# Post your couch potato portfolio !



## larry81 (Nov 22, 2010)

*Objectives*

Low cost
Tax efficient
Diversified
Simple

*Time Horizon*

25+ years

*Target Asset Allocation*

20% Canadian
20% US
10% Euro
10% Emerging markets
35% Fixed income (Short terms bonds and HISA)
5% Canadian REIT

*Holdings*

Non-Registered

XIC iShares S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index Fund
VTI Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF
VEA Vanguard Europe Pacific ETF
VWO Vanguard Europe Pacific ETF

MIP510 Manulife Bank Investment Savings Account
MIP710 Manulife Trust Investment Savings Account

RRSP

XSB iShares DEX Short Term Bond Index Fund

TFSA

XRE iShares S&P TSX Capped REIT Index Fund

*Weighted MER*

0.20%


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## slacker (Mar 8, 2010)

Time Horizon: 35

Fixed Income	10.00%
US Equity	24.88%
Europe/Pacific	22.86%
Canadian Equity	15.12%
Emerging	9.14%
REIT	9.00%
Canadian Dividend	9.00%

MER .23%

PS: The equity portion of the portfolio is based on the Vanguard VT All World allocation, with 5x overweighting for Canadian content. REIT and Canadian Dividend are sector specific "play". 10% Fixed Income seems as good a portion as any for my age (30).


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## Eder (Feb 16, 2011)

Sometimes I wish my portfolio looked like the above ones rather than the dogs breakfast I have. 
But then mine is fun to look at when the TSX bounces 200 points. (If it drops 200 I go golfing instead of looking)


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## Financial Cents (Jul 22, 2010)

Target retirement age = 55. Currently, 37.

*RRSP*

XIU ~ 40%
XBB ~ 30%
A couple of U.S. dividend-paying stocks ~ 20%
REI.UN ~ 5%
VWO ~ 5%

That's it.
Don't own VTI but might buy it eventually....

*TFSA*

HSE
SLF
HR.UN

*Unregistered*
A bunch of Canadian dividend-paying stocks for income.

My Own Advisor  - My blog about personal finance, investing and my journey to financial independence!


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## Belguy (May 24, 2010)

My Couch Potato portfolio also includes an 10 percent allocation to the RBC Global Precious Metals Fund.

I am prepared for a correction  but it is a long term hold.
Also, it has done so well over the past several months and so how much can it correct in any case?


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## barnabam (Apr 22, 2011)

Current Age 38 (wife and I)
Retirement age 65
Annual contributions 20K - 25K RSP (LOTS of unused room!!) and 5K each TFSA

RRSP
50% *XIU.TO* (capital appreciation and some dividend)
25% *XCB.TO* (dividends)
25% *TDB622* (I cannot ignore the long term results of this fund)

TFSA
Her: 100% *XTR.TO*
Him: 100% *ZHY.TO*

Each one of the above has a DRIP.

Current average MER: 0.5575%

I wanted to minimize exposure to Europe and Asia (especially given current volatility in Europe over the debt stories) and only JUST touch on the USA as I firmly believe that they are in for quite the long spell of stagnant growth.


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## dcaron (Jul 23, 2009)

*Objectives:*

Low cost
Diversified
Simple

*Time Horizon:* Retirement in 15 years

*Holdings:*

*RRSP and LIRA:*
25% XIU iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index Fund 
30% VTI Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF
10% VEA Vanguard MSCI EAFE ETF
10% VWO Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF
20% CLF Claymore 1-5Y Ladderred Govt Bonds
5% CM CIBC (Defined employer share purchase plan. I can pull and re-allocate funds twice a year)

*TFSA: *Nothing for now. Getting rid of $10K HELOC debt first.


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## 200above (Nov 18, 2010)

> RRSP and LIRA:
> 25% XIU iShares S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index Fund


You mean XIC or S&P TSX 60 Index.

Just an observation.


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## larry81 (Nov 22, 2010)

dcaron said:


> *Objectives:*
> 
> Low cost
> Diversified
> ...


I like it !

Consider XRE or ZRE for your TFSA


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## 200above (Nov 18, 2010)

Yikes, I created a Potato plan on friday last week and plugged 10K into the Scotia McLeod Direct investing simulator based on a profile that I have been working on. Lost 8% and 158 bucks 

XBB- 15%
XEM- 25%
XEG-15%
XIU-25%
XRE- 15%

I'm probably opening myself up for critisism but in defence the only one I just 'threw in there' was XEG. What's a good ETF for US equity? Not to sure about it but I have 30 days to see how it goes. Then I'll try another one with slightly different holdings or allocations.

I'm thinking I'll probably take the XEG out and use the 15% to buy some dividend paying stock in my Non-Reg account.

I have a couple more months to go before I have the first 10K I wanna try...

Anything glaringly wrong with this picture? I'm 23 with a long term horizon.


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## CanadianCapitalist (Mar 31, 2009)

Here's mine:

Cash - ATL5000 - 5%
Bonds - XSB - 15%
XIU / mutual fund - 25%
RioCan - 5%

VTI - 22.5%
VEA - 22.5%
VWO - 5%

I do own a Canadian equity mutual fund in a group RRSP as part of the allocation to Canadian stocks.


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## Freedom45 (Jan 29, 2011)

*RRSP* - 25-30 year horizon. DRIP's where possible. Rebalance once annually, unless an allocation is skewed by 4-5% or more. Think my MER is somewhere in the 0.5% range if memory serves...

