Topic: How To Invest

My personal and my wife’s RRSP accounts have lost approx. 45% over the last one and a half years. They are both invested in mutual funds, including Hartford Canadian Dividend Growth Fund, Hartford U.S. Dividend Growth Fund, Mackenzie Sentinel Income Fund, Mackenzie Maxxum Dividend Fund, Mackenzie Cundill Value Fund and AGF World Balanced Fund. Can you comment on any of these funds? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

Hartford Canadian Dividend Growth Fund holds mostly large-capitalization, dividend-paying Canadian stocks. The fund is okay to hold. Hartford U.S. Dividend Growth Fund is okay to hold for U.S. exposure. Mackenzie Sentinel Income Fund is a balanced fund that holds 39.8% of its assets in stocks, 58.4% in bonds and 2.2% in cash. AGF World Balanced Fund is also a balanced fund. It holds 70% of its assets in stocks and 30% in bonds. We don’t generally recommend balanced funds, which hold both stocks and bonds. That’s because bonds are unlikely to perform as well over the next few years as they have during the last few, if only because interest rates may hold steady or rise. That means the funds would only earn interest income on their bonds; instead of capital gains, their bond holdings could produce capital losses. Mackenzie Maxxum Dividend Fund holds mostly large-capitalization, dividend-paying common stocks. By country, its top holdings are in Canadian stocks (74%), U.S. stocks (15%) and the…