Share and critique your bond or income holdings!

[nun]

Here is where I am going into 2011 with about 2 years to go to ER. the %ages are of my total investments.

Cash 3%
TIAA Annuity 6%
Pimco Total Return 2%
VG Inflation Protected 2%
VG Total Bond Market 17%
VG Intermediate Term Investment Grade 4%
Wellesley 19%

Looking at this I'm tempted to move some Total Bond market into Inflation Protected

 

[freebird5825]

DODIX 1.4%
VWINX 9.5%
VBIAX 5.9%
VMLTX 1.8% (still building via monthly DCA)
EE bonds 5.0%
I bonds 1.3%
VWALX 39.3% (30 day TE income generator to supplement monthly DCA)
VYFXX 11.2% (NY TE MMkt, temporary holding spot)

%ages = percent of total retirement portfolio per M* portfolio manager

FIREd in 2007
current AA 31/56/13 per M* XRay portfolio analyzer

 

[WilliamG]

Cash 5%
Wellesley 20%
Total Bond Index 3%
Gnma 9%
Short Term IG 6%
Ibonds 9%
CD 2%

Retired since 2000. "Take" dividends in all accounts but Roth and of course IBonds (Total Bond is in Roth). Good to go (I hope). Prefer the Short IG to TIPS.

 

[Gone4Good]

As a % of my fixed income allocation . . .

Cash 18%
VG ST Investment Grade 11%
CDs 25%
VG Bond Index 11%
Stable Value Fund 25%
30-Yr TIPS 10%

My ideal allocation is something closer to 45%/45%/5%, in Total Bond Market, TIPS, and Cash, respectively. But with this allocation, I'm getting a better than bond market yield (about 3%) with nearly 70% of the portfolio zero duration. I'll switch back to my ideal allocation when/if market rates give me a better return than bank rates.

 

[easysurfer]

For me:

Cash: 13%
VG Tot Bond Market: 35%
US EE Savings Bonds: 1%

% is percentage of overall investments.

 

[FIREd]

As percentage of fixed income investments:

Munis 29% (average maturity 6.5 years)
Cash 24%
CDs 22%
PIMCO Total Return 9%
TIPS 7%
Corporates 6%
i-bonds 3%

 

[friar1610]

VBTLX: 47.0%
I-Bonds and TIPS: 20.6%
Laddered CDs: 16.3%
MM Funds 11.4%
Indiv. Treasury + VFITX: 4.6%

This is 55% of port.

 

[brewer12345]

Uh, let's see:

CDs 35%
JQC (pfd and convert CEF) 35%
Bonds in balanced fund 20%
An individual corporate 10%

This is about 20% of the total portfolio.

I would let the corporate go if a decent bid shows up (trades rarely), otherwise I will hold to maturity. New FI will be CDs and/or cash.

 

[obgyn65]

Munis 23%
CDs 76%
Cash 1%

 

[Hiredgun]

Anyone worried about their muni funds?

I've got Vanguard VWIUX and it hit another new low today

But if I sell it will really skew my bond/stock ratio and I'm already off balance, afraid to put anymore in Munis (and my 401K is all bond so I have no more tax protected space).

 

[obgyn65]

I am worried about munis. For the time being I have decided not to sell.

Anyone worried about their muni funds?

 

[LOL!]

Roughly as a percentage of fixed income in the portfolio

30% Vanguard Short-term investment grade
20% PIMCO total return
18% Fidelity US Bond Index
17% Vanguard Income option Ohio 529 (total bond, tips, money market)
12% TIAA traditional
03% Vanguard GNMA
00% I-bonds

 

[W2R]

As a percentage of fixed at present,

35% VWIAX (Vanguard Wellesley Income Fund, bond portion)
29% TSP "G Fund" (Government Bond Fund)
20% VBTLX (Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund)
16% VMMXX (Vanguard Prime Money Market)

I don't know why but threads like this always remind me of the childhood game, "I'll show you mine, and you show me yours"...

Oh, and as percentage of total investments at present,

19% VWIAX (Vanguard Wellesley Income Fund, bond portion)
16% TSP "G Fund" (Government Bond Fund)
11% VBTLX (Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund)
9% VMMXX (Vanguard Prime Money Market)

 

[CyclingInvestor]

52, retired 4 years

100% stocks, all growing dividend oriented (ABT, JNJ, PG, SYY, KO, ADP, . .)

 

[Gone4Good]

Anyone worried about their muni funds?

I wouldn't worry too much, I think most munis will be fine. But I'd also consider diversifying if a significant portion of my fixed income portfolio had exposure to a single state. That was my big revelation during the crash of 2008. I had 100% of my "safe money" exposed to NJ credit risk and that caused me more angst than my equity portfolio, even though it was down 50%, or so, at the time.

 

[FIREd]

Anyone worried about their muni ?

No. I actually added a bit to my position today.

 

[freebird5825]

Anyone worried about their muni funds?

In 4Q08, when VWALX dropped 10.45%, I got a little concerned. My response? I bought some more.
I have a high concentration in this fund for a specific reason. I actually consider it part of my income stream versus an integral part of my long term retirement portfolio. For now, I reinvest the dividends.
When I start drawing my deferred retirement in 4 years, I will be in a better position as far as immediate income goes. Until then, if an unexpected expense comes my way, the 30 day tax free dividends will serve as my "lifesaver". I won't have to touch other reserves.
A little bit of wiggle in the NAV does not concern me at this time.

 

[HFWR]

HYG - 5% (high-yield i.e. junk)
LQD - 5% (corp)
BSV - 5% (short-term treasuries)
TIP - 10%
In-house total bond market fund, eq to IEI - 5%
PCRIX - 5%, which currently has ~ 73% bonds and ~14% cash

MM, which apparently stands for "my mattress", based on the yield - 10%

 

[Gone4Good]

Sold some small and mid-cap stocks yesterday (good timing, with the R2000 down nearly two percent today) so now cash is up to 23% of my fixed income portfolio. Ordinarily that would strike me as too high, but I'm out of things to buy that look like good risk/return investments, so I'm going to wallow in cash for a while.

 

[nun]

All the "clouds" about rising inflation and then interest rates have a silver lining; in a couple of years a 72t might actually provide something other than pocket change.

 

[Lsbcal]

Roughly as a percentage of fixed income in the portfolio

30% Vanguard Short-term investment grade
20% PIMCO total return
...

Wow, someone has done something I've done . Also have some year 2000 Ibonds at 3.4% fixed -- keepers.

Letting my equity percentage go above norm instead of rebalancing. At least until there are good 2011 gains.

 

[MooreBonds]

As % of total investment portfolio (which accounts for about 90% of my net worth):

12% Preferred stocks and closed-end bond funds, average yield 7.57%
6.2% I-bonds, average yield 3.33% + CPI
14% EE-bonds yielding 4.0%
1.1% CD, yielding 6.25%
1.3% Vanguard funds (VCVSX, Wellesley, others)
0.4% Muni CEFs
35.0% Total