Our investments consist of a couple of income properties but we’re thinking about expanding our portfolio and investing in other assets like equities. Where do we start?

April 10, 2023

 

Great idea, diversifying your investments is often a wise move.  I think you approach an equity portfolio (that may include fixed income) as you might a new investment property.  You need to be clear on what your objectives are for this money, how much money will you commit, what is your time horizon, how much involvement you wish to have and how much near-term liquidity you will require.

 

Armed with those answers you can begin to assemble a portfolio.  As an example, say you have a 15-year time horizon and you want to grow a portfolio for the purposes of deriving tax efficient cashflow for a future retirement, with minimal short or medium-term liquidity, you may want to build out a diversified portfolio of blue-chip stocks with growing dividends.

 

Depending on how much you invest initially, you may utilize Mutual Funds, ETFs or individual Stocks.  If your plan is to add money monthly, you will be able to take advantage of Dollar cost averaging (where you wish for volatility) and may want to consider more growth-oriented holdings that tend to swing more in price.

 

Many investors that have income properties are asking the same question as you.  In fact, many are surprised to hear how they can build an investment pool that can generate yields north of 5% in tax efficient cash flows (Canadian Dividends) that typically grow over time with good long term capital growth as well.  Given the elevated prices in real estate and higher interest rates, it makes a lot of sense to look at equities, not to mention the pull back that has occurred in many stock prices as of late. 

 

Other key benefits are that you do not have to chase down rent cheques, worry about fixing toilets or being able to raise rents with inflation.

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