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# My new Canadian heavy investment portfolio and letting WealthSimple do the boring stuff
- URL: https://www.adamsooley.ca/my-canadian-investment-portfolio/
- Published: 2026-09-19T12:17:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-19T17:56:38.000Z
- Description: I finally settled on an investment portfolio that feels right for me: 56% Canadian, 28% international and 16% U.S. Using WealthSimple's Automated Investing, I can choose the companies and ETFs I want while letting the automation handle much of the boring portfolio maintenance.
- Author: Adam Sooley
- Tags: Finance, Canadian, Money Saving, Personal Opinion

**Disclaimer:** I am not a financial advisor, do your own research and make your own decisions and/or talk to an actual financial advisor.

If you've been following along to some of my previous posts ([Buying individual stocks vs WealthSimple's Automated Investing Account](https://www.adamsooley.ca/buying-individual-stocks-vs-wealthsimples-automated-investing-account/), [Money Saving Posts](https://www.adamsooley.ca/tag/money-saving/)), you'll know that I have spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out exactly how to save money and how much Canada, the United States and the rest of the world I actually want in my portfolio.

I've gone through portfolios with plenty of U.S. technology exposure. I've looked at all-in-one ETFs. I've looked at dividend-heavy portfolios. I've looked at individual Canadian companies and eventually I landed somewhere that feels much more like me, more Canada. Less dependence on U.S., plenty of international diversification, and most importantly, a portfolio I can actually stick with.

## This portfolio is now 56% Canadian

Here's what I've settled on:

**Canada - 56%**

| Investment                      | Allocation |
| ------------------------------- | ---------- |
| Canadian Banks                  | **12%**    |
| Brookfield Corporation (BN)     | **10%**    |
| Canadian National Railway (CNR) | **9%**     |
| Dollarama (DOL)                 | **8%**     |
| Fortis (FTS)                    | **7%**     |
| Enbridge (ENB)                  | **7%**     |
| VDY                             | **3%**     |
| **Total**                       | **56%**    |

**International - 28%**

| Investment | Allocation |
| ---------- | ---------- |
| VIU        | **14%**    |
| VWO        | **14%**    |
| **Total**  | **28%**    |

**United States - 16%**

| Investment | Allocation |
| ---------- | ---------- |
| VOO        | **10%**    |
| SCHD       | **6%**     |
| **Total**  | **16%**    |

## Why so much Canada?

This is probably the biggest change in my thinking. I'm Canadian, I live in Canada, I earn Canadian dollars, my day-to-day life is Canadian, and I'm trying to remove more and more of my reliance on the systems south of the border. 

So I don't see a reason why my investment portfolio needs to be dominated by American companies simply because the U.S. stock market is enormous. I still have some U.S. exposure but it has been greatly reduced. I also don't want my portfolio to become an accidental bet on a handful of giant American technology companies who are raising capital without any true product or plan behind them to raise money in the future. i.e. AI. Instead, I wanted Canadian companies to form the foundation of this portfolio.

## The Canadian side

The 56% Canadian allocation is made up mostly of individual companies and that's intentional.

### Banks - 12%

I kept 12% for Canadian banks as a group rather than trying to pick one bank and pretend I know which one is going to be the magical winner of the next 20 years.

Canadian banks are a pretty significant part of the Canadian economy, and I like having them represented in this portfolio.

This also gives me exposure to financial services without making the entire portfolio dependent on one individual bank.

### Brookfield - 10%

Brookfield gives me something a little different from simply owning another Canadian bank. It's a large, diversified business with exposure to areas such as asset management and operating businesses around the world.

So while I count it in my Canadian allocation, the underlying business isn't simply a collection of things happening inside Canada and that actually works nicely with what I'm trying to accomplish. I want Canadian companies, but I don't necessarily want every company I own to make all of its money in Canada.

### Canadian National Railway - 9%

This is one of those companies that makes a lot of sense to me as a long-term Canadian holding. Railways are not particularly exciting , some might say, boring 🤣. Which is probably a good thing, I'm not looking for every investment to be exciting. I want businesses that provide something people and companies actually need.

CNR gives me exposure to transportation (20,000+ KM's of track in North America) and infrastructure rather than adding another financial company or another technology company.

### Dollarama - 8%

Yes, Dollarama. The store where I, and most other people, go in for one thing and leave with twelve things we didn't know we needed. It gives the portfolio some consumer exposure and is another Canadian business that is quite different from my banks, infrastructure holdings and railway, and its a business model that works when times are tighter. 

