Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Bonds 101: How to Add Stability (and Income!) to Your Portfolio
20 Mar 2025
Stocks get all the attention, but bonds? They deserve some love too. If the latest market swings have you feeling a little queasy, bonds can help balance your portfolio and create a steady stream of passive income. In today’s episode, Nicole sits down with a Money Rehabber who wants to start investing in bonds but isn’t sure where to begin. Nicole breaks down bond basics, key terms, and how to build a bond strategy that works for you. To start investing in bonds today, go to public.com/moneyrehab All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage services for US-listed, registered securities, options and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Open to the Public Investing, member FINRA & SIPC. Treasury accounts offering 6 months T-Bills are offered by Jiko Securities, Inc.,member FINRA & SIPC. Securities in your account are protected up to $500,000. For details: www.sipc.org. Banking services and the Bank Accounts are provided by Jiko Bank, a division of Mid- Central National Bank. For U.S. Investments in T-bills: Not FDIC Insured; No Bank Guarantee; May Lose Value. Treasuries risk disclosures, see https://jiko.io/docs/treasuries_risk_disclosure.pdf. See public.com/#disclosures-main Advisory services for Treasury Accounts are provided by Public Advisors, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Public Advisors and Public Investing are affiliates and both charge a fee for their respective services. For more details, see Public Advisors’ Form CRS, Form ADV Part 2A, Fee Schedule, and Treasury Account page. A Bond Account is a self-directed brokerage account with Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC. Deposits into this account are used to purchase 10 investment-grade and high-yield bonds. The 6.6% yield is the average, annualized yield to worst (YTW) across all ten bonds in the Bond Account, before fees, as of 3/12/2025. A bond’s yield is a function of its market price, which can fluctuate; therefore, a bond’s YTW is not “locked in” until the bond is purchased, and your yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown here. The “locked in” YTW is not guaranteed; you may receive less than the YTW of the bonds in the Bond Account if you sell any of the bonds before maturity or if the issuer defaults on the bond. Public Investing charges a markup on each bond trade. See our Fee Schedule. Bond Accounts are not recommendations of individual bonds or default allocations. The bonds in the Bond Account have not been selected based on your needs or risk profile. See Bond Account Disclosures to learn more. *Terms and Conditions apply.
Full Episode
I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. When it comes to investing, a lot of people think about stocks first. And hey, I totally get it. Stocks are very exciting. But bonds? Bonds do deserve a little bit more love.
If you're looking for a way to earn passive income with lower risk than stocks, bonds might be your new best friend. Today I'm talking to a money rehabber who wants to start investing in bonds but isn't sure where to start. We'll go over the basics, break down key terms, and figure out how bonds can fit into her financial goals. So let's get into it. Sierra, welcome to Money Rehab.
So what's your question?
I've been investing for a couple of years now and I'm starting to see steady growth in my portfolio.
That's awesome.
Yeah, but that really bad day in the market the other day made my portfolio drop and that really freaked me out. I've heard you say on the show before that it's important to diversify, but I'm only invested in stocks right now. So everything that happened with that market dip is making me feel like I should really probably consider bonds more seriously and actually start diversifying.
Oh, great. Okay. So there's a lot to talk about here. I love that you're thinking about diversification. So you're not invested in bonds, but you're invested in stocks. Have you been picking individual stocks or investing in equity funds?
A little bit of both, but mostly funds.
Awesome. How much do you have invested?
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