5 Safe Bonds Funds for Parking Cash, Yields Up to 5%

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5 Safe Bonds Funds for Parking Cash, Yields Up to 5%

Are we having fun yet, my fellow income investor?

We’re now in a bear market, whether the financial media or our intrepid politicians admit it or not. Peak to trough the S&P 500 dropped 21% intraday. Based on closing prices the decline was “only” 18%, however—not quite the technical 20% drop that defines a bear market.

Regardless, let’s not split hairs and call this what it is—the third bear market of the 2020s. Three bears. And it’s only 2025!

You may be wondering, as I was, if this is normal. It is not, my friend. Since 1900 we have averaged 1.77 bear markets per decade.… Read more

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Finally Better Than My Mattress: Safe Bond Funds

Last time we spoke about safe bond funds, I recommended an unconventional alternative: my mattress.

It was June 2022. Interest rates were rising, bond prices plummeting, and we contrarians were smartly sitting on sizeable cash positions.

Thoughtful reader William wrote in asking about using short-term bond funds as “cash equivalents.” After all, wouldn’t some yield be better than no yield?

No. Short-term bond funds were no match for my mattress, which does not trade inversely with interest rates. Bond prices and interest rates are an inverse seesaw—when rates rise, bond prices fall and when rates fall, bonds rise.

Plain ol’ cash outperformed the three safe bond funds we used as cautionary examples.… Read more

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