If you do any investing you know that bonds are a safe place to put your money for a long term investment. Put a chunk of change in a 10 year Treasury bond with fixed 5.5% return and at the end of the ten years you’ve got a fair return on your investment. But if you’ve looked at the bond market recently (a growing economy, but then there’s the whole sub-prime mess) you’d be lucky to find something with a return greater than 5%. With uncertainty about the state of the economy bonds have fallen to a near record low. So what do you do? Look for funds with short-term maturity dates. Invest for 2 or 3 years and when rates turn around you can put your money back into a bond with a higher interest rate. Consider also municipal bonds which don’t always offer the highest return but are federally tax exempt. Remember that the point of investing in bonds is put your money somewhere safe - low risk with moderate return.