Late star for a Greek resident (52 years old)

Investing / Portfolios
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Hello and thank you for the informative read so far.
I am 52, living in EU and started thinking late about investing. I have a 3-6 month safety pillow already set aside and also around 50k euros as initial investing capital. Would it be better to invest in something like a) Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity ETF Acc or b) VWCE - Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF for 13-15 years, set it and forget it?

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This forum is mostly about Switzerland investing. Each country has a different framework (esp. around taxes) that often make the approach from one country not so relevant in another.

Though in general what matters is your investment horizon and how much you’re willing to lose (hopefully in the short term, but that can also be longer term). After that each country will have different recommendation on specific instruments.

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Welcome !
Which country are you living in ?

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Greece !

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Yeah, tax systems make difference between investment strategies: what taxes are applied during the investment, what tax-advantaged schemes are available and so on.

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In Greece so far UCIT ETFs are still not taxed.

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ΚαληΌΔρα! Greek here. The standard advice in Greek finance forums/reddit is VWCE and chill but I personally like the ideas of Vanguard’s all-in-one funds. Either of those two is very low maintenance, you just keep buying and don’t need to think about it at all.

In your shoes I’d be going for VWCE for a bit more risk and a bit more expected return, given you have a very good safety pillow compared with most of people anywhere.

More important question is which broker do you intend to use? I searched and struggled a lot to find a way to invest with Greek banks without prohibitively high fees, most of people I know investing in Greece use DEGIRO, IBKR or, sigh, Freedom24.

Edit: I am sure you know, but if you don’t stay as far away from Greek mutual funds as possible! (For forum colleagues: we’re talking LAUGHABLY high fees like 0-2% entry, 1-2% TER, 0-5% exit, there’s always either an entry or exit fee, some times both! And then if you dig into the actual components of the funds, the banks basically invest in Vanguard/Blackrock stock+bond ETFs and keep the fee difference!)

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ΚαληΌέρα.
I have already opened a IBKR joint account with my wife. And yes I know about the Greek banks. It’s absurd.

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Both options are very similar.
The main question that you need to answer yourself is whether you want to go 100% stocks or add 20% bonds to reduce a little bit the volatility.

Recently Ben Felix made a very good video about Asset Allocation & Risk:

The respective Rational Reminder episode is more comprehensive:

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Great advice already. Especially asset allocation is important.
At 52 going all stocks is likely too risky.

And you‘d be a prime candidate for Vanguard‘s Lifestrategy funds.

They have a classic 60/40 ucits etf. Vanguard Lifestrategy 60%.
That‘s basically 60% VWCE + 40% total world bond market hedged to €.

A one and done solution, very broadly diversified.
Either accumulating or distributing available.

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https://www.etfstream.com/articles/amundi-unveils-ready-made-portfolio-etfs-to-tap-retail-investors

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Thanks all.
What do you think of this

60% of initial capital Vanguard LifeStrategy 60/40
30% of initial capital Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (VWCE)
10% of initial capital Invesco Physical Gold UCITS ETF (or something similar)
and adjust after 60 years old to less VWCE and more Lifestrategy ?

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If you are using multiple funds anyway, why not just 65% global stocks and 25% global bonds? This way you might also adjust duration of bonds, see Amundi target date funds for inspiration.

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It looks difficult for a beginner like me :slight_smile:
But I looked into the new Amundi ones already, thanks.
I can’t understand them yet. I only understood that each one has a target date, like for retirement.

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There are also target date bond ETFs, iShares iBonds.