I'm not disputing a thing, instead of arguing lets let math do the talking. I have only asked for EJ to provide numbers that allow you to judge better. I try to avoid one sided arguments with people hiding information, so I'll attempt transparency. XIC has provided you with all the information you need, now its EJ's turn. On your side you need to do a weighted average of the ETF returns, I just used XIC as a quick example.

For fun, the rule of 72. A compound  interest rate of 7.2% over 10 years will double the initial amount. The rule of 72 is simply this, you take 72 and divide it by the rate of return (72/7.2%) and you get the number of years until you double your money. so a rate of 10% means you double your money in 7.2 years, fun math!

Does that make sense? We can all be friends (EJ rep too) and let math tell us the truth of the matter.

I love reading your replies - always so well explained and thoughtful. My adviser did state that my portfolio performed better than the market for 2018 even taking into consideration the fee he charges. He didn't tell me what % my portfolio was up compared to the market though. I do recall seeing on some spreadsheet a few months ago that my portfolio was up 1.4% in 2018 (not sure if that takes into account his fees though).

[scottish]

Look at it this way.  You're safe withdrawal rate is going to be 4%.   It you're paying him 1.6%, that's 40% of your retirement income.   Imagine what a drag that will be on your portfolio while you're accumulating.

[jeroly]

Even if he has outperformed the market (which is statistically rare for a stock picker to do in any given year, and almost unprecedented to do over the long term), it may be because he is taking big risks with your funds and the risks happened to have paid off. You actually need to examine the risk adjusted rate of return, which takes into account how risky (i.e. how wildly fluctuating) the individual stocks are.

(Extreme) example: what if he just took your money, went into a casino, and bet it all on a roll of the roulette wheel? Say he got lucky and won.  Doesn't make him a financial advisor you'd want "investing" your money in the future.

[Travis]

OP, you said a few times that your advisor made a claim to you. Did you take his word for it or did he show it to you? Can you show it to us?  It would take about 5 minutes to validate or refute his claims.

[Metalcat]

My recommendation?

Do a lot more reading on the subject matter until you feel very confident and comfortable in making your own investing decisions regardless of what anyone says.

Don't base your decisions right now on reassurance from strangers on the internet, fully educate yourself so that you don't need reassurances.

Why am I suggesting this?
It's not because the people here don't know what they're talking about. They really generally do.

I'm suggesting this because if your confidence in your strategy is so easily shaken by a likely low level sales rep with unknown level of experience and expertise, then you may not be ready to be the person with their finger on the trigger when the markets start tumbling and every single news story is telling you that what you are doing is wrong.

This guy spoke to you for a few minutes, gave you a vague notion that his stock picks for you would have outperformed an index, but he did not provide actual meaningful data to support his claim and gave you absolutely no explanation as to how or why he is supposedly able to outperform the market with his individual stock picks??

Have you two discussed in detail the rationale for choosing to be primarily invested in individual stocks?? Even if he can prove that his individual stock picks are up for one year, would that convince you to stay invested with him?
Why?

You seem to be very easily convinced by this quick phone call that he should be able to reproduce this supposed gain consistently. What evidence do you have that he can?

Again, don't take our word for it, do the reading yourself. 1.6% isn't the end of the world in terms of fees. There's no rush here. Take your time and learn what you need to in order to be able to ask people like him the right questions and assess the validity and value of their answers.

Then you will be equipped to make the right decisions for yourself, and you will be reinforced to handle the stress and anxiety of the inevitable scary times ahead when the market does something nuts and the news terrifies you.

If in the end, you feel absolutely confident in this person's experience, skill level, approach, and understanding of your needs, risk tolerance, AND you feel that the fee for his skills is worth the premium above doing it yourself, then go ahead and invest with him.

For *some* people the drag of fees on their investments is 100% worth the cost of having an intermediary who can talk them out of panic selling/market timing,/etc.

On of my dearest friends is a top notch, high fee financial advisor, and for many of her clients, she is a god send because she will fight tooth and nail with them when they try to do something stupid.

So research, learn, and do a lot of self reflection in order to figure out what your actual needs are, and gain the tools necessary to assess your options.

