1. Treasury Bonds have been an amazing investment
2. The Future of Treasury Bonds is worse than the Past
3. Chicken Little is looking for new investment love
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| Chicken Little's Love for Treasury Bonds is Waning |
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| Treasury Bonds have posted gaudy returns with low risk |
The following table contains the 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year total returns for stocks, bonds and gold.
| Asset | Symbol | 10-year | 5-year | 1-year |
| US Long-Term Treasury Bonds | US treasury | 93.18% | 50.54% | 16.81% |
| US Stocks | DIA | 93.13% | 76.64% | 8.29% |
| Non-US Stocks | EFA | 14.87% | 24.93% | -5.72% |
| Emerging Market Stocks | EEM | 31.69% | -2.83% | 7.87% |
| Gold | GLD | 107.35% | -25.17% | 20.32% |
In the last year, Treasury bonds have returned 16.8%; over the last 10 years, investors have almost doubled their money by earning 93%. Furthermore, Treasury bonds are among the safest investments.
For investors who care about both risk and return, I believe Treasury bonds have been the best investment for the last decade. While it is true that gold has had the highest 10-year return, and US stocks have had the highest 5-year return, Treasury bonds are safe, and Treasury bonds have not had the horrible declines of stocks or gold.
Bonds have been the best investment for scaredy cats like Chicken Little. Furthermore, Chicken Little has had significant investments in Treasury bonds throughout this entire time. This has been verifiably true throughout the period of Chicken Little's public investing. The first, "Where does Chicken Little invest article" includes, "98.75 percent of my family’s money is invested in cash or Treasury obligations" and showed this chart:
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| Chicken Little Loves Treasury Bonds |
In March of 2016, Chicken Little increased the investment in long-term treasury bonds.
Treasury Bonds have been a great investment, and Chicken Little has been in love with them for years.
2. The Future of Treasury Bonds is worse than the Past
The future returns on Treasury bonds will be lower than the past returns. The table below shows annual returns that have been earned and will be earned for Treasury bonds owned for 1-, 5- and 10 years.| Annual return earned | Future annual return | |
| 30-year Treasury bought 10 years ago | 9.32% | 1.82% |
| 30-year Treasury bought 5 years ago | 10.11% | 2.10% |
| 30-year Treasury bought 1 year ago | 16.81% | 2.21% |
The future returns are lower than past returns. Consider the returns on an investment of $100,000 in the 30-year treasury bond made one decade ago. Over the past decade, this investment has earned $93,200. Over the next two decades, this investment will earn a total of $36,300.
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| Future Treasury bond returns will be worse that past returns |
Future bond returns are sure to be lower than past returns. Does that mean we should all sell our long-term Treasury bonds? No.
In fact, Chicken Little still owns a lot of Treasury bonds. Why? In the past, Treasury bonds were safe and had high returns. While future returns will be low, Treasury bonds remain safe. If the US ends up with even lower interest rates like those in Japan and Germany, then Treasury bonds may be one of the few sources of any interest.
Chicken Little is falling out of love with Long-term Treasury Bonds. Chicken Little has sold some treasury bonds and will not buy any more for the foreseeable future.
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| Chicken Little sees the end of love for Treasury Bonds |
3. Chicken Little is looking for new investment love
With respect to investments, Chicken Little is single. |
| Chicken Little is looking for Investment Love |
Here is a little secret (and don't tell my bonds). From 1982 to 1999, Chicken Little was in love with stocks. Stocks were great investments and Chicken Little never imagined an end to that first love.
Chicken Little's break up with stocks was emotional with acrimony and mutual accusations. This second big breakup is less traumatic for Chicken Little, but still challenging.
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| Chicken Little is on the market |
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