Is there a place for bonds in your portfolio? I’d suggest yes if you’re in retirement or in that retirement risk zone (within 10 years of retirement). Bonds provide that portfolio ballast. I like to call them portfolio shock absorbers. And certain types of fixed income can help us protect our wealth against periods of […]
Bonds are back. But what did they just say?
Bonds are the adult in the room. And when they speak, we should probably hear them out. This week bonds went on a tear. What were bonds trying to say? They were listening to the ‘Fed Speak’ in the U.S. that left many confused. Of course, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve Chairman set […]
The Sunday Reads.
Happy Easter Sunday to those who recognize the day. And perhaps we can all share in the spirit of renewal and hope. In Ontario, the sun is shining. The grass is greening up. I look longingly at the garden. I look forward to digging in the dirt. Green shoots are to come; I already see […]
The Permanent Portfolio.
The traditional balanced portfolio is built for the current economic environment. It is built upon the premise, or guess, that we will remain in a disinflationary environment. It is all that today’s investor has known. In a disinflationary environment US and Canadian stocks and other developed markets perform well. US and Canadian bonds perform well. […]
Everybody hates bonds, on Weekend Reads.
It was a few years ago that I suggested that “the greatest threat to stocks is bonds”. Bonds are starting to follow through with that threat, taking down the stock markets. And they have a peculiar taste for US stocks, and high flying US tech stocks in particular. It’s just more than increasing bond yields […]
The Balanced Portfolio barely felt a thing in this pandemic.
It’s been a wild ride for the stock and bond markets. But if we step back and look at the performance over the last year, the traditional Balanced Portfolio is in positive territory. If you’d been living under a rock and did not check your portfolio statement for a couple of months, you might think […]