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U.S. Treasury Bond Strategies: Barbells and Ladders

Posted May 27, 2008

“If your primary concern is to protect your money, there’s really only one place to go: U.S. government bonds. They may be boring. They may give underwhelming returns. But they’re safe. And they have the full backing of the U.S. government. And that still means something.” — Andrew Gordon

by Andrew Gordon

Baltimore – (TFN): Investing right now – when the economy is so shaky – may sound mighty risky. In fact, your main concern is probably not how much money you can make … but how well you can keep your existing money safe. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s in unpredictable times like these that an old Wall Street adage applies: It’s not the return ON your investment but the return OF your investment that should be foremost in your mind.

If your primary concern is to protect your money, there’s really only one place to go: U.S. government bonds. They may be boring. They may give underwhelming returns. But they’re safe. And they have the full backing of the U.S. government. And that still means something.

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The biggest challenge in buying bonds? Locking in an attractive interest rate. When you buy a government bond, you’re loaning the government money. The longer the government keeps your money, the higher the interest rate it needs to offer you.

If you were negotiating for that interest rate, you’d say something like, “If you want my money for two years, you’ll need to pay me 1.8 percent. But if you want it for 10 years, you’ll have to pay me 3.5 percent.”

That is what actually happens, except the government gets the message not from words but from the actions of millions of people buying and selling treasury bonds every day.

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The risk you’re taking with government bonds isn’t that they’ll go bad. It’s that inflation will eat away at your earnings. If you’re making 3.5 percent interest on a bond investment but inflation is going up at the rate of 4 percent, for all practical purposes you’re losing money.

That’s not a good way to save, is it? Read on to learn how to build a profitable bond portfolio.

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Posted by Andrew Gordon · Filed Under Investment Strategies 

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