Category: RRIF

What’s in my retirement portfolio (March 2026)?

RobHLeave a comment

This is a monthly look at what’s in my retirement portfolio. The original post is here.

Portfolio Construction

The retirement portfolio is spread across a bunch of accounts:

  • 5 RRIF accounts
    • 3 for me (Questrade, Wealthsimple)
    • 2 for my spouse (Questrade)
  • 2 TFSA accounts (Questrade)
  • 4 non-registered accounts, (1 for me, 1 for my spouse, 2 joint, all at Questrade)

The view post-payday

I pay myself monthly in retirement, so that’s a good trigger to update this post. On March 30, this is what it looks like:

The portfolio is dominated by my ETF all-stars, (and if not an all-star, they are probably on the Magnificent Seven ETFs list). This split is before all the quarterly dividends have paid out. AOA, XGRO, XEQT, XIC all have a quarterly payment that collectively might skew the numbers a bit — I have all these investments on DRIP so I just buy more of the same. All that to say that there weren’t big changes month to month; my USD holdings got a bit of a boost this month thanks to a favourable exchange rate. (A lot of my retirement holdings are in USD, so the FX rates matter somewhat). Here’s what the USD has looked like in CAD since my retirement:

Plan for the next month

The asset-class split looks like this; you can read about my asset-allocation approach to investing over here.

It’s looking pretty close to the targets I have, which are unchanged:

  • 5% cash or cash-like holdings like ICSH and ZMMK
  • 15% bonds/income (most are buried in XGRO and AOA, rest are in XCB)
  • 20% Canadian equity (mostly based on ETFs that mirror the S&P/TSX — HXT and XIC)
  • 36% US equity (dominated by ETFs that mirror the S&P 500)
  • 24% International equity (mostly, but not exclusively, developed markets)

The alignment with target is what drives my investment decisions; seeing the chart above tells me there’s no movements needed, which makes things simpler.

Since we’re just about in to the 2nd quarter of the year, it’s time for me to move some AOA into XGRO using Norbert’s Gambit1. The Gambit has worked out pretty well for me so far; I track my effective FX rate every time I do it, and it’s always less than relying on the instant (and relatively expensive) FX conversions offered by my broker2.

Overall

Part of using VPW3 as a strategy is the need to calculate your retirement net worth on a monthly basis. As you can see below, the most recent market gyrations have had a bit of an impact on the bottom line, taking me back to a value I haven’t seen since September last year:

But my VPW-calculated salary, which has a built in shock absorber (aka cash cushion), continued its upward trend nonetheless:

I’m expecting to take a pay cut at some point if the markets fail to recover, but pay cuts are an expected outcome of using VPW as a strategy. The “V” is for “variable”, after all. At this point, I’m still taking over 10% more than I did a year ago, so no matter how you slice it, things are more than on track.

  1. Of late, my need for spending in USD seems not so critical anymore. ↩︎
  2. Typically 1.5% of the amount converted. ↩︎
  3. Variable Percentage Withdrawal, my chosen decumulation strategy. ↩︎

Ex-Dividends and Getting Paid in Retirement

RobHLeave a comment

As mentioned elsewhere, getting paid in retirement for me is a monthly activity involving selling shares (mostly XGRO), moving funds and so on. The exact date I actually DO the work is a little variable. Questrade and Wealthsimple both automatically move my RRIF payments to my bank account on the last business day of every calendar month; this means I could conceivably do my sell trades to free up cash on the next-to-last business day of every calendar month1, but usually I do it sometime in the last week of the month.

Today, (the 23rd of the month), I noticed the market doing something it hasn’t done much lately, namely go up. And since the 23rd is in the right window (nearing the end of the month), I thought, “well, maybe I could do my monthly payment today”. Admittedly, it’s probably a day or two earlier than I would normally do this, but I didn’t think it mattered too much in the big scheme.

Part of me felt a bit uneasy about doing this, it felt a bit like timing the market. But then I also remembered that since this was March, it meant that XGRO was due to pay its quarterly dividend around now.

A quick search revealed that XGRO’s “ex-dividend date” is in fact March 26, 20262. This means that anyone holding XGRO at close of business on March 25th would qualify for the dividend, which per the XGRO page, is $0.117 per unit held.

So this would mean that selling today would have been at the expense of the dividend payout for the quarter. Now, I know that this really should not matter; it’s a well established fact that the dividend-paying stock drops by the same amount as the dividend paid out on the ex-dividend date, meaning it should make zero difference whether I sell just before or just after the ex-div date.

In the end, I decided not to sell today. My usual day would actually be closer to the ex-dividend date, and psychologically, I feel like I’ve earned the dividend by holding XGRO the entire quarter. What do you think? Do you ever time your buys/sells based on ex-dividend dates? Let me know at comments@moneyengineer.ca.

  1. Since the settlement time of ETF trades is T+1, meaning the day after the trade completes. Notable is that Questrade requests you have funds available 3 business days before payment date; I haven’t quite figured out how strictly they enforce that. ↩︎
  2. Look at the “Distribution” section, specifically the table. ↩︎

What’s in my retirement portfolio (Feb 2026)?

RobH1 Comment

This is a monthly look at what’s in my retirement portfolio. The original post is here.

Portfolio Construction

The retirement portfolio is spread across a bunch of accounts:

  • 5 RRIF accounts
    • 3 for me (Questrade, Wealthsimple)1
    • 2 for my spouse (Questrade)
  • 2 TFSA accounts (Questrade)
  • 4 non-registered accounts, (1 for me, 1 for my spouse, 2 joint, all at Questrade)

You will notice that QTrade is no longer in the mix. I successfully moved the last RRIF accounts during the month; I learned a lot in the process. QTrade was the victim in the chase for free money offered by Questrade last year; based on current offerings, I’d say that QTrade still has an edge in terms of user experience over Questrade. I’ll go into more detail in a future post.

The view post-payday

I pay myself monthly in retirement, so that’s a good trigger to update this post. On February 28, this is what it looks like:

The portfolio is dominated by my ETF all-stars, (and if not an all-star, they are probably on the Magnificent Seven ETFs list) but if you’ve been following along, you’ll see a few changes.

  • I dropped XAW since I realized I didn’t need it if I was smarter the ratios of holdings I already owned (XEQT/XIC/XCB). Less is more.
  • I sold XIC instead of HXT in my non-registered account this month to help pay the bills because I reasoned that eliminating its dividend payouts would be better from a tax perspective2.

Plan for the next month

The asset-class split looks like this; you can read about my asset-allocation approach to investing over here.

It’s looking pretty close to the targets I have, which are unchanged:

  • 5% cash or cash-like holdings like ICSH and ZMMK
  • 15% bonds3 (most are buried in XGRO and AOA, rest are in XCB)
  • 20% Canadian equity (mostly based on ETFs that mirror the S&P/TSX — HXT and XIC)
  • 36% US equity (dominated by ETFs that mirror the S&P 500)
  • 24% International equity (mostly, but not exclusively, developed markets)

I am mulling over making a small tweak to these percentages, increasing US equity exposure at the expense of International equity based on some calculations I’ve done4 but this is neither urgent nor will it be massively impactful to the overall picture.

Overall

There is a bit of an anomaly this month that I should mention. A number of readers have questioned my wisdom of contributing monthly to a TFSA in retirement. From a tax-free growth perspective, it would be far better to make the contribution at the beginning of the year. And many studies have shown that lump sum investing provides better returns than spacing them out. And so, I have taken their advice5 and made all my TFSA contributions for the year this month. And since my TFSA is part of my net worth, there’s a bump being caused by that contribution.

And so, net worth overall is up month over month, a two month winning streak.

My VPW-calculated salary also continues its upward trend.

  1. One spousal, one individual. One at Wealthsimple because (a) I like their user experience and may consider them as my primary broker in the future and (b) they offered me free money and a laptop to move some fees their way. I can be bought. ↩︎
  2. HXT does not pay dividends and instead uses swap contracts to convert them into capital gains, which receive better tax treatment for me ↩︎
  3. Referred to as “Income” on the chart above ↩︎
  4. I’ll share those in a future post ↩︎
  5. With thanks to Steven and Sylvain ↩︎

The magnificent seven ETFs

RobH2 Comments

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. ↩︎