bonds

Are I Bonds a Good Investment Right Now?

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series i bonds investing interest

There is a lot of chatter in the financial planning community as well as the investing writers and bloggers about investing in I Bonds. Are I bonds really a good investment right now? As with almost all investing and savings ideas, the answer is that it depends on your current financial situation and what you want to get out of your I bond investment. What Are I Bonds? The one thing the finance pundits are getting right is the description of I bonds. I bonds are a savings bond from the United States government just like the more well-known Series EE savings bonds. The main difference is that I bonds are designed not as a basic savings vehicle, but rather as one that keeps up with inflation. What Is The Point of I bonds? Technically, if your savings are not keeping up with inflation you are purchasing power. This is not the same as losing money, no matter what anyone tells you. If you have $10,000 in savings earning 1%, you are not losing money. Your savings are increasing at the rate of 1% every year. However, if inflation is 2%, you are losing purchasing power. Statistically speaking, your savings …

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High-Yield Junk Bonds Rally On Fed Buying

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So, this is new. The Federal Reserve announced that it would buy junk bonds, or high-yield bonds, depending upon your point of view. Despite the name, junk bonds are not worthless and aren’t “junk” at all. Also called, “high-yield bonds,” junk bonds are regular corporate bonds issued by companies just like regular, or “investment grade bonds.” Many corporate bond issues are rated by various companies including Moody’s, and Standard & Poor’s. The ratings go from AAA (Excellent), all the way down to D. Typically, bonds rated BB or lower are considered junk bonds. See my review about Rakuten rebates. Fed Buying Fallen Angels The Fed isn’t headed out to buy the most fragile of corporate bonds. Rather, the Fed is looking at buying the so-called fallen angles. Bonds that were rated investment-grade — B or higher — on March 22, but have since fallen into junk territory are eligible for Fed intervention. The idea is that there are several otherwise decently capitalized and secure companies out there that have been downgraded into junk territory not through any fault of their own, but rather due to the bottom of the economy falling out from under them due to the coronavirus. Many …

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US Savings Bonds Series E Savings Bonds

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e bonds

US Saving Bonds and World War II Bonds issued by the US Government are low-risk investments issued in order to finance the national debt. There are numerous types of Government bonds. Each bond has specific features that determine how much interest is paid to the bond holder, how long the bond’s term is, and how the bond is purchased. The different kinds of bonds are known by their “series” letters. Series E bonds are one of the kinds of US Savings Bonds. The last of the Series E Savings Bonds stops earning interest in 2010, which means that anyone still holding Series E Bonds is losing out on interest payments. Series EE Savings Bonds replace the retired Series E Savings Bonds. Smart financial planning tips from many experts suggest re-evaluating Savings Bond advantages and disadvantages before automatically rolling them over into new Savings Bonds like the current Series EE Savings Bonds. Remember, although there is no time when savings bonds expire, taxes are due on interest paid when the savings bond matures. History of Series E Savings Bonds Series E bonds, or Government E Bonds, were first issued to fund World War II efforts. The bonds were commonly known as …

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Investing in Municipal Bonds Now

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Is now a good time to be investing in municipal bonds? Also known as muni bonds, municipal bonds are bonds issued by state and local governments. Typically, these bonds are used to finance government operations or capital investments for various local and state government agencies. Like corporate bonds, muni bonds pay interest and return your principal at the end of the bond’s term. Should You Invest in Municipal Bonds Now? Municipal bonds are a great investment opportunity that goes largely unnoticed by most non-professional investors. Muni bonds are safer than stocks over a long period of time and can offer significant tax advantages. When investors do take advantage of investing in muni bonds, it is often via muni bond funds which offers a very different investment experience than investing directly in actual muni bonds. So, is now a good time to invest in munis? Like all bonds, the price of muni bonds moves in the opposite direction of interest rates. That is if interest rates rise, bond prices fall. The Federal Reserve’s benchmark interest rate is currently at zero, which means that the part of bond pricing that is attributable to interest rates can only go down. In essence, bond …

