And thanks for the compliments on the redesign. I’m quite enjoying thesis so far. Sorry to disappoint, but I think I went through copyblogger, hehe.

And I don’t think I’m much help on UK bond returns. I can’t offhand think of any resources there.

Anyway, now you’ve raised the bar with these yummy graphs.

Also notice you’ve upgraded to Thesis. It looks great, of course. Please please tell me you clicked on my affiliate link before buying the theme. (I appreciate you probably didn’t – just pulling your chain).

A Thesis affiliate deal could double my blogging income for the month! (*ironic smile*)

As compelling as this research is, I fear many people may not be able to “hear it” because they are so shell-shocked. However, facts are facts even if they don’t fit with our emotional position.

Now, more than ever, its important that people read your story. Interest rates and stock prices are so low that bonds become even more riskier and stocks become even safer.

Again, great job Mike!

A great question–volatility as opposed to safety. What it shows is that after-inflation stock returns are less volatile (over periods of 30 years or more) than bond returns.

As far as I can tell, this–coupled with the fact that the stock returns are greater than bond returns–is the very essence of safety. Granted, if we’re looking at periods of less than 30 years, the opposite case can be made.

The returns are the effective compound returns over the period (calculated using the “RATE” function in excel). Note, this is not the same as the average annual return over the period. If you’d like to see the spreadsheet, I’d be happy to forward it to you.

I am a little confused looking at this because I am not able to understand how the best and worst returns are calculated in this example for longer durations like 30 years…have you taken a moving average or something?