The Kiplinger 25 list of our favorite no-load mutual funds dates back to 2004, and our coverage of mutual funds goes all the way back to the 1950s. We believe in holding funds rather than trading them, so we focus on promising mutual funds with solid long-term records – and managers with tenures to match.
It wasn't the best of times or the worst of times, but as markets go, it was a solid year. Though only a few tech-oriented stocks drove returns in the S&P 500 index, the benchmark logged a 30% total return over the past 12 months through February.
A recent rally helped lift small- and midsize-company stocks, too; the Russell 2000 climbed 10%, and the S&P MidCap 400 index rose 13%. Meanwhile, enthusiasm about interest rate cuts to come later this year fueled support for most bond markets. The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond index returned 3%. Nothing to sniff at here, especially after the decimating losses of 2022.
Through it all, our favorite actively managed, no-load funds – the Kiplinger 25 – turned in respectable results. All but one fund gained ground.
This year, in our annual review of the Kip 25, we're making two changes. Vanguard Wellington (VWELX) is back. We had removed the fund in 2022 to make way for a commodity fund, TCW Enhanced Commodity Strategy (TGABX), as a hedge against rising inflation. Now, with inflation rates normalizing, the commodity market in pause mode and bonds generating decent income, a balanced fund makes more sense.
And we had to find a replacement for TIAA-CREF Core Impact Bond (TSBRX). This May, the fund will change its name to Nuveen Core Impact Bond and start charging a 3.75% front-end load. Make note: Existing shareholders will not be subject to the sales charge on future purchases. If you currently hold shares in this fund, we advise you to stay put. We have confidence in the strategy. But because the Kip 25 is the list of our favorite no-load funds, we must replace it. Enter Dodge & Cox Income (DODIX).
Here are our picks for the best 25 no-load mutual funds: what makes them tick, and what kind of returns they've delivered. Data is as of February 29, unless otherwise noted. Five- and 10-year returns are annualized. Yields on equity funds represent the trailing 12-month yield. Yields on balanced and bond funds are SEC yields, which reflect the interest earned after deducting fund expenses for the most recent 30-day period.
- Symbol: DODGX
- 1-year return: 17.1%
- 5-year return: 12.3%
- 10-year return: 10.6%
- Yield: 1.4%
- Expense ratio: 0.51%
Dodge & Cox managers are disciplined about buying low and selling high. Recently, the fund trimmed its exposure to soaring stocks, such as Alphabet (GOOGL), Broadcom (AVGO) and Meta Platforms (META), and plowed that money into more defensive and stable sectors such as healthcare and utilities.
Over the past 12 months, Dodge & Cox Stock returned 17%, which was better than 71% of its peers (large value funds) but trailed the S&P 500.
The fund's value tilt has been a hindrance for the past decade because growth stocks have dominated returns in the broad market. Even so, Stock boasts an 11% annualized 10-year return, a fine record in absolute terms. What's more, the fund held up better than the S&P 500 in 2022, dipping just 7% – much less than the 18% loss in the index.
A little diversification in investment style, in other words, is a good thing.
- Symbol: FBGRX
- 1-year return: 56.5%
- 5-year return: 20.3%
- 10-year return: 16.6%
- Yield: 0.0%
- Expense ratio: 0.69%
After a rough 2022, large-cap growth fund Fidelity Blue Chip Growth bounced back over the past 12 months with a 57% return, better than 96% of its peers.
Excitement about artificial intelligence (AI) was the big driver, and the fund got a lift from market darlings Amazon.com (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA) and Meta Platforms. But non-tech firms helped the fund's performance, too, including athletic wear company Lululemon Athletica (LULU) and ride-sharing company Uber Technologies (UBER).
Longtime manager Sonu Kalra, who hunts for companies with potential for above-average earnings growth that the market has misjudged, has outpaced his peer group in nine of the past 11 calendar years.
- Symbol: MPGFX
- 1-year return: 29.2%
- 5-year return: 13.2%
- 10-year return: 10.8%
- Yield: 0.8%
- Expense ratio: 0.63%
This isn't your typical growth fund. The managers prefer reasonably priced shares, for a start, and two-thirds of the fund's assets must be invested in companies based in the Upper Midwest, near Mairs & Power's St. Paul office.
