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On a related matter, be aware that some companies (like Hotmail) will recycle any email address you give up or allow to lapse.  After x months of you not logging in, they return it to the mix and if somebody else happens to apply for that address they'll get it.

This happened to me.  I applied for an address which turns out to have been previously owned by a Mr H*****.  The reason I know that:  Paypal has regularly emailed me on this address for years now, despite my never being a customer of theirs, addressing me as Mr H.  Mr H, the previous owner of my email address, had recorded this address with Paypal and has never rescinded it.  It's permanently on Paypal's records... meaning I have access into his Paypal account!  (Just a simple matter of resetting his password and I was in). 

In an effort to convince Paypal of the security breach, I "ethically hacked" into his Paypal account in this way, and could read his personal details, home address and account balance... but Paypal simply aren't interested.  I even changed his home address to "This account has been hacked" to demonstrate the fact, and told them to look at the record, and they still weren't bothered!  They're thick and I can't get through to anyone who understands or cares.  They insist I'm their customer "because I own the email address on their records", and I cannot get them to understand the security problem inherent in recycled addresses. 

Interestingly, the exact same was true of this chap's linked eBay account, but there I did manage to speak to a techie who was savvy enough to thank me and suspend the account.  Emails from that company regularly inviting me to log in to Mr H's account then ceased, but Paypal's continue to this day.  

The moral is, if you allow an email address to lapse, first ensure you have deleted it from all your accounts.  

People have been predicting the collapse of bond prices for at least the last ten years, mainly on the theory that interest rates are so low they've only one way to go. Nevertheless bonds have continued to do reasonably well, though the lower interest rates go the more bond prices look set to fall in the future.

I've never been happy holding bonds but I maintain 20% on the insistence of my IFA. So far, I haven't done too badly, but there's still that feeling that it's only a matter of time before prices fall, and there's some indication that interest rates on deposits are edging up.

Bonds are usually advocated because they traditionally correlate inversely with equities, and because they tend to be less volatile. Not expecting spectacular gains, and hoping to avoid spectacular losses, is the appropriate mindset.