Author: Innovative Income Investor

We got some economic news this morning which is likely being mostly ignored by investors. The JOLTs (job openings and labor turnover) report softened a tiny bit from last month–7.568 million jobs open compared to 7.762 million last month. I would have thought this would have softened more with all the tariff uncertainty. ISM Manufacturing softened, but didn’t fall off a cliff–49 versus 50.3 last month, although the price component of the report came in fairly hot.

Regardless of the economic numbers the 10 year treasury yield has tumbled by 10 basis points all the way down to 4.14%. Is it a flight to safety or is it a recession being sniffed out? Maybe both.

Preferreds and baby bonds are not acting typical–where big falls in interest rates shove prices higher—looks to me like the green/red ratio is about 50%. Folks are exiting many preferreds in spite of lower interest rates. This tells me maybe I need to buy more high quality low coupon shares today with a potential capital gain coming at some point in time. No use hurrying–with the sour mood out there nothing is going to shoot straight up–unless it is caused by a surprise redemption.

Well now is the time that we start to wait for more tariff news—is the big ‘package’ of tariffs going to hit tomorrow? I suspect some will hit and some will be delayed as negotiating is taking place. Guess we just have to wait and see what happens.

Are interest rates heading up or heading down? Is there a recession just ahead or is GDP going to head higher–irrespective of what GDPNow says (current GDP forecast for the 1st quarter is -2.8%)?

Should one buy perpetuals or should they by term preferreds and/or baby bonds?

How many CDs as a percentage of my portfolio should I hold? How much should I leave in money market funds?

The questions go on and on—and certainly the more ‘seasoned’ folks on the website have their plan of attack–and likely have been dealing with all of these questions for decades. So what is the right strategy?

We know (or we should know) that each and every one of us has our method of investing–some folks do better than others, of course, but is it luck or skill? I have no idea–I only know what works for ME–and what allows me to get a good nights sleep. There is not another single person on this website that I would ever say to do this or do that–it is just not possible to know what is best for others.

All I know for sure is I want 6-7% year in and year out and I am pretty darned conservative. I write about what I am doing–but that is just what works best for ME–no one else.

My method has worked well for me–but I am certain I lag many folks in performance because they are somewhat more aggressive–that is just fine–as long as I reach my goals I don’t care if I lag others.

So don’t hesitate to post what you are doing–it is right for you hopefully and while others may disagree because it is not right for them it is of no consequence.