Bond mutual funds Stock mutual funds Llamas Kidding. Choosing to invest in llamas cannot possibly help your retirement. Now, back to the boring stuff Money-market funds and stable value accounts offer secure ways to make sure that your savings grow at a limited rate. You won't make much off any money put into these vehicles, but you don't stand much chance of losing any either as they consist mainly of certificates of deposit or U.S. Treasury securities. Bond mutual funds are pooled amounts of money invested in bonds.
Bonds are IOUs, or debt, issued by companies or by governments.
A purchaser of a bond is lending money to the issuer, and will usually collect some regular interest payments until the money is returned. Stock or equity mutual funds are pooled amounts of money that are invested in stocks. Stocks represent part ownership, or equity, in corporations, and the goal of stock ownership is to see the value of the companies increase over time. Let's take a look at another graph, this one comparing the average historical returns of money market funds, bond funds, stable value accounts, and stock funds. Looking at this graph, you'd wonder why anybody would ever decide to put any of her money into anything but stocks.