In years past, both particularities meant the fund didn't own the tech stocks that dominate most growth funds. But in 2022, as growth-oriented shares fell, Mairs & Power Growth managers snapped up Nvidia, Salesforce (CRM) and Amazon.com, among others, on the cheap. That move helped the fund gain 29% over the past 12 months.
Tech is now the fund's top sector, at 28% of assets, up from 6% of assets a decade ago. Lately, the fund has been finding opportunities in firms that are harnessing AI to improve sales and profitability in old-economy sectors such as financials, industrials, utilities and consumer staples.
- Symbol: POGRX
- 1-year return: 21.8%
- 5-year return: 10.2%
- 10-year return: 11.2%
- Yield: 0.5%
- Expense ratio: 0.66%
This fund has been a long-haul star: Its 15-year annualized return of 16% beat the return of the S&P 500. But since the start of 2018, Primecap Odyssey Growth has lagged the benchmark in every calendar year except 2022, when it held up better. The fund's below-average stake in tech stocks has been a hindrance, as has its above-average position in the underperforming healthcare and industrial sectors.
Five managers divide the assets and invest independently, each focusing on growing companies priced at a discount that have a catalyst – a new product, say, or a restructuring – to push stock prices higher.
Over the past 12 months, despite gains in drugmaker Eli Lilly (LLY), biotech firm Seagen and medical device company Abiomed, the fund's healthcare stocks weighed on returns. But investments in the information technology sector, such as data-software firm Splunk – in the midst of being acquired by tech giant Cisco Systems (CSCO) – and Jabil, an electronic components maker, were a lift.
We're still fans of the fund, but its recent record is a good reminder that it's best for long-term investors with a stomach for volatility.
- Symbol: PRDGX
- 1-year return: 19.0%
- 5-year return: 12.8%
- 10-year return: 11.8%
- Yield: 1.1%
- Expense ratio: 0.64%
To longtime T. Rowe Price Dividend Growth manager Tom Huber, yield doesn't matter as much as a track record of dividend increases. That trait, he says, often points to firms that are financially healthy and stocks that are less volatile. Ergo, Dividend Growth has delivered solid returns with low volatility. Dow Jones stocks Microsoft, Apple and Visa (V) topped the portfolio recently.
Dividend shares struggled over the past year – they had to compete with high interest rates and snazzy growth stocks for investors' dollars – so Huber took the opportunity to add some new stocks to the fund, including chip company Analog Devices (ADI), consumer health products firm Kenvue (KVUE) and discount retailer Target (TGT). He also shed a few, including fintech firm Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) and Walt Disney (DIS).
- Symbol: VEIPX
- 1-year return: 11.3%
- 5-year return: 10.1%
- 10-year return: 9.8%
- Yield: 2.8%
- Expense ratio: 0.27%
Vanguard Equity Income boasts a 2.8% yield, which tops the 1.4% yield of the S&P 500. But dividend stocks struggled over the past 12 months, and the fund returned 11%, trailing its benchmark, the FTSE High Dividend Yield index, by a tad.
Matt Hand, of Wellington Management, runs two-thirds of the assets, investing in companies that balance above-average yield, high-quality traits and reasonable valuations. Over the past year, he picked up discounted shares in good companies, including drugmaker Gilead Sciences (GILD) and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which operates global exchanges for securities trading.
A team from Vanguard's quantitative equity group led by Sharon Hill has run one-third of the fund since 2021. She recently customized the computer model her team uses to choose stocks for this fund. It now emphasizes free cash flow (money left over after operating expenses and spending to maintain and expand the business), a key measure of a company's ability to pay its dividend and fuel future growth.
Recent top performers include utility Vistra (VST) and energy firm Marathon Petroleum (MPC).
- Symbol: DFDMX
- 1-year return: 22.4%
- 5-year return: 9.8%
- 10-year return: 10.0%
- Yield: 0.0%
- Expense ratio: 0.87%
Midsize firms that dominate their industries, have sustainable earnings growth and employ smart executives make prime candidates for DF Dent Midcap Growth. But price matters. The fund avoided the handful of richly priced growth stocks that topped the Russell Mid Cap Growth benchmark over the past 12 months – in late 2023, some traded for 40 or more times year-ahead earnings estimates, says comanager Bruce Kennedy. That's in part why DF Dent Midcap Growth fund lagged the index over the period.
Even so, some "steady-Eddie companies" helped offer some downside protection, he says. Gains in aerospace firm TransDigm Group (TDG) – up 63% over the past 12 months – and insurer Goosehead Insurance (GSHD) – up 62% – were among the fund's best performers.
