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Most of my retirement money is in bond funds. They are tanking, down 4 - 6 % year to date. Do I just hold on and they bounce back like stocks? This is money I won't need or won't be using for the next ten years or so.
My option if I go to cash would be a Stable Value Fund returning around 2%.
My Bond funds are: TIAA-CREF High-Yield, DFA Inflation Protected Securities, PIMCO Total Return.
I was in stocks 1988 to 2007. Got out before the last crash and have been in cash and bonds since. Went heavy bonds the last two years, as the 3 - 4% returns were getting old, and yet my days of 5 - 12% returns are tanking. (Especially this month).
Is this just a blip? Do I go all cash and then get back in after a few months? Or just ignore this and five years from now will be glad I held on.
I put 15% of my pay into these funds and in addition fund Fidelity TIPS through a Roth IRA.
Bonds have been in a 30 year bull market . Most folks looked at bonds as riskless and very conservative.
Well the last 6 months have been terrible for bonds and folks will freak when they see their statements and see they lost money.
They can panic and bail and we could go lower.
Thank you for your response. I was thinking that too, people have not received their quarterly statements yet, wait until that happens....
I have been keeping an eye on my funds during May and June more closely as interest rates have gone up. I at least know enough that if interest rates go up, then bond funds go down and yup they did.
The tech wreck was killer and took forever to recover, just hope this ride is not as bumpy.
I am not a fan of bonds. Sure they could go higher for a few more years, but they can also go to "0" if something bad happens. literally 0. We are broke as broke, and our debt to me isn't seen as very safe.
I would literally hold cash over bonds. but that is just me.
I am not a fan of bonds. Sure they could go higher for a few more years, but they can also go to "0" if something bad happens. literally 0. We are broke as broke, and our debt to me isn't seen as very safe.
I would literally hold cash over bonds. but that is just me.
Thank you, I appreciate your response too. When I was really young, I used to think bond funds were really dumb and back in the good old days I was getting 20-30% in the stock market easy, per year! Boy do I miss those days! I thought why are people getting 5% (in bonds) when 20% is SO easy. Sigh...
I too am very concerned about our debt and don't see how any of this will end well. Right now I am reading the "gold" thread and learning a lot from the comments.
Thank you for your response and right now it seems like "Cash is King".
Most of my retirement money is in bond funds. They are tanking, down 4 - 6 % year to date. Do I just hold on and they bounce back like stocks? This is money I won't need or won't be using for the next ten years or so.
My option if I go to cash would be a Stable Value Fund returning around 2%.
My Bond funds are: TIAA-CREF High-Yield, DFA Inflation Protected Securities, PIMCO Total Return.
I was in stocks 1988 to 2007. Got out before the last crash and have been in cash and bonds since. Went heavy bonds the last two years, as the 3 - 4% returns were getting old, and yet my days of 5 - 12% returns are tanking. (Especially this month).
Is this just a blip? Do I go all cash and then get back in after a few months? Or just ignore this and five years from now will be glad I held on.
I put 15% of my pay into these funds and in addition fund Fidelity TIPS through a Roth IRA.
Thank you for any help and insight.
Bonds long-term are a disaster at this point. What "long-term" is right now is the $64 trillion question. 3-5 years max is my guess.
If you held bonds during the worst downturn in our lifetime, bonds did their job! They "zagged" when everyone who took on too much risk w/stocks bailed...
They are there for my diversification in my portfolio...plain and simple. I cannot hold 100% equities and I don't recommend that because of my puker factor. I can sleep at night. Not sure everyone can say that!
Trying to predict when to get in and out and how much they might fall and when is really silly, because no one on this website knows the answer....
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