Chapter 13: Bonds and Bond Funds Most individual investors include bonds as part of their investment portfolios. Typically, bonds are the “safer” (or less risky) part of the portfolio. Essentially, bonds are loans to the government or a corporation, which are then paid back to the lender or bondholder over time. To simplify, a buyer of a bond has a contractual right to interest payments on a regular basis, and then the return of the principal. An exception would be a zero coupon bond (zeros), which has no coupon. Zeros are purchased at a discount to the par or face value. Upon maturity, the bonds are worth par or 100