DF Dent Midcap Growth is regaining its footing after a sluggish pandemic and post-pandemic period.
- Symbol: HRMDX
- 1-year return: 8.0
- 5-year return: 10.7
- 10-year return: N/A
- Yield: 0.7%
- Expense ratio: 1.10%
The Heartland Mid Cap Value's sweet spot – high-quality midsize-company stocks that trade at a value – has been out of vogue. Instead, speculative, highly leveraged stocks shone in the most recent quarter, say the managers, but "our goal is to create consistent, lasting value for our shareholders over the long term."
The managers look for bargain-priced stocks that meet the firm's 10-point security-picking process, which focuses on high-quality companies that have positive momentum in earnings growth and share-price movement.
The approach has resulted in above-average returns with below-average volatility over the fund's nine-year history. But over the past 12 months, the fund has lagged its bogey, the Russell Mid Cap Value index.
- Symbol: PRDSX
- 1-year return: 18.7%
- 5-year return: 9.3%
- 10-year return: 9.4%
- Yield: 0.0%
- Expense ratio: 0.80%
A computer model drives the stock picking at T. Rowe Price Integrated U.S. Small-Cap Growth Equity, so manager Sudhir Nanda's retirement later this year is not a huge concern. Two newly named associate managers, David Corris and Prashant Jeyaganesh, will take over the fund in August. But we are watching the fund closely and considering other options.
Nanda's model is designed to build a low-turnover, low-volatility portfolio. It focuses on specific stock traits – valuation, profitability, capital allocation, earnings quality and revisions in earnings estimates, and price momentum.
When markets soured in 2022, the fund held up better than 79% of its small-cap growth fund peers. And since Nanda took over the fund in late 2006, the fund's annualized 11% return has beaten both the Russell 2000 and the S&P Small Cap 600 indexes.
- Symbol: PRSVX
- 1-year return: 3.2%
- 5-year return: 7.0%
- 10-year return: 7.1%
- Yield: 0.6%
- Expense ratio: 0.82%
This small-company stock fund's secret sauce has always been to find unloved, undervalued and undiscovered businesses. But shareholders might appreciate a little more loving. The slump in small-cap stocks continues, and T. Rowe Price Small-Cap Value has been even slumpier. The fund lagged its peers in 2022 and 2023, and over the past 12 months, its 3% return has trailed the Russell 2000 index and the typical small-cap value fund. We're watching the fund closely.
In the fund's favor: Since he took over nearly a decade ago, manager David Wagner beats his peers and keeps pace with the Russell 2000 with a 7% annualized return. Depressed share prices have kept him busy recently. Over the past year, he has scooped up discounted shares in biotech firm Cabaletta Bio (CABA) and waste-management company Casella Waste Systems (CWST), among others.
- Symbol: BEXFX
- 1-year return: 7.8%
- 5-year return: 0.7%
- 10-year return: 2.0%
- Yield: 0.4%
- Expense ratio: 1.38%
"It's a tough time for emerging-markets growth," says Baron Emerging Markets manager Michael Kass. The asset class is bumping along a 30-year trough, relative to U.S. stocks, on valuations and sentiment. What's more, unlike in U.S. markets, growth stocks in emerging markets have lagged their value counterparts three years in a row.
And declining shares in China – which still account for the biggest chunk of the MSCI Emerging Markets index – haven't helped. Over the past 12 months, the fund eked out an 8% gain; the EM index returned 9%. Fintech bets have helped, including two in Brazilian companies XP (XP) and StoneCo (STNE). So have the fund's stakes tied to the theme of growth in India's consumer-finance sector, such as Nippon Life India Asset Management.
But coming U.S. interest rate cuts and an expected end to a 14-year bull market in the U.S. dollar may lift emerging markets stocks. Other catalysts are aligning, too: A focus on supply-chain diversification (away from China) is fueling growth in the developing world. And India is becoming a "weightier driver of global growth," Kass says. He thinks it's time for investors to rebalance their portfolios in favor of EM stocks.
- Symbol: BCSCV
- 1-year return: 17.9%
- 5-year return: 8.0%
- 10-year return: N/A
- Yield: 0.0%
- Expense ratio: 1.31%
Exceptional small growth companies – firms with a competitive advantage, a defensible position in their industry, durable revenue growth and able managers – are this fund's quarry. Profitability, or near profitability, is a must.
