HELP needed for bond part [Greece]

[zoltan]

Hello dear friends

I have been reading this blog the last two months after I got referred by a mate and I believe it is the best blog regarding FIRE philosophy.

I am in a dilemma and I would really appreciate your opinion on that.
I am 29 years old living in Greece and I am completely new to investing. Also, I am planning to retire in Greece.

I inherited a decent amount of EURO's and I chose to follow the classic lazy recipe which is suggested on the wiki of bogleheads:

iShares Core MSCI World ETF bought in euros 90%
iShares Core MSCI EM IMI ETF bought in euros 10%

However on the bond part i am quite confused. Boglehead's wiki suggests AGGH and (and a lot suggest the non hedged etf IGLO) but I read everywhere that is not the best time to invest in bonds. If not bonds then what?

My strategy is to have a 70/30 stocks/bonds allocation so if i am not investing in bonds what i am going to do with that 30% (around 200k euros).

I would really appreciate a suggestion from you 🙂
Best regards

[daverobev]

Bonds are there to act as a volatility counter to stocks. Yes, bonds might not be a great investment right now, but there isn't anything else to replace them with - you just have to bite the bullet. Or, use a high interest savings account if you can find one, but this doesn't fluctuate in the same way, it isn't the same as bonds.

Thing is, where we probably are at is that money itself is too cheap. Everything other than money is expensive - we've had a lot of quantitative easing (money printing), but inflation is still low, rates are low.

[zoltan]

Hi,

Thank you for your answer.

So for the bond part which one would you recommend?
I found a decent interest account from a bank in Malta https://www.medirect.com.mt/ . Could you please explain me why you believe it different than holding bonds?

Regards

[Andy R]

I have not read through it since I am not a European, but may this thread is useful to you.

[daverobev]

If you can get Vanguard stuff, they are generally excellent. So

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investments/vanguard-eur-eurozone-government-bond-ucits-etf-eur-distributing?intcmpgn=fixedincomeeurope_eureurozonegovernmentbonducitsetf_fund_link

but in Euros rather than Pounds.

Cash doesn't fluctuate like bonds do. It doesn't act as a counter to stock fluctuations in the same way - it tends to be that stocks and bonds are inversely correlated, so when one goes up the other goes down, reducing volatility. Lately, however, the two have been in sync (both going up), so who knows.