Do bonds still make sense for retirement savings? + MORE Apr 27th

What to expect from bonds

Considering that Pape is well past the traditional retirement age of 65, that must have shocked many of his retired readers. But he warned in his April 5 article that there is still “much more pain ahead” for bond investors. He said all but two of 40 iShares bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs) sold in Canada were in the red. Some were down 10% or more, like the iShares Core Canadian Long Term Bond Index ETF (XLB), down 11.8% from Jan. 1, 2022, to March 31, 2022. Even short-term bond ETFs, like Vanguard’s Short Term Bond Index ETF (VSB/TO), have suffered losses, albeit a modest 1% for 2021. If these were stock losses, he said, it could be called a crash.

In a similar vein were the pronouncements by financial planner Ed Rempel, who argues retirees should be out of bonds and ratchet up their personal risk tolerance to take on more stock exposure…