Historically, they have always paid dividends. The risk is these high-dividend, -market cap stocks cut dividends below your minimum dividend threshold. If this were to occur, you adjust your portfolio by liquidating the "cutter" and increase current or other positions.
Please cite these "conservative" bonds/instruments you worship. This should be fun.
I've already listed the type of fixed income investments I like, they include Individual Bonds, Long Term CDs and P2P Loans. If you want to play the individual stock picking game then that's on you, if I were in stocks I would not try to beat the market. Very rarely do mutual fund managers (who have access to more information than you would as an external investor) beat the market so how does someone externally consistently do it? But if you can, all power to you.
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When?
And if your bonds are at 5% they are not US Treasury bonds. So you are taking credit risk (spread, event and default) the entire time you own them.
I didn't say I didn't like taking risks, my issue with stocks is that I can't make any forecasts on what the index funds are going to do for the next 10, 20 and 30 years. That's my issue with stocks.
Let me give you some 10 year examples off the top of my head of when Stocks didn't beat Long Term CDs:
* Jan 1999 - Dec 2009: S&P had a CAGR of .84% per year over the 10 year period. Long Term CDs (5 year CDs and above) averaged 5.6% per year over the 10 year period.
* Jan 1965 - Dec 1975: S&P had a CAGR of 4% over the 10 year period. Long Term CDs (5 year CDs and above) got well over 6% per year over the 10 year period.
I do realize these are examples that we might NEVER see again for Long Term CDs as the Central Bankers have kept rates at 0% or NEGATIVE (Japan) so that they could PUMP up the stock market with artifical demand to pay off Wallstreet and screw over the savers. But you asked for some examples so there's two off the top of my head.
He probably means a bond fund. A lot of people own shares of mutual funds that invest exclusively in bonds. There is a common misunderstanding that a bond fund can't lose money; that's not true at all. If the fund manager makes poor decisions, the price of the shares will go down, even if none of the bond issuers default. Bonds go up and down in value, just like stocks. If rates go up, nobody wants the old bonds, so they have to trade at a discount to face value. If rates go down, old bonds will trade at a premium, going up in value.
No, I'm not talking about Bond Funds. A Bond Fund is pretty much just like a Stock Fund, due to the active trading aspect that's going on within the Fund.
A Bond Fund (in my opinion) is not a true fixed income investment. To me a true fixed income investment is something you buy, hold until maturity, and collect interest payments along the way. This would be an Individual Bond purchase, a Long Term CD, a P2P Loan Portfolio, an Annuity, etc.
I like true fixed income investments. I understand if you guys love the stock market, I just can't predict my returns with stocks so I just stay away from them...but that's just ME though. I really don't "recommend" my strategy to others. If people ask me the best approach to passive investing, I always tell them to utilize a diversified balanced pool of stocks, bonds, and cash.
Yes, there are some stocks that pay dividends but the payment of said dividends isn't something you can always count on.