John Spencer

9% Yields Still Available on Municipal Bond Funds

To see the fees for individual ETF's you have to go to that ETF's profile sheet. For instance, go to Barclay's web site, and type in JNK and you will get the profile, including the fee.

Personally I could care less about the fee. JNK is paying over 10%, the fee is very small in comparison.

I own JNK, HYG, LQD, again not a large part of my portfolio, but enough to get a pretty good cash return every month.

9% Yields Still Available on Municipal Bond Funds

One asked about getting 11% return with principle protection.

Though nothing is 100% protected in this world, UBS has been offering "structured products" for individual stocks that have paid 8 to 11% annually with protection from 25 to 40%, meaning the stock can go down 25 to 40% before you have any risk.

Example,

This month, I am going to buy one of these structured products for Amazon. The return will be 10%, the term is 6 months, and as long as the underlying stock does not drop 25% or more, I get 100% of my principle back. If it does drop 25% or more, I will get the underlying stock at market price on the close of the contract. The interest is paid monthly for some, quarterly for others. The terms vary from 6 months to 2 years. I have had about 20 of these so far, and even during the big market drop in March, I did not have any default to paying in shares of stock due to a drop below the protection limit.

UBS has dozens of these for index's and commodities, though I tend to stay away from these as they do not pay as well.

Each month UBS offers several individual stocks with similar conditions. Also UBS is not necessarily the holder of them, they broker from other banks as well. They are not FDIC insured though, so you have to weigh that with your risk tolerance.

I have about 7% of my portfolio in these structured products, and since I now have quite a few, some come due every month and I roll them over into new contracts. The only gripe I have about them is the closeout date is generally the end of the month. To get new ones you have to purchase them by the middle of the month, with a strike date around the 25th of the month. Net, if one comes due, you cannot get the money reinvested until the next month, thus losing a month. I have worked with this by parking the money in another investment for the month so I am not losing out on the return.

The principle protection by the way includes the fee. You will get your 100% back at the end of the term, not 100% minus fee.

9% Yields Still Available on Municipal Bond Funds

Living4Dividends,

I have LQD, HYG, and JNK. Though there are some fees involved, the returns have been very good. Given I bought these in April, all 3 have gone up considerably, so not only did I get the dividends, I also captured a lot of capital gains. I am now thinking that the market is likely to slow down some or flatten completely, so I plan on giving up on LQD. I have another investment that will pay 11% with principal protection. I might lose some on cap gains, but at this stage I want to play it safe. I will keep HYG and JNK.