"They must fund their growth from the business, not rely on debt markets," says Brown Capital Management International Small Company comanager Duncan Evered. The combination is rare, but the managers typically invest in 40 to 65 foreign firms with revenues of $500 million or less at the time of initial investment.
The fund lagged its peers in 2022 but made up for it over the past 12 months, when it outpaced the typical foreign small- and midsize-company growth fund by more than 10 percentage points. Since inception in 2015, the fund has outpaced its index, the MSCI All Country World Index ex US Small Cap, by an average of nearly five percentage points per year.
- Symbol: FIGFX
- 1-year return: 20.9%
- 5-year return: 9.8%
- 10-year return: 7.0%
- Yield: 0.5%
- Expense ratio: 0.92%
Fidelity International Growth manager Jed Weiss has been firing on all cylinders lately. The fund's 21% return over the past 12 months beat the MSCI EAFE index, which tracks large and midsize companies in developed foreign countries, by more than six percentage points. It also outpaced 87% of its peers (funds that invest in large growing companies outside the U.S.).
Weiss favors foreign companies with good multiyear prospects and a stronghold in their industry. Over the long haul, his playbook has delivered solid index-beating results. Tech firm ASML Holding (ASML), drugmaker Novo Nordisk (NVO) and luxury goods purveyor LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMUY) are top holdings.
- Symbol: HFQTX
- 1-year return: 7.8%
- 5-year return: 5.7%
- 10-year return: 3.9%
- Yield: 4.2%
- Expense ratio: 0.98%
Investors gave dividend stocks the cold shoulder last year. Janus Henderson Global Equity Income, which invests in dividend-paying international stocks, lagged the MSCI EAFE index over the past 12 months.
"We're a defensive fund, and for the latter half of the year, the market rally was led by more economically sensitive stocks," says comanager Ben Lofthouse.
Because foreign firms pay dividends semiannually or annually, the fund managers maximize and smooth out income by buying a stock before it pays a dividend and selling it a few months later to buy shares in a similar company before it pays its dividend. The fund yields a robust 4.2% as a result, but turnover is high. That said, many holdings have been in the fund for years, including consumer products giant Unilever (UL) and chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM).
And the fund has outpaced its peers (foreign large-company value funds) in five of the past six full calendar years.
- Symbol: FSPHX
- 1-year return: 11.6%
- 5-year return: 9.5%
- 10-year return: 9.9%
- Yield: 0.0%
- Expense ratio: 0.69%
The healthcare sector has performed poorly over the past 12 months, gaining 16%, compared with a 30% return for the S&P 500. But the sector is broad, which means at times, while some parts of the sector are in retreat, others are advancing.
Over the past year at Fidelity Select Health Care, holdings in pharmaceutical companies Pfizer (PFE) and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) and health provider Agilon Health (AGL) hurt the fund's performance, and investments in biotech firms such as Cytokinetics (CYTK), Nuvalent (NUVL) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN) helped.
Looking ahead, manager Ed Yoon is cautiously optimistic and sees lots of value in discounted healthcare shares. Yoon has beaten his peers in nine of the past 10 full calendar years.
- Symbol: PRGTX
- 1-year return: 55.7%
- 5-year return: 11.2%
- 10-year return: 15.2%
- Yield: 0.0%
- Expense ratio: 0.95%
Since Dom Rizzo stepped in as manager in 2022, T. Rowe Price Global Technology has moved from the bottom of the pile to the top. Its 56% return over the past 12 months ranked among the top quartile of all tech funds. You can guess what's behind the turnaround: The stocks that are driving market returns, including Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia, together make up roughly one-third of the portfolio.
"These firms make linchpin technologies that are mission critical to the success of their customers," says Rizzo. The companies are also poised to be big beneficiaries of growth in AI.
Rizzo is investing in other exciting innovations in tech, too, including e-commerce, streaming and digital payments, but AI is arguably the most thrilling because it is a "fundamental shift in computing architecture that only comes around every decade or two."
- Symbol: VWELX
- 1-year return: 17.4%
- 5-year return: 8.8%
- 10-year return: 8.1%
- Yield: 2.1%
- Expense ratio: 0.25%
What's old is new again. We cut this low-cost balanced fund in 2022 to make room for a commodity fund as an inflation hedge. With inflation at bay, Vanguard Wellington is back on the roster.
