Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Bonds 101: How to Add Stability (and Income!) to Your Portfolio
Thu, 20 Mar 2025
Stocks get all the attention, but bonds? They deserve some love too. If the latest market swings have you feeling a little queasy, bonds can help balance your portfolio and create a steady stream of passive income. In today’s episode, Nicole sits down with a Money Rehabber who wants to start investing in bonds but isn’t sure where to begin. Nicole breaks down bond basics, key terms, and how to build a bond strategy that works for you. To start investing in bonds today, go to public.com/moneyrehab All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage services for US-listed, registered securities, options and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Open to the Public Investing, member FINRA & SIPC. Treasury accounts offering 6 months T-Bills are offered by Jiko Securities, Inc.,member FINRA & SIPC. Securities in your account are protected up to $500,000. For details: www.sipc.org. Banking services and the Bank Accounts are provided by Jiko Bank, a division of Mid- Central National Bank. For U.S. Investments in T-bills: Not FDIC Insured; No Bank Guarantee; May Lose Value. Treasuries risk disclosures, see https://jiko.io/docs/treasuries_risk_disclosure.pdf. See public.com/#disclosures-main Advisory services for Treasury Accounts are provided by Public Advisors, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Public Advisors and Public Investing are affiliates and both charge a fee for their respective services. For more details, see Public Advisors’ Form CRS, Form ADV Part 2A, Fee Schedule, and Treasury Account page. A Bond Account is a self-directed brokerage account with Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC. Deposits into this account are used to purchase 10 investment-grade and high-yield bonds. The 6.6% yield is the average, annualized yield to worst (YTW) across all ten bonds in the Bond Account, before fees, as of 3/12/2025. A bond’s yield is a function of its market price, which can fluctuate; therefore, a bond’s YTW is not “locked in” until the bond is purchased, and your yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown here. The “locked in” YTW is not guaranteed; you may receive less than the YTW of the bonds in the Bond Account if you sell any of the bonds before maturity or if the issuer defaults on the bond. Public Investing charges a markup on each bond trade. See our Fee Schedule. Bond Accounts are not recommendations of individual bonds or default allocations. The bonds in the Bond Account have not been selected based on your needs or risk profile. See Bond Account Disclosures to learn more. *Terms and Conditions apply.
Chapter 1: Why should you consider investing in bonds?
I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. When it comes to investing, a lot of people think about stocks first. And hey, I totally get it. Stocks are very exciting. But bonds? Bonds do deserve a little bit more love.
Chapter 2: What are the benefits of bonds over stocks for passive income?
If you're looking for a way to earn passive income with lower risk than stocks, bonds might be your new best friend. Today I'm talking to a money rehabber who wants to start investing in bonds but isn't sure where to start. We'll go over the basics, break down key terms, and figure out how bonds can fit into her financial goals. So let's get into it. Sierra, welcome to Money Rehab.
So what's your question?
I've been investing for a couple of years now and I'm starting to see steady growth in my portfolio.
That's awesome.
Yeah, but that really bad day in the market the other day made my portfolio drop and that really freaked me out. I've heard you say on the show before that it's important to diversify, but I'm only invested in stocks right now. So everything that happened with that market dip is making me feel like I should really probably consider bonds more seriously and actually start diversifying.
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Chapter 3: How can bonds help diversify your investment portfolio?
Oh, great. Okay. So there's a lot to talk about here. I love that you're thinking about diversification. So you're not invested in bonds, but you're invested in stocks. Have you been picking individual stocks or investing in equity funds?
A little bit of both, but mostly funds.
Awesome. How much do you have invested?
I have about $75,000 in my portfolio.
And you have no bonds?
Girl. I know.
