Placing your money in a savings account today yields less than what inflation eats away each year. To grow capital in 2024, it’s no longer enough to randomly choose a product: the combination of tax wrappers, asset classes, and investment horizon makes all the difference. Here are the concrete levers that allow you to structure a coherent portfolio, tailored to your situation.
Investment Grade Bonds: The Overlooked Lever for Growing Capital
You may have noticed that investment advice almost always revolves around the same assets: stocks, ETFs, real estate? A whole segment of the market remains underutilized by individuals: high-quality corporate bonds, known as investment grade.
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The rise in interest rates since 2022 has made this asset class significantly more attractive. Bond funds or specialized ETFs now allow for a regular yield, higher than that of traditional euro funds, with a risk level much lower than that of the stock market.
Specifically, these products function like a loan you provide to solid companies. In return, you receive fixed interest payments. The capital is repaid at maturity. For an investor looking to move away from savings accounts without exposing themselves to stock market volatility, this is a very useful intermediate step. Platforms like Take The Capital allow you to explore these different allocation approaches and compare strategies suited to each profile.
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The trap to avoid: confusing investment grade bonds with high-yield bonds. The latter offers higher rates, but the risk of default by the issuer increases proportionally. Always check the credit rating of the fund before subscribing.
SCPI and Paper Real Estate: Why Direct Rental Real Estate is Declining
The classic reflex for growing capital remains real estate. Buying an apartment, renting it out, collecting rents. On paper, the mechanics seem simple.
In practice, constraints have multiplied in recent years. Stricter credit conditions, obligations related to the energy performance diagnosis (DPE), rent controls in major cities, heavier taxation on rental income. The result: a growing share of individuals is turning to paper real estate, particularly SCPI (real estate investment companies).
What SCPI Changes Compared to Direct Purchase
With an SCPI, you buy shares in a real estate portfolio managed by a management company. You receive income proportional to your investment, without having to find tenants or manage repairs. The entry ticket starts at a few hundred euros, compared to several tens of thousands for a direct purchase.
- Property management (tenant search, maintenance, litigation) is fully delegated to the management company
- The risk is pooled across dozens, even hundreds of properties geographically dispersed
- Liquidity remains limited: selling shares takes longer than a stock order, but much less than a traditional real estate sale
This strategic pivot does not mean that direct real estate is no longer of interest. For an investor willing to dedicate time to management and capable of negotiating a good purchase price, direct rental remains relevant in certain medium-sized cities where rent controls do not apply.
Stocks, ETFs, and PEA: Structuring the Dynamic Portion of the Portfolio
Why talk about stocks when you want to secure your capital? Because over an investment horizon of more than eight years, stock markets have historically offered the best returns among asset classes accessible to individuals.
The PEA (equity savings plan) remains the most advantageous tax wrapper for investing in the stock market. After five years of holding, gains are exempt from income tax (excluding social contributions). Within this PEA, ETFs (exchange-traded funds) allow you to replicate the performance of an index, such as the CAC 40, with very low management fees.
Regular Investment vs. One-Time Purchase
Investing a large sum all at once exposes you to the risk of poor timing. You buy at the market peak, and your portfolio drops the following week. The alternative: invest a fixed amount each month, regardless of market levels. This approach, called programmed investment, smooths the average purchase price over time.
It has a considerable psychological advantage. By investing regularly, you no longer try to guess the right moment. You accept that some months you will buy at a high price, others at a lower price, and that over the long term, the average will work in your favor.
Portfolio Allocation: Distributing According to Your Horizon and Risk Tolerance
No product is inherently good or bad. What matters is the coherence between your investments, your time horizon, and your ability to withstand a temporary downturn.
- Short horizon (less than three years): favor regulated savings accounts and short bond funds, which protect capital
- Medium horizon (three to eight years): combine investment grade bonds, SCPI, and a moderate share of stock ETFs
- Long horizon (more than eight years): increase the proportion of stocks and ETFs in a PEA or life insurance in unit-linked accounts
Diversification is not about multiplying products, but about spreading risk across assets that do not react the same way to economic cycles. When stocks fall, quality bonds tend to stabilize or progress. When inflation rises, real estate offers a form of protection through rent revaluation.
A final often-overlooked point: fees. Each layer of fees (entry, management, trading) reduces your net return. Compare total fees before choosing a product, especially on life insurance contracts where differences between insurers can reach several dozen basis points per year. A well-constructed portfolio with controlled fees almost always outperforms a selection of expensive products, even if they perform well individually.