When it comes to your bond money, you want to live to fight another day. To make sure you do, I recommend that you keep the duration short and the credit quality high. Duration measures a bondโs sensitivity to interest rates. Itโs the predicted percentage change in a bondโs price given a 1% change in interest rates. So if a bond has a duration of 2, and interest rates change by 1%, the price of the bond will change by 2%. A well-known financial publication recently produced a list of defensive bond funds. Only one of the funds had a short enough duration for my comfort level. So pay attention to duration when youโre doing your investment work. Itโs easy to be led astray and reach too high for yield, especially with all the hype that you read or hear.


