Decades ago, the image of the typical bond investor was someone who sat in an easy chair passively clipping coupons and living on the interest payments they represented. No longer. As a bond investor, you can be as passive or as active as you choose. Depending on your investment goals and attitudes, you may use several strategies within your bond portfolio to accomplish different goals.

Buy individual bonds at par and hold them to maturity

If you’re buying bonds primarily to provide current income, whether for living expenses or some other reason, buying bonds at their face values and holding them to maturity provides a stable stream of income and the assurance that unless a bond issuer defaults, you’ll receive your entire investment back. Zero-coupon bonds often are used with this strategy. Though it’s bought at a deep discount rather than paying periodic income, a zero’s maturity date can be targeted to coincide with a specific date when you need the principal.

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Posted by Michael Chapman at 12:00 PM UTC

Investment planning during retirement is not the same as investing for retirement and, in many ways, is more complicated.

Your working years are your saving years. Typically, a worker’s main source of income is from wages. Wage earners experience some protection against inflation by receiving a raise in pay periodically. Their retirement objective is to grow retirement savings as much as possible. To that end, and because they have time to recover from losses, workers are able to put some money in higher risk investments.

Retirees, on the other hand, have entered their spending years. Their sources of income may include Social Security, employer pensions, personal savings and assets, and perhaps some wages from working part-time. Their objective is to derive sufficient income to maintain their chosen lifestyle and to make their assets last for the rest of their lives.

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Posted by Michael Chapman at 12:00 PM UTC