If anyone should know how to get the best income from your funds, it’s Gary Davis, head of Vanguard’s $900 billion in bond funds. And that’s why we talked to him. (MONEY, USA TODAY)

Greg Davis, global head of Vanguard Fixed Income Group. (Photo: The Vanguard Group)

Stock funds in January were a big disappointment: The average U.S. diversified fund fell 2.6%.

But to put things in perspective, stock investors have had one bad month in the past 12. Investors who are looking for income — either from bonds or stocks — have had more than half a decade of misery.

If you’re a retiree, or you need income from your investment portfolio, that’s a problem.

Currently, the average money market mutual fund yields just 0.02%, and the average one-year bank CD yields less than 1%. Low interest rates mean you can’t live off your earnings any more. You have to find high yields and figure out how to take your capital gains in a reasonable manner, too.

We can help you with that.

1. Meet Mr. Bond

OK, that’s not his name. But it should be. Meet Greg Davis, who oversees the bond funds at Vanguard, which has about $900 billion in fixed-income investments. Davis talks about why you should own bonds in these days of low yields, and what types of bonds look good for 2015 — even if interest rates rise.

2. How risky is my bond fund?

The conundrum of income investing: The higher the yield, the higher the risk. And if the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, your bond fund’s share price could suffer. But that’s not the only way to evaluate an income fund. Check out the three key numbers you need to know when investigating a bond fund.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the House Financial Services Committee. (Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP)

3. Are there funds designed only for retirement income?

Of course there are. Retirement income funds invest in a variety of assets — stocks, bonds and money funds — geared towards getting you the right mix of income from your portfolio. Some, called managed payout funds, will even handle the tricky business of figuring out distributions. Whether you should invest in them is another matter.

Sure. But many of the top-yielding funds are stock funds. If you’re comfortable with the risks of stock funds, you can get decent yields — at a low cost, too.