Category Archives: Fixed Income

FPRS and Alternative Investments

Stocks are a big part of any portfolio.  But they can’t be the end all - I don’t care how diverse you are in choosing those stocks.  To that end, I try to find other types of investments so not only am … Continue reading

Posted in Carl's Hero Alan Mulally, Fixed Income, Performance, Stocks | 4 Comments

MGEE – Safety or Yield?

On June 7 I bought another block of MGEE at $34.36/share and since then it has gone up to $36.76 as of this writing.  I discussed MGEE here.  That is an immense move for a utility, and especially one like … Continue reading

Posted in Fixed Income, Stocks, Taxes, Tracking | Leave a comment

Illinois = Fail, But Not All Munis Suck

How about this: While most eyes are on the highly leveraged European countries, especially Spain over the past week, back here in the US, Illinois today is close to passing California as the most troubled municipal credit in the country … Continue reading

Posted in Fixed Income, Taxes | 4 Comments

MGEE – A Stock That I Consider Fixed Income

I just purchased a block of MGEE, my local utility.  In the big picture of utilities MGEE is a very tiny player.  Their daily volume is fairly low.  Over the last 5 years MGEE has traded from a low of … Continue reading

Posted in Fixed Income, Stocks | 5 Comments

Bond Bubble?

A recent Wall Street Journal article titled “Bond Fund Managers See Signs of A Bubble” discusses the state of the bond market and large inflows into bond mutual funds by investors seeking returns and attempting the avoid the risk that … Continue reading

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Buying CD’s Through A Brokerage

Recently I covered iBonds, which are a government bond that you can purchase online that provides assurance against increases in inflation and other tax benefits. The amount you can purchase is limited, however, to $5000 / year, and you can’t … Continue reading

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iBonds Revisited

I have written about iBonds on this site in the past and wanted to re-visit them. IBonds are US government bonds and thus they are the “benchmark” for low risk debt instruments. IBonds have the following characteristics (which are well-summarized … Continue reading

Posted in Fixed Income | 5 Comments

iBonds… You’ll Get Nothing, and Like it (or not)

From time to time I have posted about iBonds as an investments. iBonds are interest securities backed by the US Government that you can purchase online or at a bank (I guess, although I have never tried that). The general … Continue reading

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iBonds

Recently I have been writing about investing in secure securities (i.e. where you can’t lose money, except in extremely unlikely scenarios). I focused on purchasing CD’s that are insured by the FDIC and constructing a “ladder” of varying maturities through … Continue reading

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Treasuries vs. Certificates of Deposit

PURCHASING CD’S THROUGH YOUR BROKERAGE ACCOUNT Recently I wrote a post about how CD’s can be purchased through your brokerage account (Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, etc…) and how easy that it is to do so. Recently I built a “ladder” by … Continue reading

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Certificates of Deposit

If you are looking for zero risk alternatives for cash the only options essentially are US Government securities (Treasury bonds, etc…) and FDIC secured cash which consists of bank deposits (up to the limit) and certificates of deposit (CD’s). The … Continue reading

Posted in Fixed Income | 1 Comment