You should consider investing in bonds for both income and stability. In any given year equity markets could appreciate in value by 30 to 40 percent or decline in value by the same amount. Bonds fluctuate far less. Bonds also pay interest on a regular basis and thus investors will receive a cheque each month or quarter.
As with any investment, it is easy to get lost in the minutiae and with bonds the details come from some of the arithmetical calculations that determine the yields, returns, and risk of a bond. Here are the basics. Bonds offer a fixed amount of interest (the coupon rate), until a fixed period of time (the maturity date) at which point the denomination, also called the face value, is repaid and the interest payments stop. Bonds are issued by the federal, provincial, and municipal governments, and by a wide variety of corporations.
In general, corporations have to offer higher coupon rates to sell their bonds. Maturity dates range from 1 year to more than 30 years, with higher coupon rates being associated with longer periods to maturity, to compensate for increased risk. Long-term bonds tend to rise and fall in price more dramatically than do short...