Vanguard FTSE Cdn High Div Yd. (VDY.TO)

VCN is an all cap with about 175 stocks. VDY focuses on dividend payers, so it has banks and oil and the like. 

The choice is do you want basic growth or do you want income? VDY for income. VCN for more growth and better diversification.

He likes XHU-T, VDY-T and XEI-T, which he owns. All include financials and pipelines.

VDY vs. VRE when buying dips We just had a dip on Friday and you have to pounce on them. It's hard. You need to find a stock that trades in a channel, then buy when it hits the bottom of that channel. The TSX is weighted in the VDY. He prefers VDY given the underperformance of Canadian banks in VRE.

VDY vs XEI ETF? VDY and XEI is very similar and their prices track closely. VDY tends to hold higher financial sector exposure, where yields are generally higher. Whereas XEI holds the highest yield payers on the composite Index. He also likes XDIV which has the lowest MER (0.11%). It holds "quality" holdings, using an algorithm to pick higher ROE, lower levered companies with earnings stability.

(A Top Pick May 2/16. Up 17%.) Has used this as an income surrogate where some people do not want to sell their principal and just want dividend income. This is ultimately Canadian equities and are going to need to have some volatility. Has significantly lightened his position in this.

(A Top Pick May 2/16. Up 19%.) A broadly diversified way of getting Canadian dividends. He doesn’t believe you should use dividends as an income investment, but this is for those people who are looking for dividends.

(A Top Pick Feb 26/16. Up 35.01%.) This company’s costs are low. A situation where he thought that for people who are relatively conservative, it is a good ETF that has gone up consistently and steadily in the past year. Dividend paying stocks are really a good way to screen for value. You are basically getting a value play on the Canadian large cap stock market. Still a buy.

(A Top Pick Feb 26/16. Up 31.15%.) This has been a very good year for Canadian stocks. Do not expect those kinds of returns every year. A very good product.

It is cheap. You have to be careful of bank and energy exposure and may want to look at a different dividend ETF if you already have a lot of exposure to these sectors. As a product there is nothing wrong with it.

People need to think about getting more money out of Canada and how to deal with income. If you don’t mind taking a little more risk, then maybe you can aim for dividend income as opposed to getting a coupon. This is not a traditional income play, but if you want to buy this for the income and hold it for a very long term, he wouldn’t blame you entirely for that. Dividend yield of about 3.5%.