Bond funds have risks too, but you may be taking unintended or unnecessary risks by
investing in individual bonds if you don't understand how these things work.
You can make investments
in individual bonds by selecting them yourself or you can invest in a bond fund involving professional investors.
To which my response is this — if you're willing to ignore short - term
losses in individual bonds, why can't you ignore short - term losses in bond funds?
Second, rising rates can actually work to the benefit of
investors in individual bonds by allowing them to purchase higher - yielding securities as their current holdings mature.
This creates increased behavioral risk in bond funds because the volatility is more noticeable even though the same exact thing is
happening in the individual bonds.
It's just a form of mental accounting to assume that you'll be able to ignore short - term losses
in individual bonds with the knowledge that the principle value will be there at maturity.
She plans to do so by investing 60 percent of her portfolio in stock funds and 40
percent in individual bonds at the start of retirement and moving to a 50 - 50 split in later years.
If you want to learn more check out these resources: Investing
in Individual Bonds vs. Bond Funds Using I -LSB-...]
This downturn would have had no long - term impact on the retirement savings of
someone in individual bonds (unless he or she had been forced to sell).
Mutual funds offer a good way to diversify bond holdings without having to invest $ 100,000 or
more in individual bonds (there is a $ 5,000 minimum per bond not counting the discount).
One is that in most cases these funds roll bonds over and so may be exposed to capital losses if rates rises whereas, as Terry correctly points out, a hold - to - maturity
investor in an individual bond (that doesn't default) will ultimately receive back his principal, irrespective of mark - to - market losses in the meantime.
Say you invest
in an individual bond.
Lesson 11: Individual Bonds vs. Bond Funds — Don't assume that investing
in individual bonds and bond funds is basically the same thing.
As individuals normally hold far fewer bonds in their portfolio than bond mutual funds, the chances that a default will result in a large loss for the investor are generally higher for those investing
in individual bonds.
Isn't it better to invest
in individual bonds, where if things go sour with the interest rate, you can hold them till maturity and recover your full principal?
You can either invest
in individual bonds or you can invest in bonds through a bond fund or a bond mutual fund.
Consider your own liquidity needs before investing
in individual bonds.
I don't know where the cut - off point is, where investing
in individual bonds is better, but it is pretty high.
But for the average investor, investing
in individual bonds is next to impossible.
For the vast majority of investors looking to invest in corporate bonds, mutual funds make more sense than investing
in individual bonds.
Once you make the choice to invest
in individual bonds, the question is: How do you buy them?
The main alternative to investing
in individual bonds is through bond funds.
As a college investor, once you become familiar with how the financial market works, you can start to invest
in individual bonds or stocks.
Bond Funds Bond mutual funds invest primarily
in individual bonds.