Saturday, December 20, 2014

Vanguard bond index funds, 15 year performance per annum vs. stocks

HMS Vanguard
Per morningstar.com, annual performance 15 years to date for all popular bond index funds beats stocks hands down, except for the short index:

VBISX: 4.05% (short)
VBMFX: 5.42% (total)
VBIIX: 6.48% (intermediate)
VBLTX: 8.30% (long).

Average annual total nominal return from the S&P500, dividends fully reinvested, has been only 4.52% per annum.

That's what happens when stocks are inflated in value over a long period of time, as they have been almost continuously since the late 1990s, except for about four years between 2008 and 2012. And remember, present gains off those lower valuations are already part of the relatively poorer performance of stocks over the last 15 years. It could be much worse.