dualstow,dualstow wrote: ↑Sun Nov 24, 2019 2:51 pmI'm too lazy to chase yield, but I do enjoy reading the threads of those who chase it.by jhogue » Today, 3:26 pm \
I am alternately fascinated and perplexed by the endless hunt for yield in Cash that populates this thread and others like it.
Setting aside the long bonds I bought for the vp, I have a small set of notes of various maturities that pay between 1 and 2% overall.
Some began life (in my holdings) as ten year notes, others as 5-years, and so on. Putting them in order by maturity date, there will be one reaching the finish line about every year or year and a half.
I used to think what a mistake it was to buy them. Now the yield is looking pretty good. I want to draw a tacky analogy, but I'll resist.
But, I like watching what was pathetic deep cash turn into pretty good cash.
The pp has notes paying 2.6% and 2.75%, hooray. But what happens when they mature? I'll probably be buying notes at 1% or VUSXX which is going down (the yield) every week. 1.71% compounded, right now.
Looking in the rear view mirror, your ten year ladder of CDs must seem like a sure-fire-no-brainer-strategy for any amount of cash up to the $250,000 FDIC limit. Low inflation and Trump’s tax cut didn’t hurt either.
Here’s the problem as I see it:
Domestic STTs and ITTs are now stuck in a lower-bound range of 1.5 - 1.8%, and trillions in negative yielding euro and Swiss franc bonds are piling ever higher in Europe. There is no way that you can build a new ladder of of ten year CDs going forward that will bring you the after-inflation and after-tax yield your old CD ladder did. Interest rates can stay the same or they can rise, but they cannot continue to fall at the rate they did over the last decade for the next decade.