the.com/fixed income

means Fixed income refers to investments like bonds that pay a set, predictable return on a regular schedule, rather than fluctuating with company performance like stocks do.

from The term is a straightforward 20th-century financial descriptor rather than a word with a colorful backstory — 'fixed' meaning unchanging, paired with 'income,' meaning what the investment pays you. It arose to distinguish bonds and similar instruments, whose interest payments are set in advance, from equities, whose dividends and value can swing. The phrase later broadened in everyday use to describe retirees or anyone living on a stable, limited pension or annuity payment — hence the wry modern usage of the phrase to mean a tightly budgeted life, not just a bond portfolio.