The fund holds 65% of its assets in stocks and 35% in bonds. Dan Pozen picks the stocks, investing in durable businesses with strong future earnings potential that trade at moderate valuations. On the bond side, Loren Moran buys high-quality corporate debt and Treasuries. Over the past 12 months, the duo have delivered a 17% return, a top-quartile performance relative to peers (moderate-allocation funds).
Pozen and Moran had been co-managers of Vanguard Wellington with others, but both became solo managers of the stock and bond sides, respectively, relatively recently – Pozen in 2020 and Moran in 2021.
The fund's record since mid-2021 is an annualized 3.4%. That was more than double the typical return of the fund's peers, but it lagged the 4.1% gain in a composite of the S&P 500 and the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond indexes. The fund yields 2.1%.
- Symbol: BAGSX
- 1-year return: 3.8%
- 5-year return: 0.8%
- 10-year return: 1.6%
- Yield: 4.0%
- Expense ratio: 0.55%
The managers behind Baird Aggregate Bond aim to beat the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond index, and over the fund's 23-history, they have. Since it launched in 2000, the Baird fund has returned 4.0% annualized, outpacing the Agg's 3.8% return over the same period.
A 10-person team buys high-quality, medium-maturity bonds, including Treasuries, asset-backed or mortgage-backed securities, and corporate debt, at compelling prices. When uncertainty reigns in any particular bond sector, you can bet they're looking for opportunities. As commercial mortgage-backed securities dropped in price in 2023, for instance, they were digging for hidden gems.
What they won't do is bet on the direction of interest rates. Instead, the managers keep the fund's duration (a measure of interest-rate sensitivity) even with that of the Agg index. "Staying the course and not trying to outguess the short-term direction of rates is our mindset and process," says Warren Pierson, managing director and co-chief investment officer of the fund. BAGSX yields 4.0%.
- Symbol: DODIX
- 1-year return: 4.9%
- 5-year return: 2.0%
- 10-year return: 2.4%
- Yield: 4.6%
- Expense ratio: 0.41%
A team of seven managers work collectively to run Dodge & Cox Income, which invests mostly in high-quality U.S. debt. A strong price discipline prevails in all decisions. "The starting yield is a key component of future return, but valuation and security selection are also critical in delivering risk-adjusted total returns over a long time horizon," says Lucy Johns, Dodge & Cox director of fixed income.
Over the past year, the managers bought longer-dated debt to lock in higher yields. One effect was to stretch the fund's duration to six years, its highest in decades. If rates are indeed near or at a peak, the fund should benefit as yields fall because prices and yields move in opposite directions. The managers also took profits in corporate debt, the fund's best-performing segment, and invested the proceeds in bargain-priced Treasuries.
The fund's 5% return over the past 12 months ranked among the top 16% of all intermediate core-plus bond funds. Dodge & Cox Income falls in the "core plus" category in part because it has the flexibility to invest up to 20% of assets in junk debt (rated double-B to triple-C or lower); these days, 7% of the fund is invested in high-yield IOUs.
Of course, the fund's steady long-term record is the ultimate plus. Dodge & Cox Income boasts a 10-year, 2.4% annualized return that beat 92% of its peers and the Agg index. A high and stable rate of current income is its main objective. The fund yields 4.6%.
- Symbol: FLTMX
- 1-year return: 4.9%
- 5-year return: 1.9%
- 10-year return: 2.3%
- Yield: 3.1%
- Expense ratio: 0.35%
Municipal bonds, which pay income that is exempt from federal taxes, rallied sharply in late 2023. Fidelity Intermediate Municipal Income has returned 5% over the past 12 months and currently yields 3.1%, or a tax-equivalent 4.1% for investors in the 24% federal tax bracket.
Three managers look for well-priced general obligation debt – muni bonds funded by state and local taxes – and revenue bonds, which are IOUs for projects such as toll bridges that generate income to pay off the bondholders.
The fund is slow and steady: Over the past three years, it has delivered above-average returns with below-average volatility and an annualized return that outpaced 82% of its peers.
- Symbol: FADMX
- 1-year return: 8.1%
- 5-year return: 3.0%
- 10-year return: 3.2%
- Yield: 5.3%
- Expense ratio: 0.68%
At long last, income has returned to fixed income. That has the managers at multisector bond fund Fidelity Strategic Income feeling optimistic.
