The 2025 stock market has been a rollercoaster with more uncertainty on the horizon. Rebalancing your portfolio to include more fixed-income assets, which pay ongoing interest or dividends, can help reduce losses during a future downturn. “If you held on through the spring and into the summer rebound, you likely haven’t lost money and have a freebie to revisit,” says David Rosenstrock, a financial planner with Wharton Wealth Planning in New York City.
With fixed-income investments, such as bonds, you put up your money for a specified period and receive interest income during that time, just like making a loan. They performed poorly for over a decade following the 2008 financial market crash. Market interest rates were near zero, and these assets paid little.