[wglennreid]

I just called my adviser and told him that I will be switching to Questrade (I pay him 1.6% yearly). He told me that my portfolio (made up of mostly individual stocks) has outperformed the market when it went down end of 2018 and that my portfolio was actually up when the rest of the market was down. He told me he doesn't agree that ETFs are better than individual stocks.

I spent weeks researching and coming up with an ETF portfolio that I would implement once I switched over to Questrade. All my confidence went out the window in a 20 minute call.

This was going to be my portfolio if I invested on my own in Questrade btw:

TFSA: 55k XAW.TO,   2.5k BYND
RRSP: 2.5k XIC.TO (or whatever amount to get my 2019 income below 43k)
Taxable: 4k XIC.TO,   4k ZDV.TO,   16k VAB.TO

-TFSA is maxed out, I have 14800$ in RRSP contribution room, I'm 25, and I'm aiming for an 80 equity/20 fixed split

Why wouldn't I just ditch the ETF idea and continue with my stock portfolio if it has returned positive numbers for the last 5 years?

   Here's a good book to consider reading - Random Walk on Wall Street.  Hard to give you advice without an idea of your plans but quite possible you have beaten the market over 5 years, but most likely that you will not over 20 years and you may well expose yourself to a big loss over that period.  Safer to be slow and steady.

[Beard N Bones]

I just called my adviser and told him that I will be switching to Questrade (I pay him 1.6% yearly). He told me that my portfolio (made up of mostly individual stocks) has outperformed the market when it went down end of 2018 and that my portfolio was actually up when the rest of the market was down. He told me he doesn't agree that ETFs are better than individual stocks.

I spent weeks researching and coming up with an ETF portfolio that I would implement once I switched over to Questrade. All my confidence went out the window in a 20 minute call.

This was going to be my portfolio if I invested on my own in Questrade btw:

TFSA: 55k XAW.TO,   2.5k BYND
RRSP: 2.5k XIC.TO (or whatever amount to get my 2019 income below 43k)
Taxable: 4k XIC.TO,   4k ZDV.TO,   16k VAB.TO

-TFSA is maxed out, I have 14800$ in RRSP contribution room, I'm 25, and I'm aiming for an 80 equity/20 fixed split

Why wouldn't I just ditch the ETF idea and continue with my stock portfolio if it has returned positive numbers for the last 5 years?

Questrade. 80/20 stocks/bonds. Do 100% VGRO. Easy peasy (unless you want to maximize taxation).

[julia]

Questrade. 80/20 stocks/bonds. Do 100% VGRO. Easy peasy (unless you want to maximize taxation).

I don't want to do an all in one ticker. I definitely want to optimize taxation.

Thank you all for your advise - no one really commented on my potential portfolio pickings - was it a good pick?

[TomTX]

I don't want to do an all in one ticker.

Do you know what you're talking about here?

One "ticker" (if you go back far enough to actual stock tickers) would have been one individual stock or bond. Not very diverse.

The suggested VGRO is an enormously diverse group of stocks with 20% bonds ("fixed income") - it is massively more diverse than your stock-picking salesman was trying to sell you. It's a "fund of funds" which is invested in thousands of "tickers" (individual securities)

This is a common fundmental misunderstanding of what mutual funds and ETFs are.

[BicycleB]

Questrade. 80/20 stocks/bonds. Do 100% VGRO. Easy peasy (unless you want to maximize taxation).

I don't want to do an all in one ticker. I definitely want to optimize taxation.

Thank you all for your advise - no one really commented on my potential portfolio pickings - was it a good pick?

Some of us don't have comments ready at the drop of a hat for a Canadian security because we're not from Canada. In addition to that handicap, I myself am fairly unfamiliar with Canadian taxation.

Others may be hesitant because just classifying a single choice as "good" or "bad" is way too simplistic to be accurate. You learning what would make it a "good" or "bad" choice is much more important. Whether the investment becomes profitable depends in part on your own future behavior, which is unknown. It's very good that you are trying to learn, but the real thing to do is learn more. At that point, an accurate answer will make more sense. Generally speaking, investments aren't just "good" or "bad", they're at best "good for an individual person's situation" or "bad for an individual person's situation".

That said, very good that you are interacting here and learning. A couple of details, mostly good, that leap out from skimming Vanguard's description of VGRO. Admittedly that's someone's else's suggestion, but maybe you can use these factors as things to compare to re your own ideas so far.

