For many years, the financial crisis of the late 2000s left a persistent legacy: stubbornly low interest rates on low-risk, low-reward investment vehicles. Rates on savings accounts, money market funds and government bonds remained at or below the rate of inflation basically through the 2010s, and interest rates on consumer-facing mortgages and auto loans remained

Corporate bonds occupy a middle ground between low-interest, low-risk government bonds and stocks, which may offer higher returns but are much riskier overall. But corporate bonds are not perfect. Individual corporate bonds have significant drawbacks you should carefully consider before investing.

City and local governments use municipal bonds to raise money for public projects. Investors who buy these bonds enjoy a low-risk investment that offers special tax treatment. Learn what municipal bonds are, how to buy them, how the gains are taxed, and the pros and cons of investing.

An interest rate swap is a financial derivative that companies use to exchange interest rate payments with each other. Swaps are useful when one company wants to receive a payment with a variable interest rate, while the other wants to limit future risk by receiving a fixed-rate payment instead. Each group has their own priorities and

Have you ever heard anyone mention the yield curve and wondered what on earth they were talking about? It’s really not as complicated as it sounds. More importantly, you can make better financial and investment decisions if you have a basic grasp of what the yield curve is and what it might be telling us.