Only time I've ever been involved with ANY success in regards to bonds was back in the early 2000s. Our company's defined benefit pension plan was completely overfunded because of our very successful aggressive investing strategy and the actuary specialist told us that no matter how much more money we made inside the plan, Uncle Sam was going to get it all... So we switched everything over to Treasury bonds to ride out the rest of the term within the plan. This was just a few months before the dot com bust...
Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good...
I got beat up pretty good in the high yield municipal bond market during the 2008 CDO debacle... Again, they were sold to me as the safest way to create steady income with the added benefit of avoiding income tax on the dividends. The municipal bonds themselves held inside the funds weren't hurt by the mortgage scandals, but they got drug down in the mud with them as they were in basically the same market...some of which still haven't gained their value back 7 years later now.
Greg is spot on with his assessment above...
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Lance
1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car
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