Ask Terry Questions Looking for better safety than bonds

Looking for better safety than bonds

By Terry Savage on March 20, 2020 | Investments

Dear Ms. Savage,

Thx so much for your very helpful website and emails.

I’m age 65 and in retirement. I have a tiny pension (no cola and taxed but I’m in a low tax bracket) and SS which meets my monthly expenses, and then some. I also have about 5 years of cash in CDs.

I have tax-advantaged (IRAs from my 401k) index funds at Schwab as follows:
ETFs including
SCHF (Schwab International ETF) at about 6% of total portfolio
SCHZ (Schwab US Aggregate Bond ETF) at about 29% total
SCHB (Schwab US Board EFT) about 29 total
I also own SWYLX (SchwabTarget 2020), Mutual Fund, at about 34%

I also still have money at my 401k Prudential. I’m invested in Dryden S&P 500 (40%) and Stable Value Fund (60%). I just changed it 30/60 allocation.

I know you can’t tell me specifically what to do, and I don’t anticipate needing to use IRA and 401k money or the cash for at least 5 years. However, I have two questions mostly relating to bonds:
#1) What do you think about Schwab’s Short-Term Treasury ETF as a fund? I’m seriously considering moving 100% of Schwab Aggregate Bond to its Short-term Treasury (SCHO)
#2) What do you think about Schwab’s Target 2020 Index Fund and in particular its bond holdings? As you know well, it’s a diversified fund with built in holdings.

Thank you,
Julia

Terry Says

Ugh. At any other time this would have been a nice, conservative portfolio. You’ve already lost a lot of money in your bond ETFs. But I’d still suggest selling the aggregate bond etf (I couldn’t find the listing to see it specifically) but just so you have some liquidity. Put the cash in a money market fund.

money

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