Bonds are useful in a portfolio for diversification purposes. Things like long-term treasuries, intermediate-term treasuries, and I-bonds are discussed.
Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, or TIPS for short, are used to protect investors against unexpected inflation. The typical TIPS bond yield is made up of two portions: 1) A fixed rate plus another 2)A portion that’s determined by the current inflation rate. The fixed rate portion is currently above 1.5% on TIPS, this has led…
When you first look at a bond or bond fund they have all of these terms. Maturity, Yield to Maturity, Duration, Yield to Call, etc. These bond terms are confusing to the new investor. Today we are going to look at the terms Maturity and Duration. What are the differences? Why they don’t mean what…
Today, we are going to look at a comparison of Treasury bills vs. Certificates of Deposit (CD’s for short). Each of these has pros and cons. Hopefully, after you are done with this article, you’ll be better equipped to decide which one meets your own investment goals. Which one you choose will depend on a…
Recently, with interest rates climbing, more people are starting to invest in bonds. It pays to know some of the different strategies you can use with bonds to bring in a steady stream of income while minimizing your risks. A question I often see on forums is: “I have 10K that I want to invest,…
Coming in at an annual yield of over 3%, the 6 month Treasury Bill is starting to look quite tempting. I bought my first batch from Treasury Direct this week and plan to buy more at the beginning of each month. Many people like dividend stocks and the cash flow they generate. However, dividend stocks…
Changing your bank account information at Treasury Direct? What follows details my own experience with the process. Hopefully, I’ll give you some insight that’ll be of use. Medallion Signature Guarantee Issues Final Steps Closing Thoughts To begin with, I had to change my account information because I had suspected fraud in one of my bank…
An investment book about an All-Bond Portfolio I want to start by saying despite the flaws, this is a book worth owning; it’s packed full of information about bonds. Unfortunately, the premise of the book (an all bond portfolio) is simply not supported by the given data. You won’t get far without seeing many of…
Closed End Funds Closed End Funds, or CEF’s for short, are investment tools that many overlook. They are great for dividend returns and cash flow. You can not only purchase equities as CEFs, but bonds as well. Most have heard of Mutual Funds, how are CEFs different? I’ll be covering that today, along with a…
What are Ibonds? Ibonds, a type of savings bonds, are one of the safest investments someone can make. They’re guaranteed not to decrease in value and come with no market risk. They carry the advantage that they are tied to INFLATION, so anything invested doesn’t lose it’s purchasing power. Before we get into how to…
Why am I purchasing bond funds? I’ve recently started adding more bond funds to my portfolio. I haven’t done this in about two years. This goes against what everyone is saying, it’s assumed both inflation and interest rates go higher from here. Many believe that since the interest rates are already so low, that the…
Here are my DIVIDENDS for the month of May. If you’d like to compare to last month, here you go: First up is my BROKERAGE account, here they are: Putnam Municipal Income Closed End Fund paid me 0.13 cents. Ha, if you haven’t seen my post before, I bought into this over a year ago…
Here are my DIVIDENDS for the month of April: 1)Macy’s-I sold out of Macy’s a while back but for some reason I’m still getting dividends. Hey no arguments. Macy’s paid me $4.53 2)Eastman Chemicals paid me $33.00 3)Schneider Trucking paid me .91 cents 4)QQQ $1.45 So as you can see not a WHOLE LOT in…
PMM, or Putnam Managed Muni Income, has been a nice little addition to my portfolio. I bought starting on May 20th, 2019. My total return has been around 8% over the last 8 months, this is due to buying at a variety of times throughout the year ( a few times rather high). While it…
I bought TLT multiple times throughout May and and starting selling in July. This was a swing trade I made. I missed the very top; however, I am happy with my trades. I try not to get greedy and simply desire to make over a 6% profit on these types of shorter-term trades. I am…