Below are two bond recommendations I made on March 24, 2009, right after the last huge sell-off in the markets.
I know if you follow bonds, these numbers seem like complete bunk for A- and AA- rated companies, but, I swear, these were actual recommendations. Read On...
Doing something as simple as focusing on the fundamentals of a corporate bond rather than its interest rate will return three and four times what the average income investor is earning.
But virtually no one does it.
That’s too bad, because the same average income investor has starved for yield for more than six years. Read On...
From its glory days in the early 2000s, Advanced Micro Devices has dropped from more than $40 to about $4.40 a share.
So how does a company dealing with such horrible market conditions pay its bondholders 66% more than it has to? Read On...
You’ll need 20 times your annual income to retire… We can either tighten our belts, which none of us are very good at, or generate more income from the money we have put aside. I chose more income. And here’s how you can do it with the maximum amount of safety. Read On...
In this market, I won’t consider any stock unless it is a screaming bargain. I’m a bond guy. I’ve proven that it’s possible to beat the markets and not lose the safety of bonds.
So, I should really say, if there isn’t blood flowing under the doors in the executive suite of a company because a stock has been beaten up so badly, as far as I am concerned it’s overpriced.
But there is always an industry, sometimes an entire sector, that is in “blood under the door” mode. I’ll show you what I mean in just a moment. Read On...
It’s time to set the record straight about bonds, specifically high-yield bonds.
Since the bad ol’ days in the 1980s, when Michael Milken and his cronies at DLJ ruined the reputation of high-yield bonds – that’s where the term “junk bonds” came from – they have been the whipping boy of the industry.
Ask any stock broker and he will tell you these bonds are high risk and to avoid them. Read On...
In case you didn’t notice, when stocks took their seasonal beating in January and early February, bonds held up beautifully. In fact, Treasurys rallied, corporate bonds didn’t budge and municipal bonds emerged as the new favorite son of the market.
This is exactly what bonds are supposed to do. Their price stability, predictable returns and resilience to stock market drops make them the perfect holding for retired – and about to retire – investors who can’t afford losses or volatility. Read On...
The dust from it causes a deadly lung disease… anthracosilicosis. It’s dirty, smelly and dangerous to mine, and anyone who has ever heated their home with it – and I am one of them – hates it.
The media thinks it’s dead and the White House wishes it would disappear, but it isn’t going anywhere. In fact, the world can’t function without it… coal.
The world needs coal. Even the United States, despite the president’s best efforts, has to have it to generate electricity. Read On...
Savings, money markets and Treasurys are paying next to nothing. But there is plenty of safe income from corporate bonds, both high-yield and investment-grade, in the 5% to 10%-plus range.
There’s lot of income out there, but you had better manage the bond portion of your portfolio well within the safe operating envelope of a controlled maturity-based strategy. If you don’t, get ready for a very big and a very expensive surprise coming in 2014. Read On...
The stock market may have hit new highs in the past month, but the vast majority of small investors missed the entire run up.
They missed it because there is a type of post-traumatic stress disorder that resulted from the crash in 2008. And it has kept the majority of small investors out of stocks and anything else that even resembles risk.
The symptoms of this market-induced disorder include… Read On...