Do You Really Need Bond ETFs Before Age 50? Here's What I'd Do.

A traditional investing strategy would say your portfolio should get more conservative as you age. You might move away from a portfolio that's 100% stocks and toward something with a larger allocation to bonds.

That makes sense for someone in or near retirement. But if you're someone who's 10 years or more away from retirement, do you really need bonds at all yet?

We know that adding a bond ETF to an all-equity portfolio can help reduce overall volatility. If risk reduction is your biggest concern, that move makes sense. But it also comes at the expense of long-term return potential. Over multiple decades, that could cost a lot of money.

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