I am still ~60-70% in 1-2 year municipal notes (VWSUX) and 1-2 year US Federal guaranteed notes (VSGDX). These funds are paying ~3.5% but are not losing much if any value. With this week's FED actions, money market funds are going to 1% in a month or two, so 1-2 year notes instead of 90 day notes are reasonable and pay a lot more. This is "parked" money waiting to see how the market mess sorts out.
I have gone back into many of the US and Canadian (COSWF only for Canada) oil and gas trusts I sold in July. They are debt free and have tiny bureacracies--in many cases only one or two employees. The true royalty trusts--CRT, SBR, DMLP (a partnership), PBT, COSWF --have no or minimal obligations for further drilling,,,they are pure pass through income trusts. Some of the others MTR and DMLP itself are long lived. All of their prices have gone down before their dividends have, but they may still be paying 7-10% annual dividends once prices stabilize, and they are are in monthly installments except for COSWF and DMLP which pay quarterly. This is to replace high yield bonds whose cycle has ended for years to come.
My long term view is that all the worldwide bailouts and lowered rates are extremely inflationary in an already inflationary era. That doesn't mean that they started up yesterday and will go up in a straight line every day. It's never that simple. Trust me. So I try to buy inflation-favored investments on days and in weeks when no one wants them. Buy low, sell high. I am buying solid energy and gold and commodity stocks or funds during down times. But I am not overdoing it because I could be early or I could be completely wrong. It's not science, it's judgement. I have bought ABX and TIP (US Treasury Inflation Protected Bonds) and have kept BWX which is foreign Treasury bonds. I still have Hussman's HSGFX and HSTRX and Rydex's RYMFX and a few tiny pieces of silver stocks. I'm scared and you should be scared too, so I am doing it gradually and sometimes taking profits in a some part of it when they go up which lowers my base cost
Believe me I'd rather trust in some one's fund or model completely and relax. But no one cares about me more than I do, so I prefer taking the smorgasbord or buffet approach and tasting and adjusting my plate as I go. Think of it as a game whcih you can win if you're good. I don't always win, but I do so often enough to keep working on it. :)
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