It's totally okay. We can fix this. How old are you, by the way? I'm 27. Okay. Well, good for you for starting so early. I love to hear that. And it is common for younger investors to focus on equities or stocks because equities have a reputation for delivering higher rewards than bonds.
but they are higher risk higher reward which is why you see some people phase those out and opt into more bonds as they get older because they're more steady so let's talk about financial goals are you invested for retirement passive income something else i guess just overall financial well-being
I don't have a particular goal in mind. I'm renting right now. I'm probably want to buy a house at some point, but that still feels kind of far off. So I just want to grow my net worth.
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Chapter 4: What are the different types of U.S. Treasury bonds?
Love it. Okay. So let's talk about diversification. If anyone listening doesn't know diversification is the investing version of don't put all of your eggs in one basket. So have you started thinking about how bonds might fit into your portfolio?
Not really. I'm open to just generally learning more.
Cool. So essentially, a bond is an IOU. Most people know that the U.S. government issues bonds, but so do other governments, municipalities and companies. We have to talk about U.S. bonds or treasuries because they're a really solid investment. But I also want to talk about corporate bonds because not enough people know about them. Sound good?
yeah love it great so treasuries are bonds issued by the us government which makes them one of the safest investments out there because if the us government goes down we have more to be concerned about than our bond investments it's the zombie apocalypse stuff but So they come in a few flavors, treasury bills or T-bills, and those are short term bonds that mature in a year or less.
Chapter 5: How to choose the right bond for your financial goals?
Then there are T-notes, treasury notes. They mature between two and ten years. And then for the long haul, there are T-bonds and they mature in 20 or 30 years. Any questions about that?
I guess my question would be, how do you choose which one?
Well, that's going to be very personal based on your goals, but I can tell you what I do. I typically look at the yield, which is how you can determine how much you'll earn in interest from the bond investment if you keep invested until the bond fully matures. Typically, I just want to earn as much money as I possibly can.
But there are also other personal factors like when you need the money back. If you wanted to buy a house in the next two years, for example, I wouldn't put my entire savings into a 30-year bond because I would need it in two years. You know what I mean?
Yeah, that makes sense.
So the yield on treasuries is subject to change, obviously, but right now I'm seeing the range between 3.85 and 4.27 percent. I'll tell you where to find those in just a sec. But again, the big advantage to bonds is that you still are earning interest. It's just way lower risk and you can set it and forget it. I mean, some people level up on this strategy through treasury ladders.
Have you heard of that term before?
I don't think so.
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Chapter 6: What is a treasury ladder strategy?
A treasury ladder is when you buy treasuries with different maturities so you always have bonds maturing and paying you out. For example, you buy a one-year, three-year, and five-year treasury bond today. When the one-year bond matures, you roll the money into a new five-year bond. The next year, the three-year bond matures, you do the very same thing.
That way, you're always keeping a steady stream of income coming in while you're also reinvesting.
Okay, cool.
How do I do that? Let's put a bit in that one for a sec too, because I'll tell you how to do all of this once we go through your options. But next I want to talk about corporate bonds. Corporate bonds work the same way as treasuries do, except you're lending money to a company instead of the government. There are literally thousands of companies that do this.
Big companies that you see in the headlines, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, Nvidia, Amazon, even private companies that you can't buy on public markets.
I didn't know you could do that.
Yeah. So if you invest in funds, you're probably already invested in some of these companies anyway. But bonds are another way to do it. Corporate bonds tend to pay higher yields than treasuries. Not always, but that's the general trend. But that's because corporate bonds come with more risk.
If a company struggles, they might not be able to pay you back, but you can assess the company's credit worthiness through credit ratings. It's like their credit score. Agencies like Moody's rate corporate bonds based on how risky they are. It's sort of like our credit scores as individuals, but for companies. So what's a good rating? Great question.
AAA is the safest, while lower rated bonds, BB and below are riskier, but they might offer higher returns. Remember, lower risk, lower returns, higher risk, higher returns. So credit rating is definitely something to check out when you're choosing a corporate bond. And while you're doing your research, I'd also look at the bond's liquidity score and whether it's callable.
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