Is the best way to invest in bonds to buy individual IOUs or shares in a bond fund? "We get this question all the time," says Collin Martin, head of fixed-income strategy and research at the Schwab Center for Financial Research. "And every time, I give the same answer: It depends."
Mutual and exchange-traded funds certainly make bond investing easy. You pay an annual fee, of course, but the initial investment outlay is low, the fund offers instant diversification, and experts do all the work.
