Hello Bogleheads,
My wife and I are in our mid-50s, let's say around a $2M overall portfolio (not including non-COLA pensions) across my 401k, Roth IRAs, Traditional IRA, taxable brokerage accounts, HSA. I'm working to refine our overall portfolio to 60/40 asset allocation with goal of holding all of the 40% bond allocation in my 401k and the Traditional IRA account.
The core bond offering in my 401k is BlackRock "Government/Credit Bond Fund" (no ticker symbol/I guess "proprietary" to the plan). The provided Morningstar Fund Fact Sheet for this fund (dated 9-30-2024) states the benchmark is "Bloomberg US Govt/Credit TR USD", and the investment strategy as "seeks to replicate the return and risk characteristics of the Bloomberg U.S. Government/Credit Bond Index." Fund Inception Date 12-31-10, Total Fund Assets ($mil) 3,380, Management Company BlackRock. Expense Ratio 0.01%. Category Intermediate Core Bond. Total Number of Bond Holdings 1097. Annual Turnover Ratio 54.16%.
On Vanguard page for BND, I see similar expense ratio (0.03%), but it holds many more bonds (11314) and a lower Turnover rate (36.5%). Also much more fund assets.
Here's Total Return (%) comparison:
Year | BlackRock Bond Fund | BND (by NAV) | BND (by Market Price)
2014 | 5.97 | 5.96 | 5.87
2015 | 0.17 | -0.39 | -0.49
2016 | 3.13 | 2.57 | 2.54
2017 | 4.09 | 3.62 | 3.54
2018 | -0.44 | -0.04 | -0.08
2019 | 9.73 | 8.71 | 8.82
2020 | 9.27 | 7.71 | 7.69
2021 | -1.84 | -1.66 | -1.85
2022 | -13.79 | -13.15 | -13.12
2023 | 5.93 | 5.70 | 5.70
09-24 | 4.52 | no data | no data
2024 | no data | 1.34 | 1.36
From looking at the return data above one could say that performance has been similar with the BlackRock fund maybe slightly outperforming most years.
Your thoughts on this BlackRock "Government/Credit Bond Fund" vs BND? Potential reasons to go with one over the other? I plan to implement a "placing cash needs in tax-advantaged account" strategy. My 401k has a self-directed brokerage feature which I already utilize/have an account set up. BND would have no commission/fee to purchase within this brokerage. Maybe I'll put half in the BlackRock fund and half in BND!
My wife and I are in our mid-50s, let's say around a $2M overall portfolio (not including non-COLA pensions) across my 401k, Roth IRAs, Traditional IRA, taxable brokerage accounts, HSA. I'm working to refine our overall portfolio to 60/40 asset allocation with goal of holding all of the 40% bond allocation in my 401k and the Traditional IRA account.
The core bond offering in my 401k is BlackRock "Government/Credit Bond Fund" (no ticker symbol/I guess "proprietary" to the plan). The provided Morningstar Fund Fact Sheet for this fund (dated 9-30-2024) states the benchmark is "Bloomberg US Govt/Credit TR USD", and the investment strategy as "seeks to replicate the return and risk characteristics of the Bloomberg U.S. Government/Credit Bond Index." Fund Inception Date 12-31-10, Total Fund Assets ($mil) 3,380, Management Company BlackRock. Expense Ratio 0.01%. Category Intermediate Core Bond. Total Number of Bond Holdings 1097. Annual Turnover Ratio 54.16%.
On Vanguard page for BND, I see similar expense ratio (0.03%), but it holds many more bonds (11314) and a lower Turnover rate (36.5%). Also much more fund assets.
Here's Total Return (%) comparison:
Year | BlackRock Bond Fund | BND (by NAV) | BND (by Market Price)
2014 | 5.97 | 5.96 | 5.87
2015 | 0.17 | -0.39 | -0.49
2016 | 3.13 | 2.57 | 2.54
2017 | 4.09 | 3.62 | 3.54
2018 | -0.44 | -0.04 | -0.08
2019 | 9.73 | 8.71 | 8.82
2020 | 9.27 | 7.71 | 7.69
2021 | -1.84 | -1.66 | -1.85
2022 | -13.79 | -13.15 | -13.12
2023 | 5.93 | 5.70 | 5.70
09-24 | 4.52 | no data | no data
2024 | no data | 1.34 | 1.36
From looking at the return data above one could say that performance has been similar with the BlackRock fund maybe slightly outperforming most years.
Your thoughts on this BlackRock "Government/Credit Bond Fund" vs BND? Potential reasons to go with one over the other? I plan to implement a "placing cash needs in tax-advantaged account" strategy. My 401k has a self-directed brokerage feature which I already utilize/have an account set up. BND would have no commission/fee to purchase within this brokerage. Maybe I'll put half in the BlackRock fund and half in BND!
Statistics: Posted by Sunrise — Sat Jan 04, 2025 2:20 pm — Replies 0 — Views 18