Posts about investing in bonds for income or capital preservation
11th July 2007
I’m not normally the doom and gloom type but what I’ve been reading about subprime mortgage debt has me a bit concerned… I don’t know what will happen but one possibility is laid out below.
Posted in Bonds, Financial News, Investing, Real Estate | 1 Comment »
4th November 2006
After some deliberation, I’ve decided to start cashing in the I Bonds I purchased a year or so ago. It’s not that I don’t think they are good investments, they just don’t fit my needs right now.
Posted in 0% Credit Cards, Bonds, Debt Reduction, Investing, Moving to Illinois, Retirement | No Comments »
1st November 2006
New I Bond rates were announced this morning. The Bureau of the Public Debt kept the fixed rate steady at 1.4%. Combined with the inflation component of 3.1% as I posted about earlier, the rate of return for the next six months will be 4.52%. Again, not great but not too bad either.
Posted in Bonds | No Comments »
18th October 2006
This morning CPI-U (the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers) for September came out at 202.9. This is a 1.55% increase from March of 2006. While this doesn’t predict what the new fixed rate component will be on November 1 we can at least measure the variable (inflation-based) portion of the new I Bond rate.
Posted in Bonds, Investing | 3 Comments »
26th June 2006
I’m happy to be hosting the 28th installment of the Carnival of Investing this week. There are nearly 30 posts in this week’s edition and while I haven’t read them all yet, the ones I have appear to be pretty well written.
Special thanks to Jonathan at MyMoneyBlog for keeping the Carnival going. Next week’s host will be Mighty Bargain Hunter.
Posted in Bonds, Investing, Mutual Funds, Options, Stocks | 6 Comments »
20th June 2006
28-day T-Bill rates have been dropping recently. Today’s auction’s yield was 4.681% as compared to 4.727% last week and 4.783% the week before. The 91 and 182-day rates by contrast have been rising in the last few weeks.
Posted in Banking, Bonds, Investing | No Comments »
7th June 2006
I’ve still got a couple thousand dollars from our last 0% balance transfer sitting at Netbank earning a yawn-inspiring 3.52%. I’ve been moving it to HSBC in $5,000 blocks by buying 28 day T-Bills every week. This is a great way to avoid losing interest on the money in transit, though I probably break even by keeping it at Netbank for the extra few weeks…
Posted in Banking, Bonds, Investing, Prosper.com | 8 Comments »
2nd May 2006
A reader asked for an explanation of why I Bond rates have declined recently while interest rates in general have been rising. Rather than bury the answer in another comment I thought I’d post it here. Bear in mind that I am not a professional financial guide. Please check with one before acting on anything I might say on this blog…
Posted in Bonds, Investing | 2 Comments »
1st May 2006
Rates for the next six months for I Bonds were released today. The fixed rate was raised to 1.4%, while the variable rate is 1% as expected from the CPI-U numbers announced in mid-April.
Posted in Bonds, Financial News, Investing, Miscellaneous, Retirement | 4 Comments »
19th April 2006
The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.6 percent in March, before seasonal adjustment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The March level of 199.8 (1982-84=100) was 3.4 percent higher than in March 2005.
What this means for I Bond investors
Posted in Bonds, Financial News, Investing | No Comments »