Quote Originally Posted by justakiwi View Post
Is there any point/logic in someone like me (very small beginner investor) investing in bonds (eg: Smartshares Gobal Bond Fund) or would I be better to just focus on building on the small portfolio I have for now, until I have a decent total investment balance? I’m only pondering it as I am aware my portfolio is 100% aggressive so wondering if I should add something like this to spread my risk a little.

Waste of time for such a minuscule investment balance?
IMO if you follow the great investors abroad, bond investments are a waste of time to the individual. In the US there are municipal bonds that attract some individuals who want a fixed return without the risk of owning shares. But that's because such bonds are tax free ; something we don't have in NZ. In this respect, why are Kiwi Saver funds presenting themselves with different levels of risk (ie. conservative, moderate, aggressive) SOLELY on the % they divide the asset pool? (that is an aggressive fund would have little or not bonds or fixed income assets vs a conservative fund will have a lot put in bonds). Anyways IMO, the % of the fund's portfolio put into bonds should NOT be the moderator of risk levels in the portfolio. This is old school thinking from the CAPM days.

BTW, it was the manipulation of bonds in the 80s that lead on to the GFC we saw in 2008. Because bonds were boring, they've found ways to turn them into 'derivatives', synthetic investments, bundling the bond assets into different ways to disguise the bond asset. Have a read here:

https://www.thebalance.com/role-of-d...crisis-3970477