The Only Guide to a Winning Bond Strategy You'll Ever Need: The Way Smart Money Preserves Wealth Today

I am a big fan of Larry Swedroe's books, and his postings on the Diehards dot Org website (Amazon does not allow links or web site addresses in these reviews).I used this book to contrast and compare Larry's asset class recommendations to Rick Ferri, and great author of many books.I was a little surprised that Larry does not like Vanguard's Total Bond fund (VBMFX) because it contains 33% Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). Larry would recommend other Vanguard short term bond funds which do not include any MBS like the Short Term Bond Index fund (VBISX) and the Intermediate Term Bond Index fund (VBIIX).I already knew Larry was an advocate of including commodities in the form of PCRIX in your portfolio. Rick Ferri contends that commodities should not be included in your portfolio because they lower your portfolio return.Larry also disagrees with two other Ferri recommendations, high yield (junk) bonds like Vanguard's High Yield fund (VWEHX) and emerging market bonds like Payden's PYEMX. Larry contends the rewards of junk bonds are not worth the risk and emerging market bonds behave too much like stocks.Larry's book does a great job of teaching how to use bonds in a passive index approach to investing.The Richest Man in BabylonBogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent InvestorThe Millionaire Next DoorThe Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning PortfolioA Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth EditionThe Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On With Your LifeThe Bogleheads' Guide to Investing

I was needing to fill in the gaps I had in my investment knowledge. I was especially lacking in the area of bonds. This book was a bit dry, but not nearly as dry as it could have been. And since I wanted the knowledge, it wasn't at all hard to read. Everything is explained clearly, progressively, and well. It covers the basics, and then dives into the specifics of government, municipal, corporate bonds, and more. It also discusses creating an investment strategy for the fixed-income portion of your portfolio. Recommended.

This book strikes an unusually nice balance between comprehensive treatment of the subject and a style understandable by the average investor. Swedroe and Hempen's explanation of the pitfalls of the secondary bond market is particularly valuable, and the advice on Treasury Inflation Protected Securities more than paid for my copy. It's a great complement to Swedroe's first book ("The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You'll Ever Need"), which lays out Modern Portfolio Theory, but does not go into different types of bonds or the mechanics of the bond market in any depth. While Swedroe's advocacy of Modern Portfolio Theory comes across, I doubt that any reader would understand this theory from the book on bonds. The book ends with short, informative appendices on callable bonds and TIPS, plus a glossary that's particularly valuable because of the arcane terminology used in the bond market.

I guess I should have looked at the dates on the comments, and the publication date of the book. All the example use interest rates that haven't been seen since the 2008 collapse. Although much of the information on the various categories of fixed investment is interesting and reasonably clear, I some (like opacity of price information) is a little dated. I can't help but wonder if the greater availability of price info and good tools (like on Fidelity's web site) makes some of the advice much less relevant... still worth the modest price and the effort to read though.

This is an excellent book for the novice investor, but it also goes into enough detail on the quantitative underpinnings of the recommended strategies to satisfy a more sophisticated audience. I had read Thau's book and had slogged through various articles on inflation-indexed bonds (including those compiled in Brynjolesson & Fabozzi's book) before I found this book.Mr. Swedroe's descriptions of the market are straightforward and I really appreciated his efforts to reduce complicated theory into a workable strategy for individual investors. (Appendix B which outlines a strategy for investing in TIPS was particularly interesting). I was also pleasantly surprised that the author quickly responded to a clarification question I sent via e-mail. Mr. Swedroe appears sincerely committed to investors' getting the best information.That was really refreshing!