A week ago, I reviewed the Real Estate Funds and selected the one that I will include in my model portfolios - when I eventually get to that stage. Bond Funds, however, are going to have a much larger segment of my allocation. Therefore, I will have more options. I have broken it into sub-categories for use as I deem necessary – Government Bonds, Corporate Bonds, Municipal Bonds, High Yield and Tax Free. I have also included a ‘general’ category which are for non-specialized funds.
I used the same methodology – based on the long term performance and short term gains. By long term, I use two years, which is to say not long term at all. But it is a comparison. I needed to have a way to compare the funds. Here is the full list along with the ‘winners’ in bold. I crossed out the bonds that I could not get pricing information for.
| Fund Famliy | Fund Name | Asset Class | Sub Class | Ticker |
| American Funds | American High Income Municipal Bond Fund | Bonds | Municipal | FJSIX |
| American Funds | Limited Term Tax Exempt Bond Fund of America | Bonds | Tax Free | LTEBX |
| Franklin Templeton | Franklin Adjustable US Government Securities | Bonds | Government | FISAX |
| Franklin Templeton | Franklin Convertible Securities | Bonds | Corporate | FISCX |
| Franklin Templeton | Franklin Double Tax Free Income | Bonds | Tax Free | FPRTX |
| Franklin Templeton | Franklin Federal Intermediate Term Tax Free Income Fund | Bonds | Tax Free | FKITX |
| Franklin Templeton | Franklin Floating Rate Daily Access Fund | Bonds | General | FAFRX |
| Franklin Templeton | Franklin High Income Fund | Bonds | Corporate | FHAIX |
| Franklin Templeton | Franklin High Yield Tax Free Income Fund | Bonds | Tax Free | FVHIX |
| Invesco | AIM Floating Rate Fund | Bonds | General | AFRAX |
| Invesco | AIM Government Fund | Bonds | Government | AGOVX |
| Invesco | AIM High Yield Fund | Bonds | High Yield | AMHYX |
| Invesco | AIM Municipal Bond Fund | Bonds | Municipal | AMBDX |
| Legg Mason | Legg Mason Partners Core Plus Bond Fund | Bonds | General | SHMGX |
| Legg Mason | Legg Mason Partners Corporate Bond Fund | Bonds | Corporate | SIGAX |
| Legg Mason | Legg Mason Partners Government Securities Fund | Bonds | Government | SGVAX |
| Legg Mason | Legg Mason Partners Intermediate Term Municipals Fund | Bonds | Municipal | SMLLX |
| Legg Mason | Legg Mason Partners Managed Municipals Fund | Bonds | Municipal | SHMMX |
| Legg Mason | Legg Mason Partners Short Term Duration Municipal Income Fund | Bonds | Municipal | SHDAX |
| Van Kampen | High Yield | Bonds | Corporate | ACHYX |
| Van Kampen | High Yield Municipal | Bonds | Municipal | ACHTX |
| Van Kampen | Strategic Municipal Income | Bonds | Municipal | VKMHX |
I was surprised at the variance in performance within the subcategories. I believe these bond funds really do depend greatly on the individual fund managers.
Here are the individual categories.
Tax Free – FPRTX is better over the long term than FVHIX despite the under performance in the short term.
| LTEBX | FKITX | FPRTX | FVHIX | |
| Subcategory | Tax Free | Tax Free | Tax Free | Tax Free |
| 1 Mo | -0.72% | -0.52% | 1.06% | 2.20% |
| 3 Mo | 1.73% | 2.79% | 6.91% | 10.71% |
| 6 Mo | 4.38% | 5.55% | 12.48% | 26.53% |
| 1 Yr | 10.50% | 15.60% | 21.04% | 31.91% |
| 2 Yr | 7.54% | 8.56% | 5.92% | 4.49% |
| Expense Ratio | 0.63% | 0.68% | 0.68% | 0.64% |
| 12b1 Fee | 0.30% | 0.10% | 0.10% | 0.00% |
| Real 6 mo Return | 3.45% | 4.77% | 11.70% | 25.89% |
| Real 2 Yr Return | 6.61% | 7.78% | 5.14% | 3.85% |
Municipal – SHMMX blows away VKMFX over the last two years, but again it is under performing over the last 6 months.
