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Returns for Various Types of Investment-Grade Bonds
This chart compares the performance of indexes that represent seven categories of investment-grade bonds over the 10- and 30-year periods ended March 31, 2025.
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The Value of a $1,000 Municipal Bond Investment
Although the value of a municipal bond investment, represented here by a $1,000 bond tied to the yield of the Bloomberg Municipal index, appears to have grown steadily over the past 30 years, the year-to-year yield has fluctuated from as high as 5.77% in 1994 to as low as 1.07% in 2021.
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Bond Market Composition Since 1987
This chart shows the composition of the fixed-income market in the United States over time, based on outstanding debt. In recent years, the federal agency and money market sectors experienced declines in issuance while the Treasury and corporate debt markets saw increases.
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Return and Risk Measures for Domestic and Global Investment-Grade vs. High-Yield Bonds
This table shows various return and risk measures for indexes representing different types of bonds for all possible 12-month holding periods beginning on the first day of each business month starting with April 1, 2005, and ending with March 31, 2025.
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Range of Returns for Three Major Asset Classes
With higher return potential usually comes greater risk. Consider these performance statistics for indexes representing major asset classes. Stocks may have shown the greatest average returns but also the widest range of observed returns. Bonds have shown much less variation in returns but also a significantly lower average. Cash alternatives, also known as money market investments, were the only investments that showed no measurable occurrence of loss, but their average returns were minimal, even compared with bonds.
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Bond Ladder vs. Treasury Bills
This chart compares the interest produced historically by three-month Treasury bills to the interest that could have been produced over the same period by a laddered portfolio of different Treasury notes and bonds. (Laddering a bond portfolio means splitting your investment equally among bonds maturing in each year covered by the ladder.) Historically, laddered portfolios may have produced lower volatility while also generating consistent liquidity through interest payments and proceeds from redemption.
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Potential for Experiencing Negative Returns in Investment-Grade Bonds, January 1926 to March 2025
This table seeks to put volatility in perspective by suggesting that longer holding periods are historically less likely to experience negative returns, assuming portfolio performance mirrored the performance of the indicated bond market benchmarks.
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Holding Period Returns Since 1946
This chart displays indexes representing the performance of stocks, bonds, cash, and inflation over various periods since 1946.
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Highest and Lowest Returns Over Various Holding Periods Since 1926
This chart shows the performance of indexes representing the range of returns for stocks and bonds during the indicated periods from March 31, 1926, through March 31, 2025.
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Highest and Lowest Returns Over Various Holding Periods Since 1946
This chart shows the performance of indexes representing the range of returns for stocks and bonds during the indicated periods from January 1, 1946, through March 31, 2025.
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Comparative Performance of Stocks and Bonds (Trailing 12-Month Periods)
This chart shows how indexes representing stock and bond performance have outperformed each other at different times during the past 30 years.
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Growth of $1 Invested Since 1928
This chart shows the growth of a $1 investment in stocks, bonds, cash, and inflation.
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Growth of $1 Invested Since 1947
This chart shows the potential growth of $1 investments in stocks, bonds, cash, and inflation, assuming that the investments mirrored the performance of their indicated benchmarks.
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Stocks and Bonds, Income vs. Price Appreciation
This chart compares income with price appreciation for stocks and bonds during the 30-year period ended December 31, 2024. Note that bond prices generally move in the opposite direction of bond yields.
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Range of Returns for Various Asset Classes, Past 30 Years
This chart shows the range of returns recorded by indexes representing the indicated asset classes during all possible 12-month holding periods from April 1, 1995, through March 31, 2025. While the indexes representing stocks and long-term bonds had peak returns much higher than those representing cash and intermediate-term bonds, they also experienced sharper lows.
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Stocks vs. T-Bills
This chart shows the percentages of time in which stocks, as measured by the S&P 500 index, had historically outperformed Treasury bills and the percentages of time in which Treasury bills had historically outperformed stocks over the potential 1-, 2-, 3-, 5-, 10-, and 20-year holding periods that occurred from January 1, 1926, through March 31, 2025.
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Average 12-Month Returns for Six Asset Classes
This chart compares the average 12-month performance of indexes representing six common asset classes during the past 30 years.
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Calendar-Year Returns, Past 10 Years
This chart displays the performance of large-cap stocks, midcap stocks, small-cap stocks, and bonds over the past 10 calendar years.
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Stocks vs. Private Real Estate, Past 20 Years
Over the past 20 years, stocks, as measured by the S&P 500 Index, have generally outperformed real estate, as represented by the total returns of the NCREIF Property Index, although real estate has outperformed in most years this decade.
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Calendar-Year Returns, Past 25 Years
This chart shows the performance of the index representing calendar-year performance of stocks and average calendar-year returns on stocks over the past 25 years.
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Calendar-Year Returns, Past 30 Years
This chart displays the indexes representing the performance of stocks, bonds, cash, and inflation over the past 30 years. The return shown for 2025 is through March 31.
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Returns by Decade Since 1926
This chart displays indexes representing the performance of stocks, bonds, cash, and inflation over each decade since 1926. The first and final decades may not cover exactly 10 years.
