Personal Financial Advice from a former Certified Financial Planner
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …