[torngat21]

Hi Folks,

I am in my early 20's and have established a decent portfolio that is 100% in equities. My current mix is ~70% Canadian, and 30% US. Within the mix, my Canadian exposure is 40% Energy, 10% Telecom, 25% Financial, and 25% in the rest of the Cdn. economy lol. My US exposure consists primarily of Apple, Visa, and some US Financials.

I'm not looking to change my situation in terms of 100% exposure to equities (although I am looking into getting into a rental property in the near future). I'm also covered on the emergency fund aspect and my car is paid off (note: not looking to buy a house just yet).

What would be your suggestions in terms of Portfolio make-up for a 23 year-old. (More international? REITs? Indexing?). Any and all help is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[tkirk62]

You seem to be doing well. The rest is just tweaking.

Energy is probably way too much of your portfolio. Even if you believe now is the bottom of the market for energy companies you hold too much relative to your other holdings. No need to sell any but I would make sure your future purchases go to other sectors to balance it out.

More international exposure would be a good thing to grow over time. I personally can't keep track of Canadian and US and international companies, so I would go with an ETF or international index fund. I would index with the US too, and I personally hold the TD e-series US index for US exposure.

A small (5% ish) allocation to REITs wouldn't hurt. I say this knowing that many of the Canadian REITs are good at what they do and add value to a portfolio. Even if you do end up getting a rental property (so you would have a very large real estate allocation) holding something like BPY can help because it offers diversification, both among properties, countries and currencies. Even as confident in myself as I am I don't think I can be as good of a landlord as Brookfield.

 

[My Own Advisor]

I would agree with tkirk...a small amount of REITs wouldn't hurt and they have been hammered of late which makes most of them a good buy to hold for the long-term.

I would also agree more U.S. and international exposure is good. I have some home bias myself and trying to get more international equities. VXUS has been hit hard since May so probably a decent time to get more.

Overall, great work.