The 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.93% this week, its highest level in years, as another jump in oil prices and rising expectations for a Fed rate hike next week rattled the bond market once again. Falling prices and climbing yields typically read as bad news, but Schwab's Collin Martin argues the shift has a real upside too. 

Higher yields mean bigger, more predictable coupon payments, giving bond investors a larger income cushion against future price declines than they had during the low rate decade that preceded this one. 

PIMCO's Lotfi Karoui made a similar point in a recent paper, arguing the case for owning bonds today rests less on beating stocks and more on the income and real downside protection that ultra low yields had stripped away for years. 

Finsum: Higher Treasury yields are restoring something bond investors had been missing for a decade: real income and genuine downside protection.