Is it crazy to consider investing in long term US Treasuries?

Everybody is talking about the debasement trade, but long dated bonds are creeping up towards the 5% mark.

I saw 40 year Japanese bonds also reached 4% yields…

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I hope I don’t regret this but bought some TLT and TIP just now. :smiley:

Yes, I think it’s crazy.

You’re taxed on the interest payments. The USD debases against the CHF (at least that’s what seems to be priced in looking at the interest rate difference).
If the yields go up further the existing bonds drop in value (which only doesn’t matter if you hold them to maturity). The US is at 124% debt to gdp. People call it risk-free - I’m not so sure.

Of course if the yields drop your bonds go up in value. That could happen, who knows.

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I think that’s the key. I never liked bond ETFs personally, hence I don’t hold any. Buying bond ETFs seems to me to have the (aspect, not range of) volatility of stocks without the return.

To me the only way bonds make sense is to buy an actual bond or treasury notes (of whichever country/currency has decent return - Greece had 3%/year a couple of years back, now it’s down to 0.5% or so) and hold it to maturity.