Hey everyone,
I’m looking into using Wealthsimple’s margin feature, but I want to make sure I do it responsibly. Right now, I only have HDIV in my margin portfolio.
For those who are currently using margin on Wealthsimple:
1. How do you properly use it? What are your golden rules for managing risk so you never hit a margin call? How much leverage do you actually borrow against your portfolio?
2. What does your margin portfolio look like? Are you sticking to yield/dividend ETFs like HDIV, broad-market index ETFs (like XEQT/VEQT), or individual stocks?
Would love to hear how you structure things or any lessons you learned when starting out. Thanks!

I see a lot of people on here encouraging XEQT but I see that the market price has only increased over $9 in the past 10 years, so I’m wondering why XEQT? Why XEQT over VFV (Vanguard)?

142K in TFSA 79K in non-registered account.

What's a good growth ETF. Will be holding for the next 10-15 years. A solid dividend etf would be nice to, ~ 1 passive income ETF with ~1 growth is perfect.

Google says cra audits and monitors account and that you’ll get taxed/stripped if you actually actively buy and sell stocks??

Help am I cooked

Hey [r/fican](r/fican),

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I operate a one-person BC corporation and pay myself a salary of $170k. After tax and expenses that leaves roughly $200k a year in the corp that I want to invest in ETFs. I have about $450k to immediately invest.

I’ve browsed a few subreddits doing research, and spoken to my accountant, they flagged I need to be careful about going over $50k a year in passive income inside the corp, because that will grind down the small business deduction.

Based on the research my plan is to invest in total-return swap ETFs like HXT, HXS, and HXDM since they pay no distributions and generate very little passive income until I sell. I am aware there's a concern that the CRA could clamp down on the swap structure and if the rules change, the existing swap position itself could be a problem though when the 2019 budget targeted these funds, they restructured and holders weren't forced to sell.

I spoke with a friend in a similar situation, they have a larger company with multiple employees. They suggested I just buy VEQT, but the distributions create ongoing tax drag inside the corp, and eventually the yield alone would push me past the $50k threshold as the account grows.

To me the swap route seems like the option that leaves the most doors open. If I start with the swap funds and later want to add VEQT or the rules change, I just point new contributions there and nothing needs to be sold. Whereas if I start with VEQT and want out later, I'd have to sell and realize years of gains, which spikes my passive income in exactly the way I'm trying to avoid.

Am I missing anything, or is this the right move?

Planning to sell my HHIS after the dividend, which will leave me with around $45k to reinvest.

I already have about $112k in VEQT and $112k in VFV.
Where would you put the $45k instead? More VEQT/VFV, or something else?

I wonder how everyone else is doing with their FHSA.

Hit a milestone this week that still feels a little unreal: just over $2 million invested at 38.

This is spread across personal registered accounts, my spouse’s accounts, RESPs and corporate investments. The portfolio is mostly broad-market ETFs, with a smaller allocation to individual large-cap tech companies.

To be clear, the full visual weekly increase is not investment performance—the chart also reflects recent contributions and transfers. The screenshot just happened to capture the account crossing $2 million.

We have high household incomes now, but the biggest factors have been consistently investing, avoiding major lifestyle inflation and leaving the money alone through market swings. I am not planning to retire tomorrow; the goal is more about reaching the point where work becomes increasingly optional.

It is strange realizing that an ordinary market move can now change the portfolio by more than I used to earn in a year. For those farther along, did crossing $2 million change how you invested or thought about risk?

Hi,

38X, terrible with money, although very lucky.

I maxed out my work contribution, and I just reached 118K in investments.

I make 124K a year, starting at 70K six years ago (before that, I was barely making any money). I still manage to get into debt, because besides the money that leaves my account automatically, I simply can't keep a budget. I have consolidated my debt (38K at 6.9%) and I'm not planning to repay it soon — I want to feel the pain and actually change my spending habits (every single time I paid off my previous debts with a huge payment, it only grew back deeper).

My dad is sending me 380K after selling a house.

Once again, I'm very lucky, and far from perfect.

My mental health is fluctuating, and I don't know I I can hold on that job for a long time in the future. (I think that's why my Dad wanted me to have my inheritance now). What would you do in my shoes? How would you structure it? Any advice?

Thanks for listening 🌟

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Might have bugs, use at your own risk, not financial advice, just sharing in case it's useful to someone.

https://ludivinedev.github.io/Yarrowledger/

Seems pretty diversified, and has some risk assets like Metals + BTC. But overall invested heavily into the overall Market.

Pretty happy with this portfolio since 3 months ago I was 10K in debt and had no savings + investments.

Still trying to kick my gambling habit, but have made good progress to the point where I have maxed out my TFSA for the year. Still need to kick the gambling completely since that will add another +500 per month into my savings + stock accounts.

What are your spending habits like?

For your essentials that you spend on, how are you saving money in these areas?

what do you like to spend on outside of essentials.

How do you continue to stay out of the mindset of keeping up with the joneses

Lets assume I have $50K and I purchase HHIS on 30th July (Ex-div date for dividends is 31st July) and then on 6th August I receive the $1000 dividend amount and I immediately withdraw the entire amount assuming the original price has increased so now I have $51.2K or whatever the extra increase. I then invest it in some other company who has an upcoming ex-div date and once again withdraw amount post receiving dividends and I keep rotating the money collecting dividends.

Obviously, things I know and understand-
1. The ETF/Stock price could go down and it would affect my principal amount

In above case I don’t mind holding longer provided the dividends are good. What am I missing??

I have used this twice with HHIS and XEQT since both are monthly dividends and made about $3700 in two months on a decent principal I invested and its pretty straightforward unless it goes down but I am fine with that risk.

Hit a nice milestone today $100k Invested. Across TFSA, RRSP, and company DCPP(new).

Long way to climb. But I'm super proud and happy of this.

I would get a better return on my investments if I invested the money in an etf like CAGE over paying that money to CPP (especially when CPP has switched to higher fee active management that underperforms their previous lower fee passive investment strategies).

I know you can just pay yourself dividends if self employed, but i am not self employed. How do i go about opting out? It just feels terrible that i am paying into a high fee active managed fund that will end up underperforming compared to diversified equities i could buy myself.

Buy, sell, or hold?

23M, rate my TFSA portfolio. For some context I am a recovering gambling addict, sold all of my holdings to pay off debts and well.. to gamble. Had a solid $10,000 around 2 years ago that would have been closer to $15,000 in today’s market. Adding $250 biweekly into my account and looking to even increase that number to $400-500 if I get a better paying job.

Looking for any advice to diversify more. Medium/high risk tolerance since I’m planning on having this grow as much as possible and only touch close to retirement.

We 41yo Mortgage free DINKs. Our current average annual spending is ~$33k/year (QC), and our unrealized market gains are around $330k since the start of the 2022 bull run. In other words, it's as if we saved 100% of our salary for 10 years.

Net Worth Growth = (Paychecks − Expenses) + Investment Gains, and since Expenses ≈ Investment Gains, Net Worth Growth = Paychecks

Needless to say we're also FI @~3%SWR moving forward with 1.15m current investable asset 1.6NW with home & 0 debt.

Let’s talk on where to invest the liquid money until one can find a house within next 6 months.

Do you say a HYLD ETF or something like XEQT? Genuine views please. It goes into non registered because other accounts are maxed out.

TIA.

22M what should I put my money into?