iShares 1-5 yr Ladder Corp Bond ETF (CBO.TO)

Is iShares S&P/TSX Preferred Fund (CPD-T) or iShares 1-5 Yr Laddered Corp Bond Fund (CBO-T) better for safety for a retiree? This is not apples to apples. He likes CPD better. Feels there is a fair amount of risk in bonds. If there is a situation where there is corporate province not being as good, then CPD could go down more quickly than bonds. Both of them have been pretty much flat over the last year or 2.

One of the reasons he hasn’t talked about bonds or recommended them is that because some day rates will go up and this will hurt all bond products including laddered products. A lot of what you are doing on the bond side is playing defence. What you have to do is stay on the short end of the curve, 5 years or less.

Laddered, short term bond portfolio. Not a lot of risk short time. You could look at real return bonds if you are concerned about inflation next year, which he is not. XSB-T (is the one he owns) is similar to CBO-T and XRB-T is real return bonds.

Income stuff and a good choice. No problem at all. 1-5 year laddered. Always take a look on the web site for the yield to maturity. You get a return somewhere between the quoted yield and the yield to maturity.

(A Top Pick Oct 21. Up 4.19%.) Laddered bonds.

This is a short-term, 1 to 5 year corporate bond ETF. Relatively diversified. Sensitivity to interest rates remains high. Good investment.

This is a good strategy, especially right now. This only holds corporate long term bonds. Some of the value of the ETF will shrink as bonds mature, but a good holding in your portfolio.

This is relatively stable but he would caution that it is awfully tough to make money in bonds in this environment. In fact, you are playing defence and you might be better off just keeping the money in cash.

Is that yield safe for the next 3-5 years? This is a laddered bond ETF. He prefers 1-10 year ladders instead as yield pickup has been very large 5-10 years in the last 20 years and will probably continue to do so. In his opinion, it is better to be in individual bonds as you know exactly when your money is going to be returned to you.