What’s a good strategy for non-registered investments?

RobHLeave a comment

I got an email this week from a reader (who contacted me via comments@moneyengineer.ca, I read all my email) who was asking about ideas for non-registered investments after the tax-advantaged accounts (e.g. TFSA, RRSP) have been maxed out.

I too was in this happy predicament a number of years ago, and some of was, admittedly, a bit ad-hoc. I know a bit better now.

The first thing I’ll mention is that my non-registered holdings are 100% equity1; I don’t see the point in generating interest income since it’s taxed at your highest marginal rate. Interest bearing investments are better off in your RRSP or TFSA, in my view.

The second thing I’ll mention is my non-registered assets are held across TWO non-registered accounts, one in my name, one in my spouse’s name. Since my spouse made less money than I did (and hence lived in a lower tax bracket), I set her up with an investment loan as a form of rudimentary tax splitting.

Lastly, most of my holdings here are in a capital gain situation. There’s no opportunity for tax-loss selling, no opportunity to offset capital gains. That’s just the reality of being a buy and hold investor.

Here’s what the non-registered portfolio looks like (minus the cash cushion2, since those investments don’t really fit the criteria of the initial question):

So what have we got under the hood?

HXT, HXS, HXDM: Horizons “Corporate Class” ETFs

These refer to HXT, HXS, and HXDM, which track Canadian, US, and International equity indices, respectively. These three funds make up about 35% of my non-registered investments. Under the hood, they are structured in such a way as to avoid paying out dividends and income, instead burying that income in the per unit price of the ETF3. This works pretty well. Here’s what HXT versus XIU looks like, which both track the Canadian S&P/TSX 60 index.

As you can see, the total return is practically identical assuming all dividends thrown off by XIU are reinvested4. I see these Horizon funds as a way to potentially reduce your current tax bill. Even though Canadian dividends get special tax treatment, these may not apply to your particular tax situation if you are in a high enough tax bracket. If this is the case, deferring tax on dividend income (by buying HXT instead of XIU) may pay off later in life when you instead have to pay tax on capital gains and are potentially in a lower tax bracket.

The Horizons funds are also good choices for the lazy investor who doesn’t like keeping track of ACB; since there are no dividends to reinvest, there are no new unit purchases happening every quarter. (Of course with a tool like adjustedcostbase.ca, tracking your ACB is quite straightforward).

XIC: A Solid Canadian Equity Fund

XIC creates low-cost exposure to the total Canadian Equity market. It’s different from the aforementioned HXT because it generates dividends, and instead of just covering the largest 60 Canadian companies, it covers the whole Canadian market.

SCHF: A very low-cost international fund in USD

I have a lot of investments in USD. One of the big reasons was the MER of an ETF like SCHF. Yes, 0.03% for a basket of international stocks, which is lower (far lower) than any Canadian ETF out there. It’s still hard to beat the rock-bottom fees of some of these large US funds. So if you have access to USD, and don’t mind the complexity (and added FX volatility) of dealing with USD, it’s another solid way to round out your international holdings. VT (global fund) and VTI (total US market) are also frequently cited by index investors for this reason.

TEQT, XEQT, ZEQT: All-in-one 100% Equity funds

These are a small but growing portion of my non-registered holdings. “Growing” because free money delivered by Questrade (a new client bonus) has to go somewhere. XEQT I’m not adding to because I like to hold different ETFs in non-registered and registered accounts to avoid any “superficial loss” problems with the CRA. ZEQT and TEQT are both solid 100% equity with slightly different proportions of Canadian/US/International equity.

  1. It wasn’t always true, but it is now. ↩︎
  2. The cash cushion is a third non-registered account that holds income investments (ZMMK and ICSH) which smooths out my monthly salary. You can read about how I decumulate my holdings over here. ↩︎
  3. I’ll reiterate: the only thing I care about is TOTAL growth. Dividends or unit price growth, it makes no difference to me. ↩︎
  4. And hopefully also clear by comparing the two charts is that XIU generated about $9000 in dividends during the 16 year backtest period. ↩︎

Quick links for the long weekend

RobHLeave a comment

(Quick aside: as a retiree, I did have to make sure this coming weekend was, in fact, a long weekend 🙂 )

What’s the deal with AOA?: updated

While many Canadians are familiar with all-in-one products that trade on the Canadian exchanges (XEQT/XGRO, VEQT/VGRO, TEQT/TGRO, ZEQT/ZGRO), there is also a USD product that I use quite heavily in my retirement portfolio. That ETF is AOA. In this updated post, I break down what’s inside it. TL/DR: lots of US Equity, lots of International Equity, a tiny slice of Canadian equity, and broad coverage of the US and international bond markets.

