Common wisdom dictates that as we steer our savings toward retirement, we should gradually bulk up on bonds.
Bonds are supposed to be safe, predictable, and boring: the perfect antidote to mercurial stocks.
Lately, though, bonds have felt anything but safe. Between August 2020 and October 2022, a benchmark Bloomberg bond index plunged 18%. Even now, the index remains roughly 10% below that 2020 high.
The bond bloodbath has prompted some investors to question whether it is time to rewrite the rules of retirement saving.
“It’s been a rough – really, a rough 10 years,” said Ashley Folkes, a certified financial planner in Birmingham, Alabama.
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Recently, Folkes has watched clients back out of the bond market in favor of alternative investments, which they deemed safer, and which weren’t shedding value with every passing month.
Bonds betrayed investors in 2022
Bonds are…
