Totally up to you.
Iām not running any bonds at all and have no intention either.
Stocks or ETFās for me.
ETFās for me does the same action as bonds, in regards to it lowers volatility and diversifies me a bit. There may be a place for bonds though, but Iām not going that route.
Completely subjective. But I would not go heavy into them, if I could offer that advice.
Imagine 2008- post crash, looking back which would you rather have more of : stocks or bonds going forward. For me stocks win.
Iām not too heavy into the bond but I do feel glad to have it unless post 2008 happens again but surely it wonāt be the same as that was based off low offer mortgages which is ironic as the same year I got a 100% mortgage. Crazy times!
There could be a recession which I feel like Iām hunkering down for. Trying to figure out something safe I suppose and felt this bond was good for that.
I guess stocks werenāt hit that badly in 2008? I donāt know I was just a mortgage buyer back then.
Thank you. Itās always helpful to hear outside your own box
Yea, donāt take it as advice as Iām learning too.
I think the crash was the worst of it, but I do expect another significant dip soon.
Either way though, itās better put to work than sit in a bank at 0.05% return.
Donāt know if youāre joking or Iām misreading but in 2008 stocks had the biggest drops of all time. Basically created by giving out loans and
things like 100% mortgages without doing checks to see if they could afford or would ever get repaid.
It was a genuine question I think I spent the year purely fixated on the 100% mortgage we got and the fact I was offered an extra Ā£Ā£Ā£Ā£ to do āadditional work in the houseā left in a daze. I canāt recall much more to be honest
In hindsight I do recall certain trade stores with a never ending sale on. I was in my own bubble then and definitely didnāt know or really comprehend the stock market back then.
I remember it of course but only for getting a mortgage deemed totally impossible today
@CeeGee One of the reasons for holding bonds as well as shares are that usually as assets they do not correlate with each other, hence adding some diversification of risk. So if shares fall then hopefully bonds will not fall as much or even rise; as you have found out with the Global Aggregate Bond.
So while holding Bonds can be seen as a way of diversifying risk especially for those who are āconservativeā investors; such as people nearing retirement. Who do not want to deal with huge falls in shares as they will not have the time to wait for them to recover.
However they can also be seen as a source of cash to buy good companies and increase the number of shares in them. Which I think is what you are implying in your original post.
Therefore this could be a sound move depending on your goals, risk tolerance and time. So for example if your goal is retirement and you have a long time horizon ( 5 years + ) and you can tolerate that shares may go up and down in the short term, then it is a good idea to go with your strategy and top up on your favourite shares or ETFs.
The above is just an example and ultimately what you do will be based on your own personal circumstances.
Especially as all I have to go on is your username and icon. So I do not want to presume anything.
@Abel Thatās make me smile. My logo is vintage - I sell vintage/up-cycled items but myself not quite vintageā¦yet
My goal is retirement with ETFās, the Bond and various stocks (with āhopefullyā 15+ years)
Thatās great advice though, most definitely helped. I know the direction Iām heading sometimes I just want to make sure as a newbie that it makes sense to me and Iām making some head way and a sensible direction.
Every day is a learning day
Thanks once again for feedback, I keep it and refresh myself with it all often.
Dominance of the US stock market will fade. China on course to surpass US GDP in 2025. When the belt and road is up and running we will have a new world on our hands.
@Explorer2 here you go. Itās quite the epic read BUT itās been absolutely incredible for my journey as a newbie I come back to this thread a lot.
I like you am thinking 10/15 years and so therefore am more able to take a risk but without reading into EVERY single stocks financial history for me covering the world with ETFās felt the right move. Like I said I do hold single stocks and a few spec stocks (thatās because I love gold and mines in Aussie) Iāve made a few errors along the way but nothing thatās been too damaging itās just helped me figure out my path.
Choose things you genuinely like and want to learn about.
Like I said dividends got cancelled early on so it made no sense me sticking with those companies because I wanted my free cash back for other things things I enjoy. Gold
Try not to overwhelm yourself (itās so easy to do that in the beginning and even now to be honest) just take your time to read through.
I hope this thread helps as it sounds like you are thinking along the same sort of route as me.
You receive dividends from most of these ETFās every quarter so thatās your dividend covered (yeah itās not as big a % as some offer but least itās not suspended) from there you compound that and invest more monthly (well thatās what I do)
Itās taken SO much stress off my shoulders too. Some say donāt pick all Vanguard and diversify but thatās personal preference personally I like vanguard I like their website and I like it all feeling together (except a few ETFās which are medical/tech/property - they arenāt Vanguard)
Always with the questions - could someone please shed some light on something quickly.
I have WHEA (which isnāt fractional and I wish it was ) in my portfolio and itās an accumulating fund.
Does that automatically go into the price - so I will see the price rise over time or is it displayed in the amount of shares I own?
I trust the system entirely so not worried about it just trying to figure out how or if I can see it for myself? Thank you I like that I donāt have to faff with dividends on an accumulating stock though.
Iām coming back to my old thread because the advice on here is second to none.
I donāt want to start a new thread and fill up air space with this question.
Iāve just been able to import all my ETFās into PIE (fab now all snug in one place which makes me happy) when it comes to target weight and actual weight Iām a little confused.
I have 11 ETFās that I want to invest in monthly but as Iāve been manually feeding them how do I decide how to set them into %
Do I set them by the actual weight on the left or make up my own on the right?
Hi @CeeGee, I think I answered you on another post regarding setting actual target weights.
In regards to your question about what % to set them too, the decision is in part related to your risk tolerance.
The screenshot shown has the target % of each pie/ETF which is 10%. In reality some slices are bigger (Vanguard S&P 500) and some smaller (Vanguard FTSE 100) due to the performance of the ETF.
Your decision is then whether to accept this or not.
If you are happy for some ETFs to have a bigger slice than others then you can leave it alone and adjust the target % weight to match the reality.
However if you think that it is too risky to have some slices bigger and others smaller and you want it all to be equal to 10%, then you can select the"rebalance" option.
What this does is that it will buy and sell the underlying ETFs so that you end up with the target % weights.
Iām sort of working it off the All World Vanguard ETF roughly. Perhaps Iām taking the slightly more risky approach with having a higher % in some than others. A few ETFās like the MSCI and the wisdom tree cloud computing I just add what I can.
I think Iāve become so used to manually depositing monthly and working it out myself that I want to trust the auto invest to do it for me but worry Iāve set the % all wrong.
Iām still so new to it all. I guess as long as the yearly returns % reads + then I must have set something right?
Itās all becoming a little less clear as mud as I continue this journey
The good thing about your long term approach is you can try the auto invest function for 6 months, see the results, then decide if you want to continue with it or do it manually.
I think I spent the year purely fixated on the 100% mortgage we got and the fact I was offered an extra Ā£Ā£Ā£Ā£ to do āadditional work in the houseā left in a daze. I canāt recall much more to be honest 
I come back to this thread a lot.
) in my portfolio and itās an accumulating fund.
I like that I donāt have to faff with dividends on an accumulating stock though.
