Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > General U.S. > City vs. City
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 01-28-2020, 01:57 PM
 
724 posts, read 563,247 times
Reputation: 1040

Advertisements

I'm getting to that part of my life where I should start buying bonds. I'm pretty iffy about municipal bonds in general because some cities go belly up (most notably - Detroit), but some other cities have a decent return on them.

If you don't know what a municipal bond is, here you go:

https://www.thebalance.com/municipal...y-work-3305607

What cities would you recommend as a future bond-holder?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 01-28-2020, 10:17 PM
 
Location: Beautiful and sanitary DC
2,505 posts, read 3,557,076 times
Reputation: 3285
As far as creditworthiness, I'd trust a bond ratings agency rather than some random schmo on the internet. You can find official statements, including ratings, at https://emma.msrb.org.

For most people, it makes most sense to just buy a mutual fund or CEF of your home state's bonds, as most states exempt only in-state bond interest from state income tax. (Unless you live in a state without income tax -- or, like me, live in DC. I think that dates back to when DC was bankrupt and couldn't issue bonds; now we have a AAA bond rating.)

Bonds are pretty infrequently traded, so chances are that you won't have a lot of selection between cities given other investment constraints like yield, rating, and maturity date. Instead of choosing between cities, I built a muni bond ladder out of bonds issued to build things I like (e.g., trains, bike paths, and subsidized apartments) while avoiding sprawling places.

Sometimes, you can get lucky if you truly know something Mr. Market doesn't. Chicago-area bonds sold off when the city was downgraded, and I picked up some good yields from other local governments which I knew to have solid revenue streams. Or, if you see something you like among your broker's available New Issues, go ahead and order it -- that's when pricing is best, and commissions lowest.

Last edited by paytonc; 01-28-2020 at 11:00 PM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > General U.S. > City vs. City
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top