Rob Carrick is back in (digital) print

One of my favourite ex-Globe And Mail staffers was Rob Carrick, the keyboard behind such valuable assets as the ETF Buyer’s Guide. He retired last year, but it seems he’s back doing the same job in a different way. He’s now writing on Substack, and you can find his words of wisdom over here: https://substack.com/@robcarrick1.

PWL on Retirement: “Finding and Funding a Good Life”

Not a new publication, but new to me…It’s penned by Ben Felix, a certified Canadian financial rockstar. Looks like a good read over a cup of coffee. Finding and Funding a Good Life.

The magnificent seven ETFs

RobHLeave a comment

Since my investment strategy is to own the market via passive index investing, I know that some of my retirement savings are tied up in those famous seven tech stocks1. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

For a year or so I’ve been talking about my ETF All-Stars, but I’ve come to the realization that the list isn’t complete. I discovered that I could do better in terms of where I hold certain assets, I’ve now also realized that I need 7 total ETFs to achieve my investment objectives across non-registered, TFSA and RRIF accounts. These seven ETFs are 90% of my retirement portfolio. The other 10% are found in the non-registered account and are legacy investments. Over the next 5 years, these legacy investments will disappear altogether.

Here’s how the seven2 break down:

AOA: An all-in-one USD ETF

AOA is an 80% Equity / 20% bond ETF. It’s roughly 50% of my retirement savings, and it’s exclusively held in my RRIF accounts. I’ve invested in USD ETFs for quite a long time now, and this one holding locks up most of my USD funds. The problem with AOA is that it tilts too far into US Equities (50%) and has very little exposure to the Canadian stock market (about 2.67%). So I have to compensate elsewhere.

XGRO: An all-in-one Canadian ETF3

XGRO is an 80% Equity/ 20% bond ETF, about 15% of my retirement savings. It’s the Canadian sibling of AOA in every way. It holds 20% Canadian equity and 36% US equity, so it helps take down the US bias of AOA a bit. It’s held exclusively in my RRIF accounts.

XEQT: An all-in-one Canadian ETF

XEQT4 is from the same family as XGRO but doesn’t hold any bonds. It helps take down the bond percentage of my overall portfolio from 20% to 15%. Since equities tend to grow faster than equity/bond combinations, and since my TFSA is the last account to be touched in my retirement income planning, XEQT is held only in my TFSA accounts.

XIC: A low-cost Canadian Equity ETF

XIC5 holds only Canadian Equities and helps fix the lack of Canadian content in AOA. As a 100% equity ETF, it lives mostly in my TFSA. Historically, I also hold this in my non-registered accounts but this will be reduced as I dip into my non-registered funds to pay my bills.

ICSH: A USD money-market fund

Technically, ICSH is an ultra-short-term bond fund, but I treat it the same way as I would treat a HISA. Cash is 5% of my portfolio in retirement, and it’s mostly in ICSH since US Interest rates are much higher than Canadian ones at present. I’d switch this holding to ZMMK if the opposite was true. ICSH lives both in my RRIF and my non-registered accounts. It’s only in my non-registered accounts because my decumulation strategy (VPW) requires a “cash cushion” to smooth out my monthly salary.

XCB: A Canadian Corporate bond fund

The way the math works at present, I’m a little short in bonds, and so I have a bit of XCB sitting in the RRIF to keep my asset targets in line. XCB is a nice low-cost corporate bond fund; I chose corporate because AOA and XGRO give me plenty of exposure to government bonds.

ZMMK: A CAD money market fund

ZMMK is a small portion of the cash cushion which is mostly invested in ICSH. If Canadian interest rates exceed US rates, then my holdings here would grow accordingly.

  1. My retirement portfolio is about 36% US equity, and the mag 7 make up about 10% of the US market, so say 4% of my retirement savings. ↩︎
  2. I thought I was going to need XAW as well, but worked out a plan to eliminate it ↩︎
  3. You could also consider ZGRO, TGRO, VGRO from BMO, TD, and Vanguard respectively. They are all pretty similar. ↩︎
  4. You could also consider ZEQT, TEQT, VEQT. Tomato, Tomahto. ↩︎
  5. VCN is another good choice; it’s pretty much the same thing. ↩︎

Achievement: Down to two providers

RobHLeave a comment

I am trying to keep my retirement investments as simple as possible, really I am. And this week, I finally reduced the number of providers I use from three to two. Most of my retirement investments (RRIFs, TFSAs, non-registered) are now held with Questrade, excepting one RRIF account I hold with Wealthsimple.