CDZ - 25%
XDV - 25%
VTI - 25%
VWO - 10%
XBB - 10%
Cash/high risk/short term/play - 5%

Also hold a Canadian equity MF in a small-ish second RRSP account.

*TFSA* - Will be used in the next 2-3 months as a downpayment.
CLF - 80%
Cash - 20%


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## Sampson (Apr 3, 2009)

I'm a slicer and dicer - no others? (how many holdings do I need before it's no longer potato?) - well, my wife's portfolio anyway.

CDN Large Cap - 26%
CDN Small Cap - 9%
US Large Cap - 10%
US Med Cap - 9%
US Small Cap - 7%
Foreign Large Cap - 14%
Foreign Small Cap - 5%
Emerging Markets - 5%
REITs - 5%
Bonds - 5%
Cash - 5%


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## larry81 (Nov 22, 2010)

Sampson said:


> I'm a slicer and dicer - no others? (how many holdings do I need before it's no longer potato?) - well, my wife's portfolio anyway.
> 
> CDN Large Cap - 26%
> CDN Small Cap - 9%
> ...


Good stuff, remind of of the "uber tuber" model portfolio posted here: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/model-portfolios/


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## Sampson (Apr 3, 2009)

I actually hold the same allocations for my portfolio (i.e. the family assets all held with that breakdown), but I fill in with a basket of stocks for my own holdings, peppered with some ETFs (since I don't know how to pick foreign small cap stocks).

Hold too many, and tracking my wife's stuff is much easier than my own.

Eventually I'm sure I'll get so lazy my portfolio will look like CC's.


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## stinsont (May 29, 2009)

Anyone here use the Magic Formula? It is a 'Couch Potato' way of investing.

magicformulainvesting.com
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...g-formula-that-kept-its-magic/article1999873/


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## larry81 (Nov 22, 2010)

never heard of 'Magic Formula' but just by the name, i would stay away


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## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

I was reading up on etf's as basically only have equities at this point. And in the porcess of checking out the Claymore site, I stumbled upon CBD. It seems like it is a couch potato etf in one holding. 

I thought it was interesting, as holding some of this in my RRSP would definitely ensure some balance. 

Just wondering if anyone held this, and if they could point out any pros and cons, aside from having no control over the sector weightin of this etf.


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## Xoron (Jun 22, 2010)

larry81 said:


> never heard of 'Magic Formula' but just by the name, i would stay away


Don't discount it so quickly. I've been doing it for 2+ years, and my returns have been excellent. (my US holdings)

It's based on a great book by a well respected mutual fund manager in the USA: http://www.amazon.ca/Little-Book-Th...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1304895483&sr=8-1

The best part is, he publishes the "Magic Formula" results daily on his website, for FREE. And the list has been reproduced independently by at least one other site that I follow. I thought the "magic formula" sounded pretty hokey myself, but it makes sense and does work.


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## MarkP (Mar 30, 2011)

Cal said:


> I was reading up on etf's as basically only have equities at this point. And in the porcess of checking out the Claymore site, I stumbled upon CBD. It seems like it is a couch potato etf in one holding.
> 
> I thought it was interesting, as holding some of this in my RRSP would definitely ensure some balance.
> 
> Just wondering if anyone held this, and if they could point out any pros and cons, aside from having no control over the sector weightin of this etf.



Looks expensive with an MER of 0.71% considering all they are doing is holding it's own ETFs (CLF, CDZ, CYH). Would probably be nice for someone with a small portfolio to keep trading cost down but if you like control, the lack of asset allocation doesn't seem worth it.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

To be fair, everyone's 2 year return on US holdings has been pretty good.


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## Xoron (Jun 22, 2010)

andrewf said:


> To be fair, everyone's 2 year return on US holdings has been pretty good.


I started investing in June 2008, so I guess that would be almost 3 years now,  But I've been tracking it against XSP (because it's traded in CAD, rather than a USD ETF).

Here are my returns (all in CAD, with dividends included, rolling 1 year returns)

My Magic Formula (2008-2009)
22.32%
XSP (2008-2009)
-7.9%

MF (2009-2010)
25.54%
XSP (2009-2010)
22.04%

MF (2010-2011 so far. I still have 3 more sets of trades to make for this year, so this number is only for reference and could change significantly before the end of 2011)
14.85%
XSP (2010-2011 so far)
8.92%

So yeah, I'm pretty happy with the results. I plan on sticking with the "magic" for now.

EDIT: Just for clarification: the magic formula does not meet the "Couch Potato" definition. It does require some work, at least once a quarter. And I do research the companies spit out by the Magic Formula before I purchase.


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## Rysto (Nov 22, 2010)

My target allocation is:

20% Claymore 1-5 Corporate Bond Index (CBO)
20% TD e-Series Canadian Index (TDB900)
30% Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTI)
25% Vanguard MSCI EAFE ETF (VEA)
5% Vanguard Emerging Markets (VWO)

During the year I plan on DCA'ing new money into TD e-Series funds, and then selling once a year and buying ETFs again when I rebalance.


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## Financial Cents (Jul 22, 2010)

@Rysto - why TD index instead of an ETF like XIU or XIC? Curious.


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## larry81 (Nov 22, 2010)

probably yo save on trading fee's


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