-VGRO is a managed fund. That involves more cost than an index fund. Bad.
-For a managed fund, the cost is very low (.22%/year). The company managing it, Vanguard, is extraordinarily effective at providing value. If you're going to have a managed fund, this is a good vendor and a decent price. Good.
-One advantage of the managed fund is that is should, and may actually, provide some wise decision making that quietly adds value or at least minimizes losses. This is more valuable now when you are learning than later. Medium for now.
-The fund has target weighting of 80% stock, 20% bonds/fixed income securities. Super important. Stock is good for long term investing, good for young investors who are strong willed enough to NOT SELL DURING DOWNTURNS. If - IF!!! - you follow the idea in caps, the 80% stock is good for long term returns. The 20% fixed income (bonds) gives some security during downtowns with relatively little reduction in returns (gains). Probably good for your situation. If!
-Growth focus. This makes relatively little difference, but does slightly increase the volatility of the fund, in return for a possible slight increase in returns. Probably medium...subject to the same IF above.

Edited to add (ETA): Your age, career stage, savings vs debt situation, spend rate, savings rate, future intentions re dwelling place, marital/children situation, and other personal factors all could affect your investment choices. Reading only this thread, I have no idea about any of them, though guessing young/no kids or spouse/positive savings rate/renting. Keep reading, including JL Collins series suggested below by Malkynn, and all of this will come into focus better.

PS. Collins is hard core pro-stock. At some point, you should read something that argues for bonds IMHO. Then you will have a clearer basis for deciding long term strategy.

For now, as long as you're not going to be short of cash, investing in any reasonable option (such as VGRO) is a good healthy thing to do. And compared to what you were doing before, .22% is far better than 1.6%!

[Metalcat]

Julia, have you read the JL Collins stock series?
I think it is a great place for you to start to better understand your options and better understand why we aren't just giving you the answers you want in this thread or your other thread.

As I said in your other thread, we can't possibly know if your portfolio picks are "good" or "bad" for you and your needs.

As others have mentioned above, VGRO really fits the bill for incredibly simple passive investing. I would recommend you read more until you intuitively understand choosing VGRO vs choosing specific ETFs to make up a very similar portfolio.

Regardless, indexing is very very different from individual stock picking, which is what you currently have, so it's very important to understand which approach is actually better for you and why.

You said you spent months putting together your proposed portfolio. What did you base it off of? What resources did you learn from already? That might help us guide you better towards useful information.

[julia]

Do you know what you're talking about here?

One "ticker" (if you go back far enough to actual stock tickers) would have been one individual stock or bond. Not very diverse.

This is a common fundmental misunderstanding of what mutual funds and ETFs are.

I know that an ETF consists of many many stocks. I thought that "ticker" simply referred to the acronym for the stock/ETF/whatever.

Julia, have you read the JL Collins stock series?
I think it is a great place for you to start to better understand your options and better understand why we aren't just giving you the answers you want in this thread or your other thread.

As I said in your other thread, we can't possibly know if your portfolio picks are "good" or "bad" for you and your needs.

As others have mentioned above, VGRO really fits the bill for incredibly simple passive investing. I would recommend you read more until you intuitively understand choosing VGRO vs choosing specific ETFs to make up a very similar portfolio.

Regardless, indexing is very very different from individual stock picking, which is what you currently have, so it's very important to understand which approach is actually better for you and why.

You said you spent months putting together your proposed portfolio. What did you base it off of? What resources did you learn from already? That might help us guide you better towards useful information.

I spent months reading sources on the internet (like this forum, rich moose, millennial revolution, etc) which helped me choose specific ETFs for a potential portfolio within the last couple weeks. Once I decided I wanted an 80/20 allocation, I focused mostly on putting the ETFs in the appropriate accounts (TFSA, RRSP, or taxable) - this is the portfolio I came up with in this thread. What I seem to be having the most trouble with is having a safe distribution across international markets (Canada, US, and whole world). Apparently I cannot buy US ETFs because I need a special US account, and then there is currency conversion, and it just confuses me so much.

[daverobev]

You do not need a special account to hold US stuff (with Questrade, or CIBC, not sure about other brokers these days).

Currency conversion is cheap (with Questrade). It is worth it in an RRSP. It is debatably not in a TFSA, unless you want to buy something there is not an equivalent for in Canada.

