I like Vanguard Wellington VWELX, too, and own it.  It was launched on July 1, 1929, and has survived all these years along with three or four closed-end funds founded in the 1920's such as Tricontinental TY, which my father owned. 

VWELX is down "only" -6.02% year-to-date, so it's beating all the main stock indexes, which are down double-digits.

FPACX, which I also own, is beating Wellington; it's actually up +1.35% YTD.  But Wellington only charges 0.27% and pays 3.48% whereas FPACX charges 1.34% and pays 2.66%. So, for income investors like me, VWELX is the better of the two. Those guys at First Pacific need to cut their funds' expense ratios--or maybe they are just squirreling away their dough so that they can buy Bill Miller's yacht, Utopia.

For whatever it's worth, fourteen of the fifteen Morningstar bond indexes are up year-to-date. Maybe 2008 will turn out to be one of those years when bonds outperform equities.

Jagor