Do you have bonds in your investment portfolio but have not found a good way for tracking their performance? The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority offers an online solution to your problem -- with a caveat. FINRA cautions that "Individuals should not make investment or other financial decisions solely on the basis of this data." With that in mind, watch the short video on how to use the data center before signing up for a free (non-commercial use) account (tinyurl.com/yc8y7wfz). FINRA regulates the brokerage industry.

Called the Fixed Income Data Center (tinyurl.com/26b6fa7e), the online resource includes real-time data on bonds and other fixed income products, along with aggregate data on fixed income markets. It combines FINRA's Bond Facts page with its Market Data Center.

You'll be able to look up individual bonds with the Fixed Income Security Lookup search tool. To create a watchlist, sign up for an account using the FINRA Gateway (tinyurl.com/37wy2bm8).

Once you click on a bond, you'll be provided with information that includes coupon rate, maturity date, the last trade price, yield and date, price/yield chart and credit rating.

The Fixed Income Securities and Trade Activity section allows you to browse different types of bonds and securities. There are also sections on Market Statistics and Data Subscriptions (which is for "market professionals, academics and media outlets").

Beyond the numbers, FINRA also provides access to general information about bonds, which can be helpful if you are new to having bonds in your portfolio, or if you want to increase your knowledge of something in which you are invested.

The link "Basics to Know About Investing in Bonds" (tinyurl.com/2jnrjb55) will take you to a FINRA page that discusses the types of bonds (from U.S. Treasury Securities and Savings Bonds to corporate and municipal bonds, among others), buying and selling them, the risks involved (you might be surprised to find 12 risks, including interest rate risk, call risk and liquidity risk) and key terms.

If you are investing in bonds, you will want to understand yield and return.

Yield is the return on the money you invested in a bond. "Price and yield are inversely related: As the price of a bond goes up, its yield goes down, and vice versa," according to FINRA (tinyurl.com/2ucz69ey).

Two main bond yields are coupon yield and current yield. Coupon yield is "the annual interest rate established when the bond is issued that does not change during the lifespan of the bond," according to FINRA. It's also known as the coupon rate.

The current yield is "the bond's coupon yield divided by its current market price."

FINRA offers this example:

"[I]f you buy a $1,000 bond at par (often described as 'trading at 100,' meaning 100% of its face value) and receive $45 in annual interest payments, your coupon yield is 4.5%. If the price goes up and the bond subsequently trades at 103 ($1,030), then the current yield will fall to 4.37%."

Current yield comes into play if you decide to sell a bond before it reaches maturity.

Bonds are attractive to investors because they provide a "predictable income stream," typically paying interest twice a year, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor.gov site (tinyurl.com/mvambjx9). Bonds also can "help offset exposure to more volatile stock holdings."

Since bonds can serve an important role in your portfolio, you'll want to make sure to understand how they fit into your overall financial goals. FINRA's Fixed Income Data Center can be a big help in your bond research.

DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

If you are a seasoned do-it-yourself investor who lived through the dot-com bubble, the financial crisis and the coronavirus market, think back to 2000.

Say you invested $10,000 in an S&P 500 Index fund in January 2000. By March 31, 2024, your investment would have grown to $55,000 at a rate of 7.3% annualized -- but, not before dropping to $6,229 by the end of 2002. From March 2000 to October 2002, it was down about 45%.

The fund dropped again in 2008 (by 37%), its worst year since 2000, and again by 4.5% in 2018 and 18.2% in 2022. The fund's best year between January 2000 and March 2024 was 32% (2013).

A popular technology fund that I'll call the "Tech Fund" grew from $10,000 to $115,000 (10.6% average annual return), more than doubling the March 31, 2024, balance of the S&P 500 fund -- but not before dropping to $3,478 by the end of 2002, a decline of about 80% from January 2000. The Tech Fund's best year was 85% (2009); its worst year had a 51% drop (2002).

Both funds own Apple and Nvidia.

A 2000 investment of $10,000 in Apple dropped dramatically to $2,800 by the end of 2002, a decline of about 79% from its January 2000 price. Apple's best year during the January 2000 to March 2024 period was 201% (2004); its worst year was a negative 71% (2000).

Nvidia started the dot-com bear market quite differently. In 2000, Nvidia rose about 40% compared to a decline of 9% for the S&P 500 fund. Notably, 2001 (308%) turned out to be the stock's best year, compared to a decline of 12% for the S&P 500 fund.

But 2002 was Nvidia's worst year (down 83%), which wiped out the gains of the previous two years. However, Nvidia's 2002 balance ($9,809) still outpaced the S&P 500 fund's balance ($6,229). March 2000 was the peak of the dot-com bubble that led to the three-year bear.

