Beginner–Intermediate 60 min total8 lessons

Bonds & Fixed Income

Bonds are half the global financial market — yet most investors ignore them until it's too late. This course teaches you how bonds actually work, how to use Treasuries, municipal bonds, and corporate bonds to stabilize your portfolio, and why understanding interest rate risk is essential for every long-term investor, conservative saver, and retiree.

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What you'll be able to do

Understand what a bond is and how coupon, face value, maturity, and yield relate

Distinguish between Treasuries, corporate, municipal, and agency bonds

Explain the inverse relationship between interest rates and bond prices

Calculate and interpret duration as a measure of interest rate sensitivity

Understand how bonds reduce portfolio volatility and enable rebalancing

Read and interpret the yield curve as an economic signal

Compare bond ETFs vs individual bond ladders for your situation

Build a practical fixed-income allocation appropriate for your age and goals

8 lessons

Each one building on the last

~60 minutes total

Self-paced — go at your own speed

Portfolio stability strategies

Practical allocation frameworks for every stage

100% free

No account required to read any lesson

Course lessons

What Is a Bond? The Core Mechanics

Face value, coupon payments, maturity dates, yield, and how bonds are priced at par, premium, or discount.

Bond Types: Treasuries, Corporate, Municipal & More

The full spectrum of bond issuers — government, corporate, municipal, agency — and how credit risk, yield, and tax treatment differ.

Why Bond Prices Move: Interest Rates Explained

The fundamental inverse relationship between interest rates and bond prices — and why this is the most important concept in fixed income.

Duration Risk: Measuring Interest Rate Sensitivity

How duration quantifies a bond's price sensitivity to rate changes — and why longer bonds are riskier in a rising-rate environment.

Bonds in a Portfolio: The Stock-Bond Relationship

How bonds reduce portfolio volatility, enable rebalancing, and why the 60/40 portfolio became the foundation of modern investing.

The Yield Curve: What It Signals About the Economy

Normal, inverted, and flat yield curves — and why an inverted curve has preceded every US recession since 1955.

Bond Funds vs Individual Bonds: Which Is Right for You?

ETFs like BND and AGG vs building your own bond ladder — the tradeoffs in cost, flexibility, maturity control, and convenience.

Building Your Fixed Income Strategy

Putting it all together: TIPS, I-bonds, muni tax math, allocation by age, and a framework for conservative and retiree investors.

Ready to understand the other half of the market?

Lesson 1 takes just 7 minutes and teaches you the complete mechanics of how bonds work — no account, no sign-up required.

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