Even during recessions, consumers need to buy food, drugs, hygiene products, and medical supplies. These are consumer staples that are the last items to be cut from the family budget. So while companies selling flat-screen TVs and other discretionary products experience drops in revenue, companies selling food products and personal necessities do not.
Data shows that these types of companies outperformed the S&P 500 during the last five recessionary periods. Consumer s...

Figuring out how much to hold in stocks and how much in bonds is the next step. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer.
No risk, no return, is an old investing adage. Stocks historically have returned more than bonds precisely because there is more risk in owning them.
Historical returns provide no guarantee for the future, but they may serve as a guide. Vanguard posts returns for nine stock-bond portfolios based on U.S. index funds, and they are inform...