Yield to Maturity versus Yield to Call. These are two different ways of figuring out the return you get from a bond and it has to do with the [ Select ] ["risk", "life span", "interest"] of the bond. To figure out how much of a return you will get, you are going to calculate its [ Select ] ["yield to maturity", "yield to call"] , or how much of a return it is going to generate between now and the end of its predetermined lifetime. The bond with a [ Select ] ["put", "call"] option written into the contract. This lets the issuer buy the bond back early, usually after a waiting period of a few years. In this case, you might not get to hold on to the bond until the end. You would figure out its [ Select ] ["yield to maturity", "yield to put", "yield to call"] , which accounts for a callable bond's shorter potential lifetime.