Before you add bonds to your portfolio, you should understand how they work and what variations exist among them. Just as importantly, you need to identify the risks that come with owning bonds and how you can protect yourself from them. Bond Basics Bonds are essentially IOUs, issued by federal, state, and municipal governments as […]
Investment
Understanding Total Return
A mutual fund’s performance — its total return — can be either positive or negative. In other words, a fund either made or lost money for a measured time period. There are three separate elements that contribute to total return: the distribution of fund income (interest and dividends received on the fund’s investments); the distribution […]
Does Your Risk Tolerance Need a Realignment?
Market volatility. A change in your time horizon. Different goals. All these things can affect the amount of risk you feel comfortable taking with your investments. Your ability to tolerate risk influences the investment choices you make and may have a significant impact on your success in achieving your financial objectives. Periodically revisiting your risk […]
Charting a Long-Term Course
Stock market volatility can be a wild ride. If you follow the daily price movements of a stock market index, it’s enough to make you dizzy at times. If you watch the same index’s performance over longer periods, however, you may notice that things tend to smooth out. Unless you’re close to retiring and will […]
What to Know About Target-Date Funds
Learn how target-date funds can be a useful part of your retirement portfolio. Target-date funds are a relatively simple and convenient way to invest for a long-term goal. They can be particularly useful to investors who feel they lack the expertise or the time to invest their retirement savings effectively or to monitor their portfolios […]
Not All Bonds Are Alike
Before adding bonds to your portfolio, it’s important to know some basics about how they work and the significant variations that exist among bonds. What follows is an overview. Bond Basics Bonds are essentially IOUs, issued by federal, state, and municipal governments as well as by corporations and governmental agencies. They are intended to raise […]