Advantages of Bonds
By Investopedia Staff

Have you ever heard co-workers talking around the water cooler about a hot tip on a bond? We didn't think so. Tracking bonds can be about as thrilling as watching a chess match, whereas watching stocks can have some investors as excited as NFL fans during the Superbowl. But don't let the hype (or lack thereof) mislead you. Both stocks and bonds have their pros and cons, and in this article we will explain the advantages of bonds and why you might want to include them in your portfolio.   A Safe Haven for Your Money Those just entering the investment scene are usually able to grasp the concepts underlying stocks and bonds. Essentially, the difference can be summed up in one phrase: debt vs. equity. That is, bonds represent debt and stocks represent equity ownership. This difference is the reason behind the first main advantage of bonds: investing in debt, in general, is safer than equity. The reason for this is the priority that debt holders have over shareholders. If a company goes bankrupt, debt holders are ahead of shareholders in the line to get paid. In a worst-case scenario such as bankruptcy, the creditors (debt holders) usually get at least some of their money back, while shareholders often lose their entire investment. On the other end of the safety spectrum, bonds from the U.S. government (Treasury bonds) are considered "risk-free." (There are no stocks that are considered as such.) If capital preservation, which is a fancy term for "never losing any money," is your goal above all else, then a bond from a stable government is your best investment. Now, keep in mind that although bonds are safer as a general rule, that doesn't mean they are all completely safe. Very risky bonds are referred to as "junk bonds." Slow and Steady – Predictable Returns If history is any indication, stocks will outperform bonds in the long run. However, bonds outperform stocks at certain times in the economic cycle. Investors who diversify their portfolios by including bonds are able to stabilize returns when the stock market is lagging. The chart below summarizes time periods in which bond returns were much higher than stock returns. Notice that it wasn't so much that bonds improved when the stock market was down; they just didn't crash like the stocks did. It's not unusual at all for stocks to lose 10% or more in a year, so when bonds comprise a portion of your portfolio, they can help smooth out the bumps when a recession comes around. There are always conditions in which we need security and predictability. Retirees, for instance, often rely on the predictable income generated by bonds. If your portfolio consists solely of stocks, it would be quite disappointing to retire two years into a bear market! Imagine that you retired at the end of 1999 and your portfolio was strictly composed of stock. According to the numbers in the chart above, your portfolio would've dwindled by almost 50% in three years! By owning bonds, retirees are able to predict with a greater degree of certainty how much income they'll have in their golden years. An investor who still has many years until retirement has plenty of time to make up for any losses from periods of decline in equities. Better Than the Bank… Sometimes bonds are just the only decent option. The interest rates on bonds are typically greater than the rates paid by banks on savings accounts. As a result, if you are saving and you don't need the money in the short term, bonds will give you the greatest return without posing too much risk. College savings are a good example of funds you want to invest to help increase your savings and protect them from risk at the same time. Simply putting money in the bank is a start, but it's not going to give you any return. With bonds, aspiring college students (or their parents) can predict their investment earnings and determine the amount they'll have to contribute to accumulate their tuition nest egg by the time college rolls around. How Much Should You Put Towards Bonds? There really is no easy answer to this question. Quite often you'll hear an old rule that says investors should formulate their allocation by subtracting their age from 100. The resulting figure indicates the percentage of a person's assets that should be invested in stocks, with the rest spread between bonds and cash. According to this rule, a 20-year-old should have 80% in stocks and 20% in cash and bonds, while someone who is 65 should have 35% of assets in stocks and 65% in bonds and cash. That being said, rules of thumb are just that. Determining the asset allocation of your portfolio involves many factors including your investing timeline, risk tolerance, future goals, perception of the market, and income. Unfortunately, exploring the various factors affecting risk is beyond the scope of this article. Conclusion Hopefully, we've cleared up some misconceptions about bonds and demonstrated when they are appropriate. The bottom line is that bonds are a safe and conservative investment. They provide a predictable stream of income when stocks perform poorly, and they are great vehicles to save when you don't want to put your money at risk.

By Investopedia Staff