What are good 3 to 6 month bonds or Treasuries one can purchase?

Question

List American and Canadian if you have the time. Thank You

Answer 1

U S 3 month t-bills are paying about 5.1%. 6 month bills just a tad less. Here is the link.

http://wwws.publicdebt.treas.gov/AI/OFBills

Answer 2

One of the aspects that cause concern with corporate bonds is the high rate of mergers and buyouts taking place. A bondholder can hold very safe triple-A-plus paper from a corporate issuer, but overnight his company can be purchased and that bond will take on the debt rating and characteristics of the buyer. These could be much lower than what he'd originally bought.

Government bonds & treasuries are immune to such a development, at least for issuers in north America. A junk bond fund (read "high-yield") will also protect against the possibility of one or more issuers going bad, because of its diversification.

I also believe that interest rates for 3-6 month deposit accounts are comparable to yields on canadian bonds maturing in 3-6 months. And with the bank instruments, the investor isn't paying that nasty bond commission (about 2% each side of the transaction) that's built into the bond price. You don't see it ... but it's there all the same.

In canada, ING direct and its online competitors are offering 3.5%. A slightly better yield comes with
a one-year GIC at around 4% that's collapsible after only 30 days without any penalties. In other words, if you're able to lock up your funds for 30 days to begin with, after that you have the full amount of your deposit available to you on a 24-hour call basis at 4% interest. These are available at discount brokerages TD waterhouse & BMO investorline, probably also at other online brokerages.

In the US interest rates for short-term deposits at online banks such as ING and HSBC direct are higher - north of 5% - but unless you have a US residential address and a US social security number you won't be able to open a new account, although you may already have one somewhere.

Municipal bonds, by the way, are only for US residents in fairly high tax brackets. Nothing comparable in Canada.

Answer 3

Yielding even less than bank cds so no. Need to go to a municipal bond fund like MAV & get 5% tax free. Risk is rates suddenly rising which looks unlikely now. no point buying tbills - need to invest.

Answer 4

check out www.bankrate.com for the highest yielding 3 and 6 month cds, treasuries, money market accounts, etc.