Freedom56
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
The more people learn that bonds are not some esoteric financial instruments, the more confident they will be in the future. I started investing in only investment grade but over time I learned that bond issuer ratings is just one data point. The company financials are the most important. With time many will venture into the high yield market which is far more speculative but the returns can be phenomenal. Many people I know thought I was crazy buying Advanced Micro Devices 8/15/22 7.5% notes back in 2016 when it was rated CCC+. I saw a company in a turn-around situation with the introduction of Ryzen CPUs. I bought $100K face value bonds for about $62K and it paid a coupon of 7.5%. They matured last week at par. AMD bonds are rated A now. So my $62K investment returned $100K capital 45K in interest payments.