Investing

By Michael McCullough on September 4, 2025
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

By Michael McCullough on September 4, 2025
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Three ways for Canadians to create a basic low-fee, low-maintenance investment portfolio, with sample asset-allocation models.

You can build a couch-potato portfolio in three simple ways—using index mutual funds, index ETFs, or asset-allocation ETFs.

But before we dive into these further, an important note. The following options are meant to illustrate sample portfolios and do not constitute financial advice. If you haven’t already done so, review the principles behind how to build a couch-potato portfolio and our overview of couch potato investing before committing your hard-earned money to any of the investments indicated.

Most Canadian banks offer a selection of relatively low-cost index mutual funds with which you can build your own balanced portfolio. Depending on your relationship with the institution, they may throw in advice for free.

TD is the best-known provider in this space with its e-Series funds, but Scotiabank, RBC, and CIBC, among others, have similar products.

The pie chart below illustrates how a typical mid-career investor with a moderate risk tolerance might construct a portfolio using e-Series funds. More conservative investors would typically increase the fixed-income allocation as high as 80%, while more growth-oriented investors might reduce the fixed income component to 20% or less.

Tangerine Bank, the online banking subsidiary of Scotiabank, lets you simplify the process further with a single, all-in-one product—similar to the asset-allocation ETFs described below but marketed as a mutual fund. You can find your choice of Tangerine Core Balanced Portfolio (60% stocks, 40% bonds), Core Balanced Income Portfolio (70% bonds, 30% stocks), Core Balanced Growth Portfolio (75% stocks, 25%........

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