LFSPA.

Not risk free, but not volatile either. Although even that underperforms compared to an index fund.

Index funds are not risk free! We have had a solid 15 years and everyone forgot that there are decades of declines or stagnation.

I would happily have a decade of declines or stagnation on the 10's of 1,000s in the kids account over the next 20 years - they can then invest in their productive earning years in companies trading at p/e's of 10 again.

LFSPA is a cap note, not an index fund. Hence the lower returns, haha.

Not saying it's necessarily the ideal vehicle but anything beats the banks.

Australian and New Zealand private small business and consumer lending?

while you’re at it maybe pick up some Indian bonds which have a high coupon close to 8%?

That's why you hedge with Bogleheads three headed fund. Bonds are strong when the indexes are weak according to them

The anti-correlation between bonds and equities hasn’t been a thing for decades. That is advice that passed its sell-by date a while ago.

The modern version is to go hard into equities and out-grow the drawdown risks. You still want a couple years of burn in treasuries but that is strictly a buffer against adverse returns. By the time you retire, the treasury fraction is a tiny fraction of the total by virtue of the equity growth rate.

I don’t have any reason to think that international economies are not correlated to the US. But also I don’t expect them to be that successful. Europe and South-east Asia have a mafia like relationship with their established businesses and regulate away new ones.

The sibling comment addresses bond funds.

ZIRP, 2008, Covid, trump, big tech, and AI all came after Boyle.