Tag: boglehead

Reddit groups worth watching

RobH1 Comment

I try to stay informed about the options out there for the DIY investor. Reddit has a lot of decent groups that help me stay in the know. Here’s a few I follow. And sometimes contribute to1.

r/Questrade

The Questrade subreddit is a good place to hear about changes on the platform. Questrade is currently my provider of choice since they are currently paying me to use their platform. Questrade employees do pay attention to this sub and will sometimes personally reach out to help (I’ve had this happen to me).

r/Wealthsimple

I have a growing relationship with Wealthsimple. I have one RRIF account with them (history of why is found here), their Cash card is a wonderful tool to save money when traveling and their chequing accounts actually pay reasonable interest rates. Lots to like. Their platform is ever evolving and the folks on the Wealthsimple sub help me to keep an eye on what’s coming up. I’m a fan of this product, and would consider using them as my primary financial services provider, once they have all the pieces I need in place. (Current shortfalls: USD support is weak, no spousal RRIF accounts last time I checked).

r/Bogleheads

No, not that kind. “Bogleheads” are folks that are disciples of Jack Bogle, credited for creating the first ever passive index fund. Bogleheads, like me, are passive index investors. The posts on the Boglehead subreddit are comprised of primarily US investors, but the concepts they talk about are applicable to the Canadian investor. My own investment philosophy is, as it turns out, strongly aligned with that of the Boglehead crew.

r/JustBuyXEQT

This sub’s biases are pretty plain to see. It’s populated by uber-fans of the all-equity all-in-one that I hold in my own portfolio,2 although not exclusively. (I prefer XGRO as it provides a bit of downside protection, but my thinking may be flawed on that front). XEQT is on my all-stars list. Posts are generally from younger investors who are looking for an easy way to invest and forget. Given my recent analysis, I’ll probably start buying into TEQT to save a few dollars on the MER front.

r/CanadianInvestor

This sub is more generally about investing in the Canadian market, and in some ways serves as a counter to the other subs that are more closely aligned with my couch potato style of investing. Unlike the other subs, I lack sufficient karma3 to contribute…I’m very close though.

r/cantax

This sub is all about the Canadian tax system. I sometimes pick up good tips this way.

Are there Reddit groups you think this community should know about? Let me know at comments@moneyengineer.ca!

  1. as u/RobHemm ↩︎
  2. About 6% as of July 2025 ↩︎
  3. You need a score of 50. I’m at 45. ↩︎

How I think about investing: Asset classes

RobH9 Comments

Passive investing while ensuring good diversification has been my strategy for decades. But how do I define “diversification”? For me, it’s always been about paying attention to how much of my total portfolio was invested in each of five1 asset classes and keeping them aligned with my targets:

  • Cash or cash equivalents
  • Bonds2
  • Canadian Stocks
  • US Stocks
  • International Stocks3

I got this idea from my last financial advisor who provided me with a lovely Cerlox4 bound annual report showing me how hard they were working on my behalf5. The report included a pie chart of how my investments broke down. This is what that pie chart looks like in my portfolio this morning:

Retirement portfolio by asset class, March 28, 2025

This pie chart has been my guiding principle: have a target percentage for each asset class in mind, and adjust your portfolio as needed to keep the percentages in line. This simple principle has been adopted by so-called asset allocation ETFs aka “all-in-ones” like (my personal favourites) XGRO6 and AOA7.

But are these even the right asset classes? Where are REITs8? Where’s precious metals? Where’s Bitcoin9? What’s your bond duration? Do you have enough exposure to high-growth geographies?

Short answer: just like I’m too lazy to pick stocks, I’m too lazy (and not smart enough) to pick a “winner” of a given asset class. The “periodic table” of investment returns by asset class is a must-read for DIY enthusiasts out there: https://themeasureofaplan.com/investment-returns-by-asset-class/ (go ahead, take a look, I’ll wait).

The folks at Measure of a Plan agree that trying to figure out the “hot” asset class is a very difficult task:

It’s no easy feat to pick the winner in a given year. The asset class rankings appear to be randomly tossed about over time, with the top performer in one year often falling down to the middle or bottom of the table in the next year.

https://themeasureofaplan.com/investment-returns-by-asset-class/

By keeping an eye on the pie chart, and shifting investments to align with my targets, I’m never at risk at being overweight in any one asset-class, and beaten-down asset-classes naturally get more funds to get the percentages right. It’s naturally causing “buy low, sell high” behaviour.

So: what about the asset classes I’m using? Are 5 asset classes too many? Too few? I don’t know. “Good enough” is sort of my philosophy in the spirit of trying to keep things simple.

The spreadsheet I’ve used to help me track my portfolio breakdown is found here. In future posts, I’ll talk a bit about how to make it work for you.

  1. For a long time, “cash” was not part of the consideration. Leading up to retirement, I started to carry a 5% cash weighting to help cushion market swings. ↩︎
  2. In years past, I did try to keep track of short-term versus mid-term versus long-term bonds. I gave up on that. ↩︎
  3. In years past, I did try to keep track of developed markets versus emerging markets. I gave up on that. ↩︎
  4. I had to look up how this was spelled. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/cerlox ↩︎
  5. The fact that this report looked the same as the reports generated by two other advisors led me to the conclusion that my hard working advisor was perhaps being assisted by commercial software. ↩︎
  6. Overview of XGRO’s asset allocation strategy: https://www.blackrock.com/ca/investors/en/literature/product-brief/ishares-core-etf-portfolios-brochure-en.pdf ↩︎
  7. Overview of AOA’s asset allocation strategy: https://www.ishares.com/us/literature/product-brief/ishares-core-esg-allocation-brief.pdf ↩︎
  8. My first list of asset classes prepared circa 20 years ago did include REITs but I dropped that class, figuring (perhaps incorrectly) that the bond portion of the portfolio was good enough. Doing a bit of digging, I see that both AOA and XGRO hold REITs, and both consider them “equity” investments. ↩︎
  9. It’s actually obligatory for any article on investing to mention one (or more) cryptocurrencies, and/or one (or more) meme stocks 😉 ↩︎