With money market yields sliding 1.75 percentage points to the mid 3s, investors face a critical window to secure high, predictable income. But if you are using bond funds or ETFs to capture today's yields, you may be disappointed. Because bond fund portfolios constantly turn over and their distributions fluctuate monthly, it is impossible to lock in a fixed long-term yield through a fund.
Individual corporate bonds provide the ultimate investing trifecta: high contractual income, principal protection, and opportunities for capital appreciation. While a massive market proxy like the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX) offered a paltry 1.05% yield recently, many individual corporate bonds are yielding between 5% and 7%. Best of all, that corporate bond income is legally locked in until the day the bond matures.
The challenge isn't deciding if you should own individual corporate bonds—it’s choosing which ones to buy out of the 11,000 available on online bond trading platforms.
That is exactly what we solve over the next week.
Choose Your Access Tier: Upcoming Live Presentations
Both live editions of The Bondcast begin at 5:00 PM EDT on Zoom. Select the tier that matches your investment style to secure your access:
June 25 at 5:00pm EDT - Premier Service Bondcast Presentation
- What you get: Complete investment analysis on our newest mix of investment-grade and high-yield corporate bond recommendations plus access to 62 current recommendations and all quarterly updates.
- Action: Best for investors looking to maximize total returns across the entire corporate bond landscape.
June 30 at 5:00pm EDT - Basic Service Bondcast Presentation
- What you get: Targeted financial analysis on our newest exclusively investment-grade corporate bond selections plus access to 10 current recommendations and all quarterly updates.
- Action: Best for more conservative investors who only require a small number of recommendations.
Can't make the live edition of The Bondcast? A full replay with interactive slide navigation is posted to the subscriber area just hours after we wrap up.
Get Started
Watch Free Sample
Overview of The Bondcast
We founded Bondsavvy to empower individual investors to benefit from the income, capital growth, and relative safety individual corporate bonds can provide. The Bondcast simplifies the 11,000-bond corporate bond universe to a select number of easy-to-understand investment recommendations. It puts individual investors in control of their fixed income portfolios.
1. Why own individual corporate bonds now?
We strongly advocate investors build bond portfolios over time; however, there are several factors making now a compelling time to invest in individual corporate bonds:
- On May 26, 2026, the S&P 500 traded at a 27.2x price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio compared to a 5-year low of 18.9x on June 17, 2022, according to Gurufocus.com (based on trailing 12 months' earnings). Historically, there has been an inverse relationship between purchase-date P/E ratios and future stock market returns.
- The S&P 500 dividend yield, according to gurufocus.com, was 1.05%, a fