Bonds lower volatility but also your returns

Article Excerpt

Here’s a look at how holding bonds compares to investing in stocks over time. We’re using readily available data (see table at right) from the U.S. to demonstrate the long-term performance track record and the risk profiles of various asset classes, including government and corporate bonds. The annual growth in U.S. equities over the past 96 years has been 10.1% per year. This was much higher than inflation and well above the return on cash. Long-term corporate bonds returned 5.9% per year, slightly higher than government bonds but also ahead of cash and inflation. As the investment horizon for most investors is much shorter than 96 years, we also include the rolling 5-year annualized returns on the various asset classes. There are only minor differences between the long-term annual returns and the rolling 5-year returns. Bond investments are less risky than equities The risks for bond investors depend on the type of bonds and the term to maturity. Corporate bonds are typically riskier than government bonds…