The fund seeks to provide capital growth, current income, and preservation of capital through a portfolio of stocks and fixed income securities.
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the fund. You may also incur brokerage commissions and other charges when buying or selling shares of the fund, which are not reflected in the table or example below.
Shareholder Fees - T. Rowe Price Balanced Fund, Inc. - USD ($) |
Investor Class |
I Class |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum account fee | $ 20 | [1] | none |
| [1] | Subject to certain exceptions and account minimums, accounts are charged an annual $20 fee. |
Annual Fund Operating Expenses - T. Rowe Price Balanced Fund, Inc. |
Investor Class |
I Class |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Management fees | 0.43% | 0.43% | |
| Other expenses | 0.17% | 0.04% | |
| Acquired fund fees and expenses | 0.05% | 0.05% | |
| Total annual fund operating expenses | [1] | 0.65% | 0.52% |
| Fee waiver/expense reimbursement | [2] | (0.05%) | (0.05%) |
| Total annual fund operating expenses after fee waiver/expense reimbursement | [1] | 0.60% | 0.47% |
| [1] | The figures shown in the fee table do not match the “Ratios to average net assets” shown in the Financial Highlights table, as those figures do not include acquired fund fees and expenses. |
| [2] | T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., permanently waives a portion of the fund’s management fee in order to ensure that the fund’s management fee does not duplicate the fund’s management fees of each underlying fund. |
Expense Example - T. Rowe Price Balanced Fund, Inc. - USD ($) |
Investor Class |
I Class |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Year | $ 61 | $ 48 |
| 3 Years | 192 | 151 |
| 5 Years | 335 | 263 |
| 10 Years | $ 750 | $ 591 |
Portfolio Turnover The fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when the fund’s shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 39.2% of the average value of its portfolio.
The fund normally invests approximately 65% of its net assets in stocks and 35% of its net assets in fixed income securities, although the amount may vary based on market conditions. The fund invests at least 25% of its net assets in fixed income senior securities and may invest up to 35% of its net assets in foreign securities.
When deciding upon overall allocations between stocks and fixed income securities, the adviser may favor stocks when strong economic growth is expected and may favor fixed income securities if the economy is expected to slow sufficiently to hurt corporate profit growth. The fund also gains exposure to stocks and fixed income securities, as well as specific asset classes, through investments in other T. Rowe Price mutual funds and/or exchange-traded funds.
The fund invests in bonds, including foreign issues, which are primarily rated investment grade (i.e., assigned one of the four highest credit ratings by credit rating agencies or by T. Rowe Price) and are chosen from across the entire government, corporate, and mortgage- and asset-backed securities markets. Maturities generally reflect the adviser’s outlook for interest rates.
When selecting particular stocks, the adviser examines relative values and prospects among growth- and value-oriented stocks, domestic and international stocks, small- to large-cap stocks, and stocks of companies involved in activities related to commodities and other real assets. Domestic stocks are drawn from the overall U.S. market and international stocks are selected primarily from large companies in developed countries, although stocks in emerging markets may also be purchased. This process draws heavily upon the adviser’s proprietary stock research expertise. While the fund maintains a well-diversified portfolio, its portfolio manager may at a particular time shift stock selection toward markets or market sectors that appear to offer attractive value and appreciation potential.
A similar security selection process applies to bonds. When deciding whether to adjust duration, credit risk exposure, or allocations among the various sectors (for example, high yield or “junk” bonds, mortgage- and asset-backed securities, foreign bonds, and emerging markets bonds), the adviser weighs such factors as the outlook for inflation and the economy, corporate earnings,
expected interest rate movements and currency valuations, and the yield advantage that lower-rated bonds may offer over investment-grade bonds.