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Returns by Decade Since 1970
This chart displays indexes representing the performance of stocks, bonds, cash, and inflation over each decade since 1970. The final decade may not cover exactly 10 years.
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Holding Period Returns Since 1926
This chart displays indexes representing the performance of stocks, bonds, cash, and inflation over various periods since 1926.
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Holding Period Returns, Past 30 Years
This chart displays indexes representing the performance of stocks, bonds, cash, and inflation during various intervals over the past 30 years.
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Risk and Return by Decade
This chart shows how indexes representing stocks have produced different combinations of risk and reward in different decades. Note that the first period is from 1926 to 1939 and the most recent period is from 2000 to March 31, 2025.
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Risk and Return Since 1926
This chart illustrates the historical relationship between risk and return for indexes representing stocks, bonds, cash, 60/40 portfolio, and 40/40/20 portfolio from January 1, 1926, through March 31, 2025.
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Risk and Return, Past 30 Years
This chart demonstrates the historical relationship between risk and return of the indexes representing the indicated asset classes over the 30 years ended March 31, 2025.
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Risk and Return Over 10-Year Periods Since 1926
This chart demonstrates the historical relationship between risk and return for indexes representing various asset classes from January 1, 1926, through March 31, 2025, based on 10-year holding periods.
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Risk and Return Over 10-Year Periods Since 1970
This chart demonstrates the historical relationship between risk and return for indexes representing various asset classes from January 1, 1970, through March 31, 2025, based on 10-year holding periods.
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Average Risk and Return Over 30-Year Periods Since 1926
This chart demonstrates the historical relationship between average risk and average return for indexes representing various asset classes from January 1, 1926, through March 31, 2025, based on all rolling 30-year holding periods.
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Risk and Return Over 30-Year Periods Since 1970
This chart demonstrates the historical relationship between average risk and average return for indexes representing various asset classes from January 1, 1970, through March 31, 2025, based on all rolling 30-year holding periods.
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Growth of $1 Invested Since March 31, 2005
This chart shows the potential growth of $1 investments in stocks, bonds, cash, and inflation, assuming that the investments mirrored the performance of their indicated benchmarks.
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Highest and Lowest Returns Over Various Holding Periods, Past 30 Years
This chart shows the performance of indexes representing the range of returns for stocks and bonds during the indicated periods (1 year, 3 years, etc.) through March 31, 2025.
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Risk and Return, Past 10 Years
This chart illustrates the historical relationship between risk and return for indexes representing the indicated asset types over the 10-year period ended March 31, 2025.
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Growth of $1 Invested Since March 31, 1995
This chart shows the potential growth of $1 investments in stocks, bonds, cash, and inflation, assuming that the investments mirrored the performance of their indicated benchmarks.
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Comparative Performance of Stocks and Bonds (Trailing 36-Month Periods)
This chart shows how indexes representing stock and bond performance have outperformed each other at different times during the past 30 years.
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Comparative Performance of Stocks and Bonds (Trailing 60-Month Periods)
This chart shows how indexes representing stock and bond performance have outperformed each other at different times during the past 30 years.
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Performance of All-Stock, All-Bond, and Blended Stock/Bond Portfolios Since 1926
Looking back over investment market history since 1926, just about any investment portfolio has shown positive returns over some 12-month periods and negative returns over others. But for each portfolio, some returns were more likely to have occurred than others. This table shows the distribution of returns that occurred for all-stock, all-bond, and blended stock/bond portfolios, assuming that stock and bond performance mirrored the performance of the indicated benchmarks for each.
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Risk and Return of Single-Asset and Mixed Portfolios Since 1926
This chart compares the risk and return potential associated with investing in stocks or bonds versus investing in portfolios that combine the two asset classes, for the period from January 1, 1926, through March 31, 2025. Based on the performance of the indexes that represent those asset classes, a portfolio that blended both might have had a stronger risk-adjusted return than a portfolio that was composed entirely of one or the other.
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Risk and Return of Single-Asset and Mixed Portfolios, Past 10 Years
This chart compares the risk and return potential associated with investing in a single asset class versus investing in portfolios that combine two asset classes, for the period from April 1, 2015, through March 31, 2025. Based on the performance of the indexes that represent those asset classes, a portfolio that blended both might have had a stronger risk-adjusted return than a portfolio that was composed entirely of one or the other.
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Risk and Return of Single-Asset and Mixed Portfolios, Past 30 Years
This chart compares the risk and return potential associated with investing in stocks or bonds versus investing in portfolios that combine the two asset classes, for the period from April 1, 1995, through March 31, 2025. Based on the performance of the indexes that represent those asset classes, a portfolio that blended both might have had a stronger risk-adjusted return than a portfolio that was composed entirely of one or the other.
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Risk and Return of Single-Asset and Mixed Portfolios, Past 50 Years
This chart compares the risk and return potential associated with investing in stocks or bonds versus investing in portfolios that combine the two asset classes, for the period from April 1, 1975, through March 31, 2025. Based on the performance of the indexes that represent those asset classes, a portfolio that blended both might have had a stronger risk-adjusted return than a portfolio that was composed entirely of one or the other.
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