I had intended to be down to two providers back in March 2025, but then I uncovered a wrinkle in how providers deal with RRIFs and I ended up keeping 4 RRIF accounts over at QTrade during 2025. These 4 accounts funded my RRIF minimum payments in 2025.

One RRIF was moved to Wealthsimple in early November 2025 and this was an altogether painless experience, and I’ve been enjoying free money every month from Wealthsimple for my troubles. A good deal.

I waited until late November 2025 (November 26th, to be exact) before starting the transfer exercise from QTrade to Questrade for the remaining three RRIFs. And it took until this week (February 6th, 2026) before the assets finally showed up. That’s 72 days, a little over 10 weeks. Here’s a timeline:

  • November 26th: Submitted paperwork electronically to Questrade
  • On December 2nd, QTrade charged me the $150 transfer out fee on each account (plus tax).
  • On December 8th, I got the following message from Questrade: “Please be advised that RRIF/LIF account transfers are subject to the industry-wide cut-off date, November 28, 2025. f you would like to proceed with your transfer request, we require a document showing that the RRIF/LIF minimum payment was made for the year 2025.”
  • I submitted this proof (which, as I mentioned previously, was more than a little annoying) but nothing happened. After many calls to both Questrade and QTrade, I gathered that transfers at this point in the year were impossible. Of course, QTrade had already charged me the $150 plus tax transfer out fee.
  • In the new year, I resumed hassling Questrade and QTrade support for updates. This was made more complicated by a free money promotion offered by Questrade, which meant their support desk, shaky at the best of times, became completely overwhelmed. I saw a series of cryptic messages in my transfer update that indicated somebody wasn’t responding to a followup. These cryptic messages disappeared from my status update last week, which I either took to mean progress or an attempt to cover up inept practices, I haven’t decided which yet.
  • Anyway, without much fanfare, the assets appeared in my RRIF accounts on Friday, February 6th. My transfer status still shows “in progress”, for what it’s worth.

Anyway, I’m happy this latest transfer is done, but there’s still some tidying up I have to do:

  • I have to make sure I know what Questrade will use for RRIF minimum for the newly moved accounts. That’s another call to support, regrettably. And since I missed a month of payments, I have to figure out how to catch up.
  • I have to make sure Questrade refunds me the transfer out fees. I uploaded the documentation (which, I note, Wealthsimple does not require) to “prove” I was charged $1501.
  • I will check (again) to ensure all these RRIF accounts have a properly documented successor. That’s really important.

This last go-round was especially unsatisfactory since I got no free money out of it, which is really quite galling given how much is being thrown around these days2.

Anyway, it’s nice to have a simpler view of my portfolio; Passiv gives me a unified view across Wealthsimple and Questrade, but since the relationship between Questrade and Passiv has come to an end, I’m not sure what that will entail once my free “elite” subscription ends in March.

  1. Since every broker does this, this is 100% an exercise to prevent refunds to the unwary. . ↩︎
  2. Just search this site for “free money” if you don’t believe me. ↩︎

ZEB versus XIC: Is buying *only* Canadian banks a valid strategy?

RobHLeave a comment

A recent newsletter (On Money) from the Globe and Mail caught my attention. In it, the author (David Berman) made the assertion that ZEB (a BMO ETF that invests solely in the Big 61 Canadian banks) was a better way of investing in the Canadian banking segment over holding the stocks individually. Two of the big reasons align very well with my own philosophy, namely:

  • The ETF fees include regular rebalancing
  • The ETF removes the temptation to time the market

These are the main reasons the majority of my retirement savings are in all-in-one ETFs like AOA and XGRO.

But anyway, what caught my eye about the article were the eye-popping returns of this segment, especially compared to the overall TSX, captured in an ETF like XIC. So I did a quick analysis which I share with you here:

In summary,

  • Canadian banks make up about 1/3 of the Canadian stock market (and hence XIC)
  • This segment has outperformed the overall Canadian market — by a wide margin — over the past 16 years
  • Past performance does not guarantee future results
  • This analysis hasn’t changed my perspective; I still prefer diversification over raw performance…no FOMO for me.
  1. TD, CIBC, Bank of Nova Scotia, RBC, BMO, National Bank ↩︎