Risk Table - T. Rowe Price Balanced Fund, Inc. |
Risk [Text Block] |
|---|---|
| Risk Lose Money [Member] | The fund’s share price fluctuates, which means you could lose money by investing in the fund. |
| Stock investing | Stock investing: Stocks generally fluctuate in value more than bonds and may decline significantly over short time periods. There is a chance that stock prices overall will decline because stock markets tend to move in cycles, with periods of rising and falling prices. The value of stocks held by the fund may decline due to general weakness or volatility in the stock markets in which the fund invests or because of factors that affect a particular company or industry. |
| Fixed income markets | Fixed income markets: Economic and other market developments can adversely affect the fixed income securities markets. At times, participants in these markets may develop concerns about the ability of certain issuers of debt instruments to make timely principal and interest payments, or they may develop concerns about the ability of financial institutions that make markets in certain debt instruments to facilitate an orderly market. Those concerns could cause increased volatility and reduced liquidity in particular securities or in the overall fixed income markets and the related derivatives markets. A lack of liquidity or other adverse credit market conditions may hamper the fund’s ability to sell the debt instruments in which it invests or to find and purchase suitable debt instruments. |
| Interest rates | Interest rates: A rise in interest rates typically causes the price of a fixed rate debt instrument to fall and its yield to rise. Conversely, a decline in interest rates typically causes the price of a fixed rate debt instrument to rise and the yield to fall. The prices and yields of inflation-linked bonds are directly impacted by the rate of inflation as well as changes in interest rates. Generally, funds with longer weighted average maturities and durations carry greater interest rate risk. Changes in monetary policy made by central banks and/or governments are likely to affect the interest rates or yields of the securities in which the fund invests. |
| Prepayments and extensions | Prepayments and extensions: The fund is subject to prepayment risks because the principal on mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, or any debt instrument with an embedded call option may be prepaid at any time, which could reduce the security’s yield and market value. The rate of prepayments tends to increase as interest rates fall, which could cause the average maturity of the portfolio to shorten. Extension risk may result from a rise in interest rates, which tends to make mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, and other callable debt instruments more volatile. |
| Credit quality | Credit quality: An issuer of a debt instrument could suffer an adverse change in financial condition that results in a payment default (failure to make scheduled interest or principal payments), rating downgrade, or inability to meet a financial obligation. Securities that are rated below investment grade carry greater risk of default and should be considered speculative. |
| Market conditions | Market conditions: The value of the fund’s investments may decrease, sometimes rapidly or unexpectedly, due to factors affecting an issuer held by the fund, particular industries, or the overall securities markets. A variety of factors can increase the volatility of the fund’s holdings and markets generally, including economic, political, or regulatory developments, recessions, inflation, rapid interest rate changes, war, military conflict, acts of terrorism, natural disasters, and outbreaks of infectious illnesses or other widespread public health issues (such as the coronavirus pandemic) and related governmental and public responses (including sanctions). Certain events may cause instability across global markets, including reduced liquidity and disruptions in trading markets, while some events may affect certain geographic regions, countries, sectors, and industries more significantly than others. Government intervention in markets may impact interest rates, market volatility, and security pricing. These adverse developments may cause broad declines in market value due to short-term market movements or for significantly longer periods during more prolonged market downturns. |
| Foreign investing | Foreign investing: Non-U.S. securities tend to be more volatile and have lower overall liquidity and trading volume than investments in U.S. securities and may lose value because of adverse local, political, social, or economic developments overseas, or due to changes in the exchange rates between foreign currencies and the U.S. dollar. Further, securities of non-U.S. issuers are subject to trading markets with potential governmental interference, varying regulatory, auditing, and accounting standards, and settlement and clearance practices that differ from those of U.S. issuers. Investment in non-U.S. securities also carries currency risk. Any attempts to hedge currency risk could be unsuccessful. Such investments may have higher transaction costs compared with U.S. markets. The fund’s overall foreign investing risk is increased to the extent it has exposure to emerging markets. |
| Emerging markets | Emerging markets: Investments in emerging market countries are subject to greater risk and overall volatility than investments in the U.S. and other developed markets. Emerging market countries tend to have economic structures that are less diverse and mature, less developed legal and regulatory regimes, and political systems that are less stable, than those of developed countries. In addition to the risks associated with investing outside the U.S., emerging markets are more susceptible to governmental interference, political and economic uncertainty, local taxes and restrictions on the fund’s investments, less efficient trading markets with lower overall liquidity, and more volatile currency exchange rates. |
| Liquidity | Liquidity: The fund may not be able to meet requests to redeem shares issued by the fund without significant dilution of the remaining shareholders’ interests in the fund. In addition, the fund may not be able to sell a holding in a timely manner at a desired price. Reduced liquidity in the bond markets can result from a number of events, such as limited trading activity, reductions in bond inventory, and rapid or unexpected changes in interest rates. Markets with lower overall liquidity could lead to greater price volatility and limit the fund’s ability to sell a holding at a suitable price. |
| Investments in other funds | Investments in other funds: The fund bears the risk that its underlying funds will fail to successfully employ their investment strategies. One or more underlying fund’s underperformance or failure to meet its investment objective(s) as intended could cause the fund to underperform similarly managed funds. |
| Active management | Active management: The fund’s overall investment program and holdings selected by the fund’s investment adviser may underperform the broad markets, relevant indices, or other funds with similar objectives and investment strategies. |
| Cybersecurity breaches | Cybersecurity breaches: The fund could be harmed by intentional cyberattacks and other cybersecurity breaches, including unauthorized access to the fund’s assets, confidential information, or other proprietary information. In addition, a cybersecurity breach could cause one of the fund’s service providers or financial intermediaries to suffer unauthorized data access, data corruption, or loss of operational functionality. |
The following performance information provides some indication of the risks of investing in the fund. The fund’s performance information represents only past performance (before and after taxes) and is not necessarily an indication of future results.
