Adding Five Year TIPS to the Portfolio

Yesterday I bought some Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) with a five year maturity at the U.S. Treasury Auction. I did this using a broker through my self-managed 401k brokerage account. This follows my purchase of 10 year TIPS last month. It was an interesting auction to be sure. Read more

TIPS Purchase Success

We bought some 10-year TIPS (Treasury Inflation Protected Securities) today, to be owned inside my 401(k) account. Although I can do most buying and selling inside that account online, bond purchases must be made using one of their trading desks. The commission isn’t bad: $50 flat fee.

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Ten Year TIPS Auction

If you are interested in owning Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS), the Treasury is supposed to make an official announcement today of a 9/2/2010 auction of TIPS having a ten year maturity. If you are within 1-10 years of retirement, this would be an excellent way to add to your portfolio of guaranteed, inflation adjusted assets.

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Risk Free Yield with I-Bonds and Other Boomer and Retirement Readings

I am a fan of I-Bonds and use them in our retirement emergency fund and-with TIPS-as part of our plan for guaranteed retirement income. Now a “Boglehead” financial expert has written a series for Forbes, presenting his arguments for using I-Bonds to provide risk-free yield. Read more

Creating a Plan for Guaranteed Retirement Income

Regular readers of this blog may recall that I have been studying the work of Zvi Bodie, a professor of finance at Boston University. (I mentioned Prof. Bodie in my post on Retirement Income and the Myth of Equity Risk.) After much consideration, I’ve decided to adopt Prof. Bodie’s concepts into our retirement income plan. More particularly, I have created a plan to provide guaranteed retirement income. I will explain.

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More Inflation Fighting Weapons

All long term investors need core holdings that will protect against the damaging effects of inflation. Traditionally we have been told that equities in general are the answer to the inflation problem. Now we are not so sure. Based on this doubt, mutual fund companies continue to introduce new products specifically intended to provide inflation-protected growth. Read more

New Options for Investing in Inflation Protected Securities

If you have been a regular reader, you know that I am a fan of  I-Bonds and Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) as a secure retirement investment that is also an inflation hedge. If you can put them in a tax-deferred account, TIPS may work better, if only because you are limited in how many I-Bonds you can purchase in a year. A mutual fund company is now making it easier to benefit from TIPS as an investment using exchange-traded funds. Read more

Inflation and Retirement Investing

As baby boomers in the home stretch towards retirement, we have two major concerns about our retirement investing.  The first is recovering from the severe damage our retirement nest eggs suffered from the recession and market downturn that began in 2008.  The second concern is preparing for the threat of inflation that is likely to descend on our economy because of massive government budget deficits. Read more

Use a Treasury Ladder to Control Inflation and Interest Rate Risks

Inflation and interest rates are destined to change in the coming months, perhaps radically.  These potential  changes present significant risks to baby boomer investors.  A CD ladder is often used as a safe way to control interest rate risk.   A ladder of Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) can provide both interest rate and inflation protection. Read more