RRSP funds management

[partho]

I am hoping some of you experts will be able to guide me with this.

I am a total noob when it comes to investments and I used to think that I do not have any money invested. But recently I checked my RRSP statement from Sunlife (which is managing my RRSP). Apparently, they are investing my 70K+ dollars into two stocks (Group Cdn Eqty & BlkRck Cdn Equity). It was ok till here, except that in the past 6 months I have lost 5K as the value of these went down.

I have a few questions and am wondering if any of you can help me;

1. Is it mandatory to buy such stocks from RRSP? Can't I just put them into some plan which has some guaranteed low returns?
2. If I were to invest my money in some other sticks which are not guaranteed returns, which ones would you guys suggest.

P

 

[lakebear]

The market is down so you are not alone to be down 5% or so now..I do not know these stocks, but you should be diversified. get in contact with your rrsp fund managers soon. If you want security, go for GIC's...

 

[goodguy1977]

Hi there,

Well, those are probably mutual funds. Sounds like your Sun life rep put you in to pretty close to 100% equity which means 100% risk. You should also look to see if the acronyms DSC appear on your statement. If it does then you should look at the motives of your rep as that means deferred sales charge. It is definately not required that you invest in these funds. It is your money and you are the boss. As for recommendations, i'd have to know more about your situation but generally you should have a balance of fixed income (safe) and equity (risky). Right now you have almost all risky assets. And just as a personal thought I think Greece will have to default on their debt in the end so you don't want to be near the 100% risky.

I hope that helps and feel free to pm me if you have any more q's.


Good luck

GG

 

[danibbler]

For guaranteed low returns, you have only to look into GICs and savings bonds (Ontario and/or Canada). Beyond that, well, the world's your oyster.

Did the Sun Life rep ever speak to you about your investment objectives?

As for stock recommendations, goodguy is right, not enough info and it's risky to listen to any of us here.