Are bonds riskier than you think? (from Morningstar)

Bonds Riskier Than You Think?

This article from Morningstar's John Rekanthaler looks at returns of stocks and bonds during each of the past 15 decades. It's nice to see a longer term view since so much media focuses on the past three to five years.  Returns are shown AFTER inflation. Please click the link below for the article.

http://beta.morningstar.com/articles/785224/bonds-are-riskier-than-you-think.html

A couple of key points:

• You will invest for the remainder of your life expectancy. For most people, that is longer than 20 years, and up to 80 for many of you! 
• If you are investing for that long, you need to take a longer-term view of performance. Don't focus on the 1,3, & 5-year returns of the markets.  First, they won't likely repeat anyway. Secondly, those time frames are irrelevant to your long-term investing objectives.
• One of the keys to financial planning is to know the odds.  Only by understanding the long-term returns of different investments can you truly know those odds.

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