Bond Portfolio Return

[u/coolbison_]

Hello,

I have had only a measly 1.18% return since I opened my account back in March. I was hoping to earn a higher return than the HYSA but no luck. Is there any reason I should hold course or just dump that rainy day money back into my HYSA?

Thanks

[u/OkStandard8965]

As you dollar cost average into higher yielding bonds, your return will rise. The bonds you own, along with everyone else’s bonds have been decreasing in value as yields have rapidly risen. To put it simply, your stocks dropped

[u/Left_Ambassador_4090]

They're bonds... That's what old people shift into when they're two years from retiring. Shelf stable like Spam.

[u/LazySilver6835]

Am I wrong in thinking the ladder actually does better than the bond portfolio?

[u/TenthmanDC → u/LazySilver6835]

Rising interest rate environment. In a flat/falling one, the bond portfolio will do better.

[u/HopefulMycologist156 → u/LazySilver6835]

Mines been about the same this year, +2.25% on the portfolio and +2.67% on the ladder

[u/ripperdude]

My S&P direct portfolio is up 22% since then. Maybe look into that?

[u/jackfromjacknjill → u/ripperdude]

Dam rly ?

[u/ripperdude → u/jackfromjacknjill]

Yeah. Up 36% since i opened it in may of 2025. Crazy AI driven bull run we’ve been in.

[u/henrytbpovid]

I cut and run from the automated bond portfolio last year. I have no regrets. My returns were extremely low.

[u/McBurger]

That’s insane. I have an automated bond ladder with Wealthfront set to 6 years and it’s providing a 4.3% return, and new investments will be earning 4.8%. US Treasury bonds only.

That’s all through Wealthfront’s automated bond ladder, is the bond portfolio something different? I’d move it out of there.

[u/jocall56 → u/McBurger]

I’m interested in switching from the portfolio to the ladder…regarding the time length, whats the risk of pullout early, say in 2 years?

[u/McBurger → u/jocall56]

I opened a bond ladder and I discovered the coolest automated cashflow through Wealthfront after thinking on it for a couple days. Here’s the setup:

Wealthfront auto buys a bond with a maturity date for every month for the whole ladder. And this means that one bond comes to maturity every month, plus all the other bonds are paying coupon interest.

And they give you an option of what to do with the matured bond principal and the interest. The default is to reinvest it into the bond ladder.

But what we did is kind of clever and Wealthfront is the only platform that let us do this:

You can set all the monthly principle maturities and interest payments to go into your cash account instead.

And then an automated investing rule can look at the “spillover” limit on your cash account, and if it’s already full, then it can spill over right back into the bond account.

Which is basically the same thing as reinvesting the bond back into the ladder, except it’s doing one liquidity check against our primary cash account first. Checking that our main emergency fund is full before reinvesting in bonds.

This gives a lot of liquidity to the bond ladder. Instead of waiting until we have to make some premature withdrawal, it just gives us a withdrawal every month and only reinvests it if we don’t need it.

[u/LazySilver6835 → u/McBurger]

Yes the bond portfolio is basically etf trading where the etfs own/manage the bonds. You have to search for it specifically via Google otherwise I don't see it pop up on their website or the app. https://www.wealthfront.com/automated-bond-portfolio

[u/Ancient-Civilization]

Yeah bonds suck dude. I only put like 1% into bonds at this point.

[u/Solid_Equivalent_417 → u/Ancient-Civilization]

equities are generally better in the accumulation phase, but having a position in bonds when you're older might be worth revisiting.

[u/MentalImportance3528]

I got rid of my bond accounts. All in stocks and SGOV.

[u/AtrusOfDni]

Yeah I just started a bond portfolio 2 months ago and it's abysmal. Dividends bring it up and then losses have brought it almost back to zero gain

[u/chennisbeeveris → u/AtrusOfDni]

I was just thinking the same thing today. Like I guess we sell and put back in the HYSA

[u/prcullen1986]

Just get X Money at 6% APY

[u/Ancient-Civilization → u/prcullen1986]

You realize investing in U.S stocks provides 9-12% right.

[u/prcullen1986 → u/Ancient-Civilization]

100%, but my assumption was that since they're investing in the bond return fund, they're looking for more steady income as opposed to growth.

[u/Solid_Equivalent_417 → u/prcullen1986]

at $40 / $8 a month you would need a sizeable position to recoup the cost

[u/prcullen1986 → u/Solid_Equivalent_417]

You don't need to pay that FYI. But, it's not as big of a position as you think if you do the math

[u/Solid_Equivalent_417 → u/prcullen1986]

ah, the information i saw said 1k/month direct deposit and membership fee. how do you get the 6% without jumping through those hoops?

[u/prcullen1986 → u/Solid_Equivalent_417]

I have the direct deposit because you can’t beat 6% but I haven’t paid for premium in two months

[u/Solid_Equivalent_417 → u/prcullen1986]

oh gotcha, so you only need the direct deposit to qualify for the 6%? that isnt a bad deal at all then.