Finally Better Than My Mattress: Safe Bond Funds

Last time we spoke about safe bond funds, I recommended an unconventional alternative: my mattress . It was June 2022. Interest rates were rising, bond prices plummeting, and we contrarians were smartly sitting on sizeable cash positions . Thoughtful reader William wrote in asking about using short-term bond funds as “cash equivalents.” After all, wouldn’t some yield be better than no yield? No. Short-term bond funds were no match for my mattress, which does not trade inversely with interest rates. Bond prices and interest rates are an inverse seesaw—when rates rise, bond prices fall and when rates fall, bonds rise. Plain ol’ cash outperformed the three safe bond funds we used as cautionary examples.… Read more