Excellent primer on iBonds vs. TIPS

Discussion of the Bond portion of the Permanent Portfolio

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Kevin K.
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Excellent primer on iBonds vs. TIPS

Post by Kevin K. » Tue Sep 07, 2021 9:43 am

Really good post today on the TipsWatch blog about the differences between iBonds and TIPS and why the former are far superior in today's wacky investing environment.

https://tipswatch.com/2021/09/07/i-bond ... rotection/

Vis-a-vis the GB and/or PP I personally just view iBonds as part of the cash/Treasury MM/T Bill allocation. The 10K annual purchase limit is a PITA but I don't see any downside to buying my annual limit and hopefully ending up with a decent bit of inflation-protected cash over a decade or so.
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sophie
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Re: Excellent primer on iBonds vs. TIPS

Post by sophie » Thu Sep 09, 2021 8:14 am

Thank you for posting this Kevin! Very informative read. Makes me glad I shied away from jumping into TIPS, for sure.

tl;dr - TIPS may be good for a tax-advantaged account, definitely don't want them in taxable, iBonds are the bomb right now and for the near to mid future.

Also, I gathered that:

- a 10 year TIPS ladder is potentially a good thing for a retirement account that you don't intend to empty out in the next 10 years. Like, say, a Roth IRA.

- you want to buy TIPS at auction (i.e. through the broker where you have that retirement account) and hold to maturity. The secondary market for TIPS is ugly and dangerously complex. Thus the ladder.
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