The following bar chart illustrates how much returns can differ from year to year by showing calendar year returns and the best and worst calendar quarter returns during those years for the fund’s Investor Class. Returns for other share classes vary since they have different expenses.
Quarter Ended | Total Return | Quarter Ended | Total Return | |||||
Best Quarter | 6/30/20 | 14.99% | Worst Quarter | 3/31/20 | -14.51% |
The following table shows the average annual total returns for each class of the fund that has been in operation for at least one full calendar year. The fund’s performance information included in the table is compared with a regulatory required index that represents an overall securities market (Regulatory Benchmark). In addition, the table may also include one or more indexes that more closely aligns to the fund’s investment strategy (Strategy Benchmark(s)).
In addition, the table shows hypothetical after-tax returns to demonstrate how taxes paid by a shareholder may influence returns. After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown. After-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as a 401(k) account or an IRA. After-tax returns are shown only for the Investor Class and will differ for other share classes.
Average Annual Total Returns - T. Rowe Price Balanced Fund, Inc. |
Label |
1 Year |
5 Years |
10 Years |
Since Inception |
Inception Date |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Investor Class | 11.84% | 7.23% | 7.43% | Dec. 31, 1939 | ||||
| Investor Class | After Taxes on Distributions | 9.75% | 5.55% | 5.79% | |||||
| Investor Class | After Taxes on Distributions and Sales | 8.05% | 5.33% | 5.52% | |||||
| I Class | 12.00% | 7.37% | 8.34% | Dec. 17, 2015 | ||||
| MSCI All Country World Index Net | [1] | MSCI All Country World Index Net | ||||||
| MSCI All Country World Index Net | 17.49% | 10.06% | 9.23% | 10.61% | [2] | |||
| Morningstar Moderate Target Risk Index | Morningstar Moderate Target Risk Index | |||||||
| Morningstar Moderate Target Risk Index | 8.27% | 5.37% | 6.05% | 6.98% | [2] | |||
| Combined Index Portfolio Net | [3] | Combined Index Portfolio Net | ||||||
| Combined Index Portfolio Net | 12.15% | 7.54% | 7.60% | 8.36% | [2] | |||
| Lipper Balanced Funds Index | Lipper Balanced Funds Index | |||||||
| Lipper Balanced Funds Index | 10.83% | 6.78% | 6.78% | 7.59% | [2] | |||
| [1] | Due to new SEC Rules on shareholder reporting, the fund adopted a new broad-based securities market index, referred to as the Regulatory Benchmark. |
| [2] | Return since 12/17/15. |
| [3] | Combined Index Portfolio is an unmanaged blended benchmark that from 5/1/11 through 7/31/12, was composed of 51.35%-46.14% domestic stocks (S&P 500 Index), 35% bonds (Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Index), and 13.65%-18.86% international stocks (MSCI EAFE Index Net). Since 8/1/12, the blended benchmark has been composed of 45.5% domestic stocks (S&P 500 Index), 35% bonds (Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Index), and 19.5% international stocks (MSCI EAFE Index Net). The indices and percentages may vary over time. |