Here's what I think you should do: VGRO.TO, 100%.

Here's what I would do in your situation:

ZEA.TO + VUN.TO 50/50 in my TFSA

VTI in my RRSP

XIC unregistered

Oaken GIC in lieu of bonds.

And as the portfolio grows, presumably via the RRSP, keep as much US in there as you need.

But - and it's a big but - if you make ANY plan that is somewhat sane (has worldwide stocks and some proportion of not-stocks, be it cash or bonds) AND STICK TO IT - rebalancing back to that allocation yearly - you'll be fine.

[TomTX]

Apparently I cannot buy US ETFs because I need a special US account, and then there is currency conversion, and it just confuses me so much.

The suggested fund contains US and global stocks in addition to Canadian.

[julia]

But - and it's a big but - if you make ANY plan that is somewhat sane (has worldwide stocks and some proportion of not-stocks, be it cash or bonds) AND STICK TO IT - rebalancing back to that allocation yearly - you'll be fine.

Thank you! I don't want to go with just VGRO (for tax reasons).  Also, although having one all in one ETF is no "riskier" than 3 or 5 ETFs, it somehow mentally makes me feel better having more. I'm going to wait with the US ETF's until I have a bit more experience.

I think I'm just going to go with this:

TFSA: 53k XAW.TO,   2.5k BYND
RRSP: 2.5k XIC.TO
Taxable: 4k XIC.TO,   4k ZDV.TO,   16k ZAG.TO

That's roughly 31% Canadian, 35% US, 22% International, and 7% emerging markets (I'm trying to figure out where the other 5% went but anyway.. I think I'm happy with this :))

[daverobev]

But - and it's a big but - if you make ANY plan that is somewhat sane (has worldwide stocks and some proportion of not-stocks, be it cash or bonds) AND STICK TO IT - rebalancing back to that allocation yearly - you'll be fine.

Thank you! I don't want to go with just VGRO (for tax reasons).  Also, although having one all in one ETF is no "riskier" than 3 or 5 ETFs, it somehow mentally makes me feel better having more. I'm going to wait with the US ETF's until I have a bit more experience.

I think I'm just going to go with this:

TFSA: 53k XAW.TO,   2.5k BYND
RRSP: 2.5k XIC.TO
Taxable: 4k XIC.TO,   4k ZDV.TO,   16k ZAG.TO

That's roughly 31% Canadian, 35% US, 22% International, and 7% emerging markets (I'm trying to figure out where the other 5% went but anyway.. I think I'm happy with this :))

"Tax reasons" - what tax reasons?

If you're only going to put 2.5k into your RRSP, make that ZAG.TO (which is taxed as ordinary income) and leave XIC out (which gives eligible Canadian dividends).

You have a total of $82k listed above, of which:

37% is US (in XAW)
20% is EAFE "International" (in XAW)
8% is Emerging (in XAW)

total 64.5%

3% BYND
13% Canada (XIC + ZDV)
19.5% bonds (ZAG)

making up to 100% (numbers rounded).

[Beard N Bones]

A British saying comes to mind here:  "Penny wise, pound foolish." 
I say this specifically in regards to risks and probabilities in investing.  There is a greater possibility that in being "penny wise" in decreasing tax implications, you increase the probability that you will alter or change your investing approach (pound foolish) when the markets go bearish etc.  There are some amazing investors (like Moose) that can follow an investing plan that is more complicated that maximizes everything - but I'd guess that most people would do best following the KISS principle.  And for that reason, I'd suspect that is why some of the big name FIRE people promote this way of investing (like Mr. Money Mustache himself!)
Something like VGRO is simple, it doesn't maximize MER (as picking 3-5 different ETFs with slightly lower MER), and may not maximize tax implications - but if it saves time, mental/emotional investing anguish, and the temptation to switch ETFs or asset allocations, it may be worth the slightly higher costs.  In my situation, for example, not having to think about my investments and hear whats going on the markets, and minimizing the time spent trying to maximize my investments allows me to spend time doing the things I love (Church, family, hunting, building, work, etc). 

[scottish]

Tax planning can have a substantial impact on your retirement income in Canada.

Spend some time every year and study it!

