So I was just thinking about risk-spectrum today.
moving up the risk spectrum for bonds gets you into junk bond territory (some RMs at the banks will call it "high-yield" bonds - so don't be fooled by her cleavage).
On the other hand, de-risking your portfolio of bonds will give you those bonds with poorer yields but supposedly "safe" in investment graded territory. This will hardly help you beat inflation (yet another often touted metric by RMs to scare you to investing your fix-deposits and move up the risk-spectrum).
Anything > 6% yield brings you into junk territory. For that risk profile, i'd rather put my money into sgx.ME8U or sgx.A17U. That is not to say these 2 REITs are without risk of course. The behaviour of junk bonds will be no different from stocks and REITs in times of distress.
Bonds are your portfolio balancers. A better gauge would be "return of money" rather than "return of money".
The former would suggest something like SSB albeit the extra yield pickup over TD in exchange for liquidity is worth it (you'd take at most 1-2mths to liquidate SSBs).... and the explicit guarantee of getting back face-value is a great feature. This is the "put" feature of SSBs not even available to SGS (the 30yr SGS fell below par value if you recall in the not so distant past)
I'm surprised that SSB is not on the radar-screen of most folks.
And it is now available for subscription via SRS too.
Greed for returns and yields can drive one crazy

