Newly retiree in need of advice in choosing bonds

[BA]

We finally retired last month! I am 50 and DW 45 and have extra cash that we need to invest in relatively safe instrument other than CD’s and MM. As we don’t have bonds (or bond funds) in our portfolio, we’re inclined toward the following mutual funds:

• DODIX (Dodge & Cox Income)
• LSBRX (Loomis Sayles Bond Ret)
• VFIIX (Vanguard GNMA)
• VIPSX (Vanguard Inf. Protected Secs)
• VFSTX (Vanguard Short-Term Inv Grade)

The money we have cannot be placed in Tax advantage account as we were not eligible to open IRA’s or other tax advantage account due to our overseas employment.

We are not going to need the money for long time but don’t want to owe so many funds, what’s your advice on the above funds as well as others you may suggest. We think 3 probably are adequate but open to any feedback.

Also, what’s your take on Vanguard high-yield tax-exempt (VWAHX), its yield and performance are close to some of the taxable bond funds, but probably, I am missing something here. Our tax bracket in retirement will be somewhere between 15-20%.

Thank you,

 

[jIMOh]

RPSIX

T Rowe Price Spectrum Income. Owns a variety of bond funds- government, corporate, real estate, foreign, emerging markets. Also owns 20% in equity income (dividend paying stocks).

I own this fund in my rollover IRA.

 

[clifp]

I'd vote for other VFSTX, or VFIIX. In general if you are in the 15% tax bracket tax exempt don't make sense. Once you hit 25% which is 65K in taxable income for a married couple in 2008, they can be a good deal especially in a state with a high state income tax.

 

[mathjak107]

i like bnd and have just started putting money into fidelity high income. at over 8% ill take the risk. infact with yesterdays big sell off it dropped only .01 cent.

for a trading vehicle to protect your portfolio with these every other day recession fears TIP and TLT have been working just fine rising almost 2% on those big flight to quality days. forget buying them for the puny interest rate , they are about capital gains right now.