I have no knowledge of the situation in the uk or us though

[Goldielocks]

But - and it's a big but - if you make ANY plan that is somewhat sane (has worldwide stocks and some proportion of not-stocks, be it cash or bonds) AND STICK TO IT - rebalancing back to that allocation yearly - you'll be fine.

Thank you! I don't want to go with just VGRO (for tax reasons).  Also, although having one all in one ETF is no "riskier" than 3 or 5 ETFs, it somehow mentally makes me feel better having more. I'm going to wait with the US ETF's until I have a bit more experience.

I think I'm just going to go with this:

TFSA: 53k XAW.TO,   2.5k BYND
RRSP: 2.5k XIC.TO
Taxable: 4k XIC.TO,   4k ZDV.TO,   16k ZAG.TO

That's roughly 31% Canadian, 35% US, 22% International, and 7% emerging markets (I'm trying to figure out where the other 5% went but anyway.. I think I'm happy with this :))

I understand the desire to have 20% bond / 80% equities.   This should have similar performance to  a 100% equity portfolio over the long term, with less short term variations.

Your picks:
 
I don't like XAW because it excludes the CDN portion, and I find that this sometimes drives up the MER slightly or it has a smaller total capital pool and might have a larger spread for bid vs. ask when you buy and sell.   (Maybe this is less of a thing with the fund today, but was real for me in the earlier days of VXC that I owned, my limit buys/sells did not move as quickly as larger funds).

A few thoughts -- Why not use VEQT for the equity portion?  0.22% MER and it holds a balanced world-wide portfolio.

Then

TFSA -- all your Bonds (ZAG or VAB or VSB as you like), plus VEQT to make up to your max.
RRSP - VEQT.
Non-registered -- VEQT is fine here, as you get the foreign tax credits. or you could try a all CDN equity like VCN or ZCN or XIC which are virtually equivalent if you have low income under $45k/yr as the eligible dividends received will have no tax.   But -- you will find that you will convert this into your TFSA over the next few years unless as your investment room in the RRSP and TFSA grows unless you have a huge savings rate.

DO NOT PUT BONDS INTO TAXABLE account!!  Unless you have a unique reason, like you want to pay the taxes (which won't be large on bonds right now) with cashflow as you go and leave TFSA to swell up faster over the long term...

Why do I recommend only two or three investments -- one BOND, and one Equity (carried in multiple accounts) and a CDN Equity (and even then the CDN equity is only if you are modest low income and want the hassle):

Keep things simple. Keep trading / rebalancing low

The multiple equity and in particular CDN equity funds you are looking at only add complexity and trading costs for you.  Keep to one, max here. The high Dividend payers are good for income, which is not your goal right now, and not quite as good over the long term.. (they aren't even a diversification away from bank and oil stocks these days)

When you have at least $300k is when you can start subdividing your accounts to carry USD and CDN within your RRSP, TFSA, etc.  Before that, the trading commissions and headache to split out across many different funds is a real chore and makes almost no difference (or may cost you money.).   I have much more than $300k and I find the split out results in cash accumulating in funds where I don't drip, and I want to reinvest it in lumps of $1000 or more...I find that buying ETFs, in whole units means that you have "Residual" cash that is not enough to buy another unit. (VTI is over $150 per unit, for example).. and with all the splits, I have 10 accounts...not including my spouse's... yep, CDN and US each on RESP, RRSP, TFSA, Locked in RRSP, Taxable.   So I always have $500 not invested at any one time, including after immediately rebalancing all cash possible.

-----------------
By far your biggest gains over the next 10 years will be from the NEW money you add to your account.   Some of the decisions of what goes where, even the overall % fees are less important under $100k. 

After that, as long as you have a good asset allocation targeted for when you want to use the money, and you have low MER's... you are fine with minimal differences, minor unoptimized tax choices, through $500k in total investment, after that, small increments in percentages start to matter a lot more.

------------
Lastly, when starting out, I found it quite helpful to set aside a small portion and individual stock pick, so that I learned from my mistakes about why I should not stock pick.   LOL.    I learned from my mistakes a lot more than from my wins, so I do recommend a bit of an investment here, at your stage in life. Use your non-registered for this.  Even a $5000 loss could be considered high value "tuition" for learning.   I wish I had made some of my mistakes earlier when the total value out of pocket would have been lower.