A weekly thread to discuss financial matters - from personal all the way up to global.
Ground Rules
- Remember that we're all just Internet randos. Don't bet your life savings on a hot tip from this thread.
- Keep culture war in the culture war thread. Yes, global events may impact our personal finances, but that does not mean we have to incessantly harp on culture war aspects here. If you are going to discuss it, please stick to the practical impacts of it on an individual level.
- Be kind. Remember that everyone here comes from different circumstances. We all have different resources available and different risk tolerances.
- Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Better is better. Celebrate people when they take a step up and work to move their finances in the right direction. Don't flame out because they haven't followed what you consider the optimal path. Everybody has to start somewhere.

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Notes -
Can someone help me think about bonds properly? I’ve been buying FTBFX as part of a 20-30-50 portfolio and over the past like 5+ years my return is 0.25% or so—I’d have been better off with just money market. Are my expectations off? I get keeping some ballast for rebalancing but the bonds are just melting away it seems with inflation.
2022 was an apocalyptically bad year for bonds. It was the worst year in history. The runner up was 1803. How does your four year look?
Beyond that, are you looking at share appreciation or total yield?
Total yield and yeah it looks like everything from 2021 through 2022 is down ~15%. The more recent lots are mostly green.
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Huh. Wonder what happened then to cause it?
England declared war on France and nobody was happy about it.
Honestly, I probably should have guessed, but I always feel like England and France were effectively permanently at war.
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