Sometime over the holidays, I felt like I had been smacked in the face. Not literally of course, but after reading a line of thought that was so counter to what the majority of people were doing financially, my eyes were opened.
In some ways, this new perspective had turned my financial planning world upside down. Or at least a part of it. This new perspective had to do with using individual Treasury Bonds as a way to hedge risk.
As I continued to explore the topic, I came to realize that there seems to be a glaring hole in the word of personal finance. This topic of owning individual bonds has been discarded for portfolio holdings that are easier to understand.
If you are a high income earner and saving a large percentage of your income, chances are you are on your way to a FatFIRE type of retirement without even knowing it.
Everything from what type of funds you prefer to a understanding of withdrawal rates. If you are super fancy you might even be able to execute a backdoor Roth conversion.
If you were like me, your view of bonds was owning shares of some type of bond mutual fund – mainly focused on getting a decent yield and hoping it was ‘safer’ than your equity positions.
The use of Treasuries was made very clear by a few 9-figure Net Worth types who are members of the FatFIRE group. There have been many times when their ideas have run counter to the group.
Money is not always a good indicator of intelligence, but I feel like in this case, these individuals are pretty smart. And no early retirement for some of these folks – they are hard at work, earning, saving, and investing.