Why Own Bonds in a Diversified Portfolio

Bonds are an important asset class to own in a diversified portfolio. Bonds offer many benefits such as providing a stable income, relatively better safety with high-quality bonds, preservation of capital, etc. Another important point to note about bonds is that they tend to cushion a portfolio during adverse equity markets. To put it in …

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The Two Fast-Growing Money Market Funds

Money market funds have become one of the attractive asset classes to own this year. Some of these funds are yielding between 4% to 5%. The extreme volatility in the equity markets and investors’ looking for decent yields are helping these funds gain huge inflows. Though these funds are not FDIC-insured and have risks investors …

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Why Dividend Growers Are More Important To Total Returns Than Dividend Payers

Dividends are an important part of total returns when investing in equities. Dividends account for large differences in returns between price returns and total returns. In addition to that, dividend growers are more important for the growth in total returns. The following chart shows the stark differences in return between the S&P 500 Total Return …

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Two Charts on Dividend Contribution to S&P 500 Total Return

The dividend yield on the S&P 500 is small relative to other developed markets. Currently the dividend yield is at 1.74%. For many years the rate has hovered around the 2% mark. Though the yield may seem insignificant over the years due to compounding the total return gets amplified due to dividends’ contribution. For example, …

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Significant Intra-Year Declines in S&P 500 Are Normal: Charts

The S&P 500 index declined by about 20% in 2022. Though the index is in the positive so far this year it remains to be seen if it will end the year with a decent return. With a recession on the horizon and interest rates expected to rise higher, volatility might still appear its ugly …

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