In past videos, I’ve been covering the benefits of using passively managed index funds for your stock/equity investing. But what about bonds/fixed income? Since interest rates essentially have nowhere to go but up, could an active manager protect you from eventually falling prices?

Here’s the short answer: For stocks and bonds alike, we recommend a low-cost index approach over active attempts to react to an unknowable future. As a Common Sense Investing fan, though, you might want to know more about why this is so.

Think of it this way: If the markets were a three-ring circus (which they sometimes are!), stocks are your high wire acts of daring. Bonds are more like your wise old elephants. When you hear scare-stories about rising rates leading to plummeting yields, first, remember, a sturdy bond portfolio shouldn’t have that far to move to begin with. Second, despite the label “passive,” bond index funds don’t just sit there when rates change. They’ve got a balancing act of their own, but it’s based on patient persistence instead of a bunch of clowning around.

Want to keep your Common Sense Investing act in the center ring? Subscribe here, click on the bell, and the show will go on.

Original post at pwlcapital.com.