Good bonds/ bond funds?

System

Well cash at least has no correlation with an equities crash so that's better for my purposes than bonds or property. Maybe just use spare cash to improve my credit ability too

dunstonh

Well cash at least has no correlation with an equities crash so that's better for my purposes than bonds or property.

Nor do bonds and property in most cases.

System

Both dropped in 2008 though? I could only look back about 15 years so far, I realise there can be different causes, there were times when bonds did well but I can't really say that what i saw overall outperformed good cash current accounts - I suppose some people are investing on a scale where cash isn't so good and bonds make more sense for them

But then again why hold, say, 60%equities:40% bonds when you could hold 80%equities:20% cash, and then the cash you have will be crash proof and fully available and the extra equities would make up for the performance that bonds otherwise would've given you

dunstonh

Both dropped in 2008 though?

That was because it was a financial crisis and not a conventional crash.

I could only look back about 15 years so far,

You need to look back further. The last 15 years were unusual. The world also appears to be heading back towards an 80s style environment. Whether we do end up there or we have something completely different, nobody knows.

But then again why hold, say, 60%equities:40% bonds when you could hold 80%equities:20% cash, and then the cash you have will be crash proof and fully available and the extra equities would make up for the performance that bonds otherwise would've given you

When you build a portfolio, the different asset clases are spread across the risk profile. 80/20 in the way you propose is taking two things at either extreme and ignoring the things in the middle.

System

I will certainly look back further and consider

.80/20 in the way you propose is taking two things at either extreme and ignoring the things in the middle.

I think its more efficient to do that, as if you concentrate the risk you can invest less money, which in a way could mean the person is safer for being able to hold more cash. I suppose exposure is exposure and its just a matter of how much total exposure someone wants - how they distribute it may not hugely matter?