### Fortis - 7%

Fortis provides utility exposure and adds another defensive, infrastructure-oriented business to the Canadian (and Newfoundland 😄) portion of the portfolio.

One thing worth remembering, though, is that being listed in Canada doesn't mean a company only operates in Canada. Fortis has substantial U.S. operations, so I consider it a Canadian holding while recognizing that its underlying business is more geographically diverse.

### Enbridge - 7%

Enbridge gives me exposure to energy infrastructure and adds another income-producing component. Again, this isn't about trying to build the world's greatest dividend portfolio. I own dividend heavy stocks already in other portfolios.

### VDY - 3%

VDY at 3% is small enough that it doesn't dominate the portfolio, but it gives me some additional Canadian and canadian dividend exposure without having to individually own every company in the index. At only 3%, I'm also not relying on VDY to define the Canadian portion of the portfolio. The individual companies do that.

## Why only 16% U.S.?

I haven't abandoned the United States. I'm just not making it the largest part of my portfolio. As its well documented on this site now, I want out of the U.S. and I want to lessen my exposure there but its hard to remove myself out 100%. 

- **VOO - 10%:** VOO gives me broad U.S. market exposure.
- **SCHD - 6%:** SCHD gives me a different flavour of U.S. exposure with a dividend focused approach.

Together, that's 16% of this entire portfolio and that's enough U.S. exposure that I don't feel like I'm ignoring one of the world's largest stock markets. But it's also small enough that I don't feel like I'm building my entire financial future around the U.S. market.

## International gets 28%

The other piece I didn't want to sacrifice was international diversification, in fact, I wanted more of it here than U.S. exposure but still some additional diversification outside of Canada.

- **VIU - 14%:** Developed markets outside Canada and the U.S., including Europe, Japan, Australia and other major international economies.
- **VWO - 14%:** Emerging markets exposure, including countries such as China, Taiwan, India, Brazil and others.

That gives me 28% outside Canada and the U.S. and I like this because it prevents the portfolio from becoming a simple North American portfolio. There are a lot of businesses outside this continent and I want a piece of them too.

## WealthSimple Automated Investing, the part that makes this boring and easy

Here's where WealthSimple comes into the picture. I don't particularly enjoy manually maintaining a portfolio and needing to determine each period on how much of my invested money to go to each holding. 

That's where WealthSimple Automated Investing becomes useful for me. WealthSimple's Automated Investing product allows you to choose your own stocks and ETFs and assign target percentages to them. You maintain control over what goes into the portfolio, while WealthSimple provides the automation for deposits and rebalancing.

WealthSimple has both Managed Investing and Automated Investing and they're not the same thing. With Managed Investing, WealthSimple builds and manages a portfolio for you based on your goals and risk profile

While both are great investment solutions, I want to choose my investments and set the target allocations in each. I don't want somebody else deciding that I should own 40% U.S. equities, 30% Canadian equities and a bunch of bonds because that's what their model says. 

> I want to decide.

> Then the computer can do the repetitive boring stuff.

Instead of me having to stare at my portfolio and decide what to buy every time I add money, Automated Investing can direct deposits toward holdings that are below their target allocations. WealthSimple also provides tools to rebalance the portfolio back toward the percentages I've established.

So if CNR has fallen below my target while something else has grown above its target, I don't necessarily need to manually calculate everything. The system can help get things back toward the plan.

> The plan comes first.

> The automation simply helps me follow it.

If I'm checking my portfolio ten times a day because something went up 4% and another thing went down 3%, I'm probably doing too much. I'd rather establish my allocation, automate my contributions and get on with my life.

- I've decided what I want.
- I automatically send money to it
- Now I leave it alone.

> Boring, simple and it grows. 

## The goal isn't to find the perfect portfolio

I've learned that there probably isn't a perfect portfolio. There is only a portfolio that makes sense for what you're trying to accomplish and, perhaps more importantly, one that you can actually stick with.

For me, this portfolio gives me a Canadian foundation, meaningful international exposure and a smaller U.S. allocation. It also gives me exposure to different types of businesses instead of putting everything into one sector or one country.

Now I just have to do the hardest part of investing:

> **Leave it alone.**

![](https://www.adamsooley.ca/content/images/2026/09/wealthsimple.jpg) 

#### WealthSimple Automated Investing

Set it. Automate it. Let your money do the boring work.

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