Junk Bonds In Treasury Bonds Out?

By Dian Vujovich

Everybody’s talking about bonds from issuing municipals to get states out of debt to high-yield corporate’s for their yields. The dog in the group could be Treasury’s.

With something like a net $2 trillion in new debt from Washington, concerns about higher prices for lower yields on Treasury’s abound. These safest-of-the-safe government securities have always been a favorite of investors and on a high-performance tear for years. According to Ibbotson Associates, from 1982 through June 2009, large-company stocks have returned on average 9.2 percent annually over the past 40 years while the average long-term government bond returned 8.5 percent. (Source: http://tinyurl.com/kopn7e )

For those who don’t like the thought of less income from their fixed-income investments coming into their household —and can stomach risk— there are always junk bonds.

Okay, after you pick yourself up off the floor, keep in mind that all lower quality bonds aren’t bad. The right individual ones or mutual fund portfolio of them can provide a nice addition to one’s retirement portfolio.

Lipper’s taxable fixed-income numbers for the year show the average high-yielding corporate bond returning 22.47 percent. For the last quarter, 18.05 percent. That’s too rich not to, at the very least, investigate.

Steve Schoepke, who writes a column for my mutual fund educational investor site, http://www.Allaboutfunds.com makes a case for high-yielding bond funds. He provides a little history about bond funds, addresses how total-return became the sales pitch for high-yield bond funds and why looking at them as total-return vehicles alone could be a mistake.

From his piece: ” It confuses the investment decision. The increased (and sometimes exclusive) emphasis for high-yield funds on total returns undoubtedly serves the short-term investors. However, for the long-term, buy-and-hold group, total return may not always be the objective. For long-term investors, yield is often at the heart of the matter, and while total return should not be ignored, as an investment objective, there may be more suitable investment choices.”

Get the rest of the story at http://www.Allaboutfunds.com . Once there, look for Steve Schoepke’s story in the center of the home page directly under mine.