3 Stocks or ETFs I Want to Buy in 2025
As I approach close to 20 years as a DIY investor, a hybrid investor no less and almost 16 years (!) being My Own Advisor I’ve come to appreciate investing and portfolio simplicity more and more.
With that theme in mind, here are 3 stocks or ETFs I want to buy more of in 2025.
Our core stocks and ETFs
Our hybrid investing approach has been both very successful and to my point above, rather simple to execute on over the last two decades. Sure, amongst some big winners there have been mistakes choosing some individual stocks over others (looking at you H&R REIT (see here) and AQN as key examples in recent years) but generally speaking, there has been a tremendous amount of income earned and growth gained using our hybrid investing approach.
To recap:
- Approach #1 – we own a number of Canadian dividend paying stocks for income and growth, mostly in our taxable accounts these days. While we’re down to under 30 Canadian stocks owned, and that number could go even lower in the coming years, we continue to believe buying and holding our DIY bundle of Canadian dividend-paying stocks will, over time, provide some steady monthly income for future wants and needs in semi-retirement.
The core stocks we own from Canada can be summarized as follows from these sectors:
- Financials (banks, lifecos)
- Energy (and pipelines)
- Utilities
- Industrials
- Materials
- Communication
We also happen to own a few U.S. stocks at the time of this post (BRK.B, BLK as some examples) but that number of U.S. stocks owned is now significantly lower than it was 5-years ago. This is because I’ve gravitated to focus on two main equity ETFs inside our portfolio starting from 2016 onwards for growth:
I like these ETFs beyond a bit of HEQT held in my LIRA since these two main ETFs are a lazy way to obtain equity returns beyond Canada without individual stock selection or worry (such as the next H&R REIT or AQN in the U.S.).
With XAW, I own a world of stocks beyond Canada for growth.
With QQQ, I own a bit of a tech-kicker for any major / continued tech runs that may happen.
Your mileage may vary! 🙂
3 Stocks or ETFs I Want to Buy in 2025
Source: Pexels, Photo by Porapak Apichodilok.
- “We keep a bit of cash as our emergency fund.
- We invest in many Canadian (and some U.S. stocks) for income and growth.
- We invest in a few low-cost ETFs for growth.
- We don’t own any REITs.
- We don’t own any bonds.
- We have maxed out our TFSAs and RRSPs with contribution room. We focus and prioritize contributions to our TFSA over the RRSP while working full-time.
- We are growing our cash / cash equivalents position over time for extra financial security including when we’re not working at all.
- We also have no debt. We own our home and we’re very fortunate to own a new car too.”
In so many respects, I feel like we’ve won the race to date.
- There is no need to take on debt/leverage at this stage in our lives.
- There is little need to chase new/shiny stocks or alternative crypto-like investments.
- There is generally less need to speculate as I have done from time-to-time over the last 20 years.
While there are no risk-free investments, the risk of a signficant loss with some investments seems small these days. For example: I don’t believe the entire Canadian financial sector will implode, although I guess that could happen. Same goes with the utilities sector, owning companies like Fortis or Emera in particular are good bond-proxies that deliver 4%-5% yield.
Using my 5% rule (i.e., do not own too many stocks worth more than 5% of our portfolio value), even if one stock does totally go under/to zero I have 95% of my portfolio intact – in a mix of income stocks that tend to pay higher dividends over time and growth stocks.
In years’ past, I wrote about 5 stocks I would like to buy in 2021 or 2022 but this coming year, it’s very different as I enter a new phase.
The sum of my individual stock holdings has gotten smaller over time, more concentrated really, to go with my low-cost ETFs for desired diversification. Boring is good.
In the coming year with some semi-retirement work on the horizon, I’ve decided to narrow my stock or ETF purchases to just three.
1. XAW
No real surprise here. I’ve hinted at owning more of this equity-focused ETF ex-Canada for some time now and with a few weeks to go before more Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) contribution room opens up, XAW is my #1 choice to fill up this account with in early January 2025.
XAW has >60% holdings with U.S. stocks.
2. Brookfield (BN)
Over the last few years in my taxable account, since contributions to our TFSAs and RRSPs were previously full, I’ve been adding to this stock here and there.
If you want to listen to where Brookfield has been and where it’s going – very well worth your time.
I see Brookfield as a long-term growth play for part of our portfolio – Brookfield is one of the world’s largest alternative investment management companies on the planet. It’s growing still too.
3. Tourmaline (TOU)
In recent years, I’ve also been adding to my Tourmaline position. Tourmaline is Canada’s largest natural gas producer focused on long-term growth through all these: exploration, development, production and acquisitions.
Long-term, this is also a growth position for me when it comes to natural gas specifically. Again, we’ll see how well I do if/when I add to this position over time after I focus on the previous two listed above.
3 Stocks or ETFs I Want to Buy in 2025
Risk is relative and unique.
For example, if you decide you need an average annual return of 7% in order to meet a financial goal, and you invest in lower-risk investments that only pay 3%, yes, you won’t lose much money but you won’t meet your goal.
On the flipside, once an investor has largely met their financial goals, said investor only needs to take on as much investing risk as necessary – to sustain their needs. So, if you only need 4%-5% returns on average, then that’s all the risk you take on.
The way I see it with our DIY mix of Canadian stocks, some moaty stocks along with bond-proxies, I figure that stock mix should deliver 4%-5% returns on yield as a collective.
For growth, since Canada is only 3% or so of the entire global economy, I own increasingly low-cost ETFs like XAW, QQQ and HEQT for stock gains from around the world.
Hybrid investing has been a winning strategy for me, in my asset accumulation years, that helped us realize our financial independence sooner than most.
With a few adjustments here and there in the years to come, it is my sincere hope that my asset preservation years and portfolio income earning years will be just as rewarding.
Mark
Mark
My name is Mark Seed – the founder, editor and owner of My Own Advisor. As my own DIY financial advisor, I’m looking to start semi-retirement soon, sooner than most. Find out what I did and how I realized Financial Independence to tailor your own path. Join the newsletter read by thousands. Always free.