Headlines such as "Stock Market in Steep Drop as Worried Investors Flee; Nasdaq Has Its Worst Week" (April 15, 2000, New York Times), caught investors' attention, continuing even as the bear was coming to an end: "S&P 500 Index Drops to Its Lowest Level Since 1997" (July 19, 2002, Bloomberg News) or "SCREAM! Hold On for a Wild Ride" (July 21, 2002, New York Times).

Major price declines occurred not just once during the dot-com bubble, but also throughout the financial crisis and the coronavirus bear market, and intra-year declines occurred every year. For example, eight out of 12 months in 2002 and 2008 were negative for the S&P 500 Index. In 2023, when the S&P 500 Index returned 26%, four months were negative. In 2019, when the S&P 500 Index returned 31%, two months were negative.

Even the savvy investor needs to really think about how he or she will react during declines. Should declines lead one to buy more, sell some or all, or hold on for a set or unknown period of time?

Personal situations dictate the most appropriate action. For example, a retiree whose living expenses are covered in full by Social Security and pension income with an inflation adjustment is in a very different position from a retiree who depends on his portfolio for cash flow.

The first retiree would have the luxury of investing aggressively if he thought in terms of leaving a legacy.

The second retiree would need to prioritize cash-flow management before deciding how to invest. This retiree would have been in a much more difficult position making buy, sell and hold decisions, especially during downturns.

No matter how you look at it, you can't help but see that emotion would play a role. What would you have done if you lived through this time frame day by day, without the benefit of hindsight?

In case you are wondering: $10,000 invested in Apple in January 2000 grew to $2.2 million (25% annualized) by March 31, 2024. A comparable investment in Nvidia grew to $10 million (33% annualized).

The data for this column comes from an online tool called Portfolio Visualizer (portfoliovisualizer.com). Give the free version a try.

Conflicts Disclosure: The author and her firm's clients own the investments discussed in this story, either directly or indirectly.

DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

There are about a billion reasons for close to a million people to pay special attention to this tax column, even though Tax Day, April 15, has come and gone.

For starters, the IRS would like to pay back more than $1 billion in refunds that nearly a million people are due, but refunds are not automatic. You need to act.

The billion dollars is the amount that remains unclaimed because approximately 940,000 people have yet to file their tax returns for tax year 2020, according to the IRS (tinyurl.com/mpfpmw2).

Under the law, taxpayers have three years to file and claim their tax refunds. If they miss the deadline, their refund "becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury."

May 17, 2024, is the deadline to file for 2020 tax-year refunds. Why is it not the traditional April 15? Because in 2021, the tax-filing deadline for 2020 tax-year returns was moved to May 17 due to COVID.

(Note: If you requested a filing extension in 2021 for your 2020 tax-year return but subsequently never filed the return for that year, you have until Oct. 15, 2024, to file a refund claim, according to an IRS spokesperson.)

The estimated average midpoint for unclaimed individual refund amounts for tax year 2020 is $932, according to the IRS, which means half the refunds are above that amount and half are below.

Texas (93,400) and California (88,200) are the states with the greatest estimated number of individuals who are owed a tax refund, with the two states combining for an estimated total exceeding $200 million. (In my home state of Connecticut, it's estimated that only 9,800 individuals are owed a tax refund, worth a total of more than $11 million.)

Why might you be due a refund? Did you have a job in 2020? Did your employer withhold taxes for you? You may not have filed a tax return for 2020 because you did not need to pay additional taxes.

Or, you may be eligible for the Recovery Rebate Credit (tinyurl.com/p3p4sjbv), a refundable credit for individuals who did not receive one or more Economic Impact Payments, also known as stimulus payments, distributed in 2020 and 2021, according to the IRS. Those who are eligible for a Recovery Rebate Credit must file a tax return first by May 17, 2024, to claim it, even if they had minimal or nonexistent income. (For those who want to claim a 2021 Recovery Rebate Credit, they must file a tax return by April 15, 2025.)

To be eligible for the credit, you must have been a U.S. citizen or U.S. resident alien for the year in question, not have been a dependent of another taxpayer and have a Social Security number issued before the tax return's due date (tinyurl.com/4twm26xb).

Even if you didn't owe the IRS any income taxes for 2020 and are owed a refund, you need to file your 2020 tax return in order for the IRS to send you a check. For more information on who should file, see the IRS webpage "Don't Lose Your Refund by Not Filing" at tinyurl.com/34kpe5cm.

A cautionary note from the IRS: The refund may be held up if an individual has not filed a tax return for 2021 and 2022. Also, the refund will be applied to amounts owed to the IRS or a state tax agency, and it may be used to offset unpaid child support or other past-due federal debts, including student loans.

And while some have the option of filing in an effort to receive funds, the IRS is also reaching out to others who failed to file a tax return and owe money. More on that in an upcoming column.

DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION