What the Media Got Wrong

The same rate hike that caused those 2022 losses did something else. They reset bond yields to levels we hadn't seen in a long time. And that changed the math going forward. Because after the worst year in a generation, the 60/40 came roaring back. In 2023, it had a return of somewhere around 17% according to Morningstar. Again in 2024, it's around 17%. 2025, probably around 15%. Right, three straight years of double-digit returns.

Better than its long-term historical average. Better than most retirees expected for the future of their bond portfolio or their 60/40 portfolio when they were panicking in 2022. And almost no one in the financial media has bothered to come back and write a correction saying, "Actually, all those articles about the death of the 60/40, they might have been overstated." But those articles declaring the death of the 60/40, they got millions and millions of views.

And those articles quietly admitting it's one of the best three-year stretches in decades, eh, not many people are reading those. Because admitting you were wrong or admitting that the sky isn't falling doesn't drive clicks. And this is one of the most important lessons I can give you about investing and about retirement investing in particular. The financial media, you should underline this, right? CNBC, Barron's, all the financial media has a very different incentive than you do.

They get paid to make you scared and to make you click. You're trying to fund your retirement for 30 years, right? They have a very short-term profit goal. You have a 30-year investment time horizon. And I know you know this, but those goals are not the same and they are at odds with each other.