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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1311 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 1, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I've recently been getting into fixed-income investing as a way to learn by doing. I'm investing a little bit of money each month (that I can afford to lose). If my after tax yield is a full 1% higher than I could get from my HYSA over a six month time period, with no principal loss of >5% over any thirty day window, I'll say that I have a layman's grasp on the topic. If not, I'll have to figure out what I did wrong.

So far I've been floored by the complexity of fixed income vs equities. I honestly don't know how people who do it professionally manage.

Does anybody else have an unconventional pastime right now?

Why so few details? Can you share what you’ve learned? Spill it.

What are you buying, and where are you buying it?

I’ve also gotten into active trading. I so badly want to make it a reliable source of income. Sometimes I feel like lately, the market is like a beach wave forming. I need to paddle as hard as I can to catch the wave and ride it to shore, or else the water will swell briefly around me but leave me in the water, replaced by AI.

How far into the journey are you? What style do you focus on? (Day-, swing-, position-trading)?

Why so few details? Can you share what you’ve learned? Spill it.

  1. I'm hesitant to give anybody the impression that I'm someone they should listen to.
  2. Some of it is geographically sensitive and I don't want to dox myself.
  3. My bar for success is low, so it's nothing particularly impressive. I'm basically using this as a learning opportunity in the hopes that I can have a tier of risk and return that sits between a HYSA and equities.

With that out of the way:

  1. I'm buying bonds directly through my brokerage or at auction.
  2. Bond funds are though my brokerage
  3. Treasuries are through Treasury direct.

What I've found so far:

  1. Municipal bonds are a better deal than their headline yield would imply. Being exempt from both state (if they're issued from my state) and federal taxes gives an increase in the final yield, when you'd normally see a decrease. The default risk is also fairly low. The biggest risk is duration. If your state has a municipal bond fund, you can mitigate that a little through the fund having a rolling portfolio.
  2. Collateralized loan obligations are pretty interesting - I have some money in JAAA and it's doing fairly well. Once again, it beats a HYSA, the duration is low, and it's insulated from some default risk by being last in line to default.
  3. Active bond funds usually do better than passive ones, in contrast to equities. It's enough of a difference that they usually justify the expense ratios.
  4. International bonds are kind of a pain in the ass for taxes, even if they're at arm's length in a fund.
  5. Treasury derived income is usually state tax exempt, which is a nice bonus.

Treasury direct

What's the advantage of Treasury Direct for anything other than IBonds?

If you're willing to manage it yourself you can get a few basis points over a fund.

It's not worth much, but I wanted to know how it worked

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