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Meredith Whitney Muni Bond Defaults Fails to Materialize

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Remember Meredith Whitney? Right about now, she’s probably hoping you forgot. Whitney is the analyst who said, “There’s not a doubt in my mind that you will see a spate of municipal bond defaults…” She went on to say that there could be 50 to 100 sizable defaults or more and that those defaults would amount to hundreds billions of dollars worth of defaults. Municipal bond markets reacted by bidding up the yield for muni bonds. Most experts didn’t buy Whitney’s prediction. Even I wrote a 2011 article about how safe are muni bonds when people kept asking me about it. Of course, none of those stories was a big, inflammatory prediction of doom from a “name-brand” financial analyst. Analyst Predicts Muni Bond Defaults Wall Street and the financial markets are a very weird place. Preeminent analysts are created by making market calls or predictions that come to pass, especially when they make calls that no one else saw coming. Ironically, those same analysts aren’t necessarily held accountable when they make bad calls. Goldman Sachs’ Abbey Joseph Cohen made a name for herself by making ever higher market calls during the technology fueled stock market bubble of the late nineties. …

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PIMCO Total Return Bond Fund Cuts U.S. Government Holdings

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Pimco Total Return is the biggest bond mutual fund in the world. It has a long-term track record that any bond fund would be jealous of. As a result, its fund manager, Bill Gross, has become something of an oracle of investing in bonds. Recently, the mutual fund reported its holdings. Like all mutual fund reporting, the data provides only a snapshot of one day of holdings within the fund. The Wall Street Journal reports that the allocation of assets in the Total Return fund in U.S. Government bonds and securities dropped again to just 12 percent of the overall portfolio, down from 22 percent at the end of 2010. Gross has become increasingly critical of the government’s intervention in the bond market and in particular of the Fed’s action to hold down interest rates by buying U.S. treasuries.  One can understand his frustration as these manipulations make it difficult for a money manager to do his job, regardless of their overall value (or lack thereof) to economic stability and growth. The real irony is that with U.S. treasury yields depressed, and Gross having sold out almost anything he can at the Fed’s inflated pricing, there are few places to …

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How Safe Are Municipal Bonds

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People are always asking me how safe municipal bonds are.  The answer is: They’re Safe. Note that we are talking about BONDS here, NOT Notes, which are a whole different deal.  Unless you are an expert or near-expert bond trader, you should stay away from any and all notes of any kind except those from the US Treasury. But, that can’t be the end of it.  After all, there are some examples of muni bonds going sour, most notably Orange County’s default on some of its muni bond debt.  And, of course, various municipal bonds which were pegged to specific projects or revenue streams have gone belly up.  Of course, it is pretty easy to spot which ones have that kind of risk.  Bonds fully backed by the state, county, or city are generally as safe as you can get without investing in a US Treasury.  Also pretty safe are bonds back by utilities (water and sewer especially) since people have to pay for those one way or another.  The ones you have to watch out for are the ones that are for building a specific project and then funded with the revenues from that project.  Common examples are things …

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Muni Taxes Stay the Same

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The U.S. Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision upheld the central tenant of most state’s municipal bond tax policy, specifically that a state can exempt it’s own muni bonds from taxes while taxing the interest on other state’s muni bonds. So, nothing changes from before. If you live in California, the only way to avoid state tax on bond interest is to buy California Municipal Bonds. If you buy bonds from Texas, they can tax that interest. Taxes and Bonds Because interest on bonds is taxed as ordinary income, avoiding taxes on that interest is more important to investors than avoiding taxes on dividends paid by stocks. Most corporate bonds are taxed at both the federal and state level which reduces the real rate of return to the investor. Municipal bonds issued by states are exempt from federal income tax because one branch of the government cannot tax another branch. Whether or not the state municipal bonds are exempt from state income tax is determined by the laws of the states they are issued in. Most states make their own bonds tax-free as a way to make them more attractive for purchase. This tax-free status, plus the relative safety of …

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