Lead managers Ford O'Neil and Adam Kramer decide how much of the fund to devote to certain sectors, staying more or less in line (depending on their take on the market) with a benchmark of 45% of assets in high-yield debt, 30% in U.S. government issues, 15% in emerging-markets bonds and 10% in IOUs from developed foreign countries. Bond sector specialists pick the securities.
Over the past 12 months, the fund loaded up on high-yield bonds, floating-rate loans and cash. It lightened up on foreign developed debt. The result: An 8% gain over the one-year period, beating 74% of its multisector bond peers. By contrast, the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond index gained 3%. The fund yields 5.3%.
- Symbol: PRFRX
- 1-year return: 10.6%
- 5-year return: 4.7%
- 10-year return: 4.0%
- Yield: 8.7%
- Expense ratio: 0.78%
Now that interest rate cuts are coming, a fund that invests in floating-rate loans, which carry interest rates that reset every three months in line with a short-term benchmark, may seem out of step. But a small position in these loans can boost stability and yield in a bond portfolio, according to T. Rowe Price Floating Rate manager Paul Massaro.
Relative to other bond sectors such as corporate debt and emerging-markets bonds, floating-rate bank loans have been lower in volatility and have offered better risk-adjusted returns over any time frame out to 15 years.
We'll keep an eye on the asset class over the coming year, but Massaro runs a tight ship, leading a team of analysts to find quality loans trading at a discount.
The fund has returned 11% over the past 12 months, and it currently yields 8.7%.
- Symbol: VEMBX
- 1-year return: 12.3%
- 5-year return: 4.5%
- 10-year return: N/A
- Yield: 7.0%
- Expense ratio: 0.55%
Vanguard's Dan Shaykevich and Mauro Favini invest mostly in dollar-denominated government debt issued by developing countries. But they have leeway, too, to invest up to 10% of assets in bonds denominated in local currencies and 10% in emerging-markets corporate IOUs. Last year, they leaned into those two debt sectors, boosting the fund's returns.
Over the past 12 months, Vanguard Emerging Markets Bond's 12% return beat both its peers and its benchmark. Looking ahead, the managers are wary of corporates at this point in the economic cycle but still see opportunity in selective local-currency debt.
Overall, says Favini, "we believe that emerging-markets bonds are going to be quite an attractive asset class this year," thanks in part to coming interest rate cuts, a lack of supply in new emerging-markets issues and low valuations for EM debt relative to other bond sectors. The fund yields 7.0%.
- Symbol: VWEHX
- 1-year return: 9.6%
- 5-year return: 3.7%
- 10-year return: 4.0%
- Yield: 6.5%
- Expense ratio: 0.23%
The high-yield Vanguard High-Yield Corporate Bond has gone through key changes in recent years. In mid-2022, Vanguard's in-house bond group took over one-third of the fund's assets, and longtime Wellington Management subadviser Michael Hong took on a comanager, Elizabeth Shortsleeve. Then in mid-2023, Hong stepped down, with little notice.
There are reasons to stay. The fund's quality bias among junk bonds – debt rated double-B to triple-C – is one. The portfolio boasts a double-B average credit quality, for instance, which is higher than the average single-B quality of its peers.
"High-quality high-yield debt outperforms the rest of the sector over the long term on a total-return and risk-adjusted-return basis," says Shortsleeve. She has two decades of high-yield bond experience, including 16 years at Wellington, working closely with Hong, who remains at the firm. We're sticking with the fund for now and attentive to how it performs. The fund yields 6.5%, about average for the high-yield bond fund category.
- Symbol: VFSTX
- 1-year return: 5.6%
- 5-year return: 1.8%
- 10-year return: 1.8%
- Yield: 5.0%
- Expense ratio: 0.20%
This fund's turf – high-quality short-maturity bonds – has been a popular spot for investment-grade debt (rated triple-A to triple-B) over the past year. Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade Bond managers Daniel Shaykevich and Arvind Narayanan make the big-picture decisions; bond-sector specialists pick the securities.
Recently, 87% of the fund's assets sat in corporate debt, much of it rated triple-B or single-A, with an average maturity of less than three years. The rest is invested in Treasuries and other government debt, with a smattering in foreign bonds and asset- or commercial-backed IOUs.
The fund has returned nearly 6% over the past 12 months, which beat 67% of its peers, but it's still clawing its way back from a 6% loss in 2022. The fund yields 5.0%.
Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.