| AMBDX | SMLLX | SHMMX | SHDAX | VKMHX | |
| Subcategory | Muni | Muni | Muni | Muni | Muni |
| 1 Mo | 0.38% | 0.63% | 1.27% | 0.00% | 5.81% |
| 3 Mo | 3.94% | 3.58% | 6.69% | 0.99% | 12.70% |
| 6 Mo | 6.74% | 7.78% | 13.93% | 3.04% | 21.26% |
| 1 Yr | 17.16% | 12.94% | 21.94% | 6.72% | 13.20% |
| 2 Yr | 8.94% | 7.42% | 12.48% | 9.01% | -8.06% |
| Expense Ratio | 0.57% | 1.31% | 0.67% | 0.75% | 0.83% |
| 12b1 Fee | 0.25% | 0.75% | 0.15% | 0.15% | 0.25% |
| Real 6 mo Return | 5.92% | 5.72% | 13.11% | 2.14% | 20.18% |
| Real 2 Yr Return | 8.12% | 5.36% | 11.66% | 8.11% | -9.14% |
Government- SGVAX is actually better in the short term than the long term when compared to AGVOX.
| FISAX | AGOVX | SGVAX | |
| Subcategory | Gov | Gov | Gov |
| 1 Mo | 0.11% | 0.56% | 1.24% |
| 3 Mo | 0.34% | 1.83% | 4.05% |
| 6 Mo | 1.59% | 0.68% | 5.29% |
| 1 Yr | 3.82% | 8.66% | 8.57% |
| 2 Yr | 8.60% | 15.56% | 10.53% |
| Expense Ratio | 0.92% | 1.06% | 0.97% |
| 12b1 Fee | 0.25% | 0.25% | 0.25% |
| Real 6 mo Return | 0.42% | -0.63% | 4.07% |
| Real 2 Yr Return | 7.43% | 14.25% | 9.31% |
Corporate - FHAIX carries this category because of the two year performance.
| FISCX | FHAIX | SIGAX | |
| Subcategory | Corp | Corp | Corp |
| 1 Mo | 3.22% | 2.20% | 2.17% |
| 3 Mo | 18.80% | 10.71% | 11.77% |
| 6 Mo | 31.59% | 26.53% | 31.68% |
| 1 Yr | 33.79% | 31.91% | 32.35% |
| 2 Yr | -15.37% | 4.49% | -2.91% |
| Expense Ratio | 0.90% | 0.79% | 1.17% |
| 12b1 Fee | 0.25% | 0.15% | 0.25% |
| Real 6 mo Return | 30.44% | 25.59% | 30.26% |
| Real 2 Yr Return | -16.52% | 3.55% | -4.33% |
General and High Yield (there’s only one high yield so I just added it here) – SHMGX is the only general fund that made money going back two years.
| FAFRX | SHMGX | AFRAX | AMHYX | |
| Subcategory | General | General | General | Hi Yld |
| 1 Mo | 1.27% | 1.52% | 1.83% | 4.29% |
| 3 Mo | 5.42% | 6.57% | 8.07% | 15.43% |
| 6 Mo | 15.26% | 12.78% | 24.66% | 36.49% |
| 1 Yr | 14.06% | 17.65% | 15.87% | 32.31% |
| 2 Yr | -2.45% | 6.76% | -6.47% | 6.58% |
| Expense Ratio | 0.97% | 1.01% | 1.18% | 0.99% |
| 12b1 Fee | 0.25% | 0.25% | 0.25% | 0.25% |
| Real 6 mo Return | 14.04% | 11.52% | 23.23% | 35.25% |
| Real 2 Yr Return | -3.67% | 5.50% | -7.90% | 5.34% |
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