Question about bonds
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@jon-nyc and others... so, like most people, I'd be fine with a nice annual return for my retirement and investment accounts of like 7-10%.
Right now the 10-year bond is like 3.3% or so... but in the early 80s it was over 10% for a few years. Anyway, if we start to see similar rates, wouldn't it just make sense to put as much retirement/investment cash as possible into a 10%+ bond for as long as possible?
So far I've really only dealt with 401Ks and my own cash investment account, all of which generally are focused on ETFs, index funds, Target Year funds, etc.... never really needed to look into bonds or CDs or whatever the non-stock/equity term would be.
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For ease of trading, consider looking into Bond ETF.
You trade it like stock-based ETFs, but a bond ETF has bonds as underlying assets rather than stocks.
Good luck.
EDIT: or bond mutual funds, for that matter; just mutual funds that have bonds as underlying assets. Trade like mutual funds. -
You and I are a day late.
Jon moved money into I-bonds several months ago, which was a smart move. Laddering TIPS would be great, but they don't issue them like T-bills.
I have one mutual fund that is a bond fund.
Years ago, Jon recommended the Boglehead site for general financial discussion. I find some pretty good info there, as long as you read, chew over the different view points and do what is right for you.
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I’ve been worried about inflation coming ‘someday’ since the early 2000s so I put 50-60% of my bond allocation in TIPs many years ago. In the early 2000s I also maxed out on ibond purchases and still have some that carry a nice fixed rate (they’re paying quite a bit monthly these days)
I always saw the bond allocation as more of a ‘ballast’ to the portfolio, providing less volatility than a portfolio of stocks alone. Ibonds are also special because they can be redeemed tax free for certain education expenses.
True if they start paying 10% that will be a very different world, one I was never really around for as an investor.
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You and I are a day late.
Jon moved money into I-bonds several months ago, which was a smart move. Laddering TIPS would be great, but they don't issue them like T-bills.
I have one mutual fund that is a bond fund.
Years ago, Jon recommended the Boglehead site for general financial discussion. I find some pretty good info there, as long as you read, chew over the different view points and do what is right for you.
@Jolly said in Question about bonds:
Laddering TIPS would be great, but they don't issue them like T-bills.
I was building a tips ladder over time, each year getting a new allocation of the 20 or 30 year at issue. I was trying to build an inflation protected synthetic pension of sorts.
I abandoned it around 2013 when my health deteriorated. I started valuing simplicity (ie stuff R could understand and manage) over sophistication. At that point I sold the individual tips and just bought the vanguard tips fund.