fixed income recommendations

[peilthetraveler]

Quote from SirLouen:

Good idea. But rules about smoking are going harder every day

Depends where you live...if you live in CA, then yeah. But currently there is a mass exodus from CA now. All the places where there are tough smoking laws are the places that everyone is leaving.

 

[Jesus]

I am going to give you some advice that I had to learn the hard way (by losing money). If you want to put some fixed income in your portfolio, the absolutely WORST way to go about doing that is by looking for the juiciest yields. That is a way to get really BURNED.

Wanting a big yield is fine, but it has to be supported by a strong, stable business. If you can find a huge dividend with a great company behind it, then buy some shares. But if you just go looking for huge bond or equity dividend yields without worrying much about the underlying company, you are asking for trouble.

AIG.... I couldn't think of a worst investment right now. And I do mean investment, NOT speculation. If you want to speculate in AIG thats fine, but if you want to INVEST, stay away.

I suggest if you want to find stocks with a dividend, then look for good, stable business that have a nasty habit of raising dividends. Think longer term for fixed income. That 10% dividend looks nice now, but I would rather invest in a stronger company yielding 3-4% that raises the dividend frequently. That dividend may be 3% now, but when the company raises the dividend in the future, the yield gets bigger and bigger with each raise to you, because you already own the stock. To new buyers, maybe not because the stock's price may have increased with the dividend, keeping the current yield the same or even lower. But your yield on cost will keep going up. A company in a weak financial situation is unlikely to ever raise the divy and your yield on cost will stay the same.

 

[Jesus]

Quote from SirLouen:

6 months ago, investing in fixed income like ALCATEL (ALU) senior bonds, had the opportunity of making a 15 % year yield and a 4 year value increase of x2 easily with 0% risk (is going to bankrupt alcatel in less than 4 year? i doubt it).

I don't know much about Alcatel, and may be a fine investment, but I can tell you with ABSOLUTE certainty, no corporate bond has zero risk.

 

[Nanook]

Quote from SirLouen:

i'm looking foward some fixed income ideas.

but this forum in most posts they mainly focus in equity.... so i cant find specifically relevant information about FI

I found some hybrid fixed income http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:AVF

From AIG, 7,7% every 3 months. looks quite interesting, but looking foward for more of this recommendations, to compare by myself!

Regards

Complete information for income investors: http://www.quantumonline.com/Index.cfm

Investing for income: http://daveleemn.tripod.com/investing_for_income.htm

Early retirement planning insights: http://www.early-retirement-planning-insights.com/dividends.html

 

[mister_doodi]

I would rather buy T or VZ instead of MO. MO has the bigger yield but the telcos listed above have decent yields and have higher growth potential. Also both of those companies have risen less than MO this year so any downward movements should be less impactful while setting up for greater capital appreciation when the economy improves.

 

[piezoe]

If you need income now and can't afford to reinvest dividends and wait a few years (10 or more) then you should figure on no more than 4% return with good safety of principal (but not perfect safety). If you live in the US, you are almost certain to experience 2-digit inflation going forward in non-core items such as energy and food. Plan on losing 6% or more of the purchasing power of income from bonds to inflation. Eventually interest rates will rise and bond prices will fall -- this is their only long term direction. If you hold long bonds to maturity you can count on being paid with hugely devalued dollars when they come due. So there is no escaping the clutches of inflation. Count on income from long bonds with a fixed yield eventually becoming insignificant in purchasing power. I would emphasize bond ladders built from shorter duration bonds.

If you have the time, then investment in dividend paying stocks of sound companies in financially and politically stable countries is a better choice than bonds in my opinion, as you have at least a fighting chance to more less stay even with inflation. Inflation everywhere (well almost everywhere) will be bad, but not as bad as in the US, so it is a definite advantage to invest in companies whose earnings and dividends are denominated in something other than the US dollar.

The only way this dismal picture might change for US investors needing to live off the earnings from stock and bond investments is if the US were to reduce both military and medical expenditures to fall in line with those of the other developed countries. And you know that's not going to happen.

Incidentally, in my opinion, even US Treasury bonds expose one to significant risk. The value of any fixed income instrument can be significantly reduced by fiscal irresponsibility of the issuer, whether corporate of government, and via inflation and rising interest rates. As a place to stash money for a short time I think US bonds are fine, but as a long term investment I would have serious misgivings. And I dislike TIPS because the government cheats on the inflation figure to which they are indexed.

 

[peilthetraveler]

Look at that. AVF down over 6% in one day. AIG down almost 15%. That 7% divy pretty much just vanished overnight, didnt it?


A good & really safe divy would be in something like JNJ (johnson&johnson) The divy consistently doubles every 4 or 5 years and the stock will almost never take a hit. Even with this recession JNJ is still making more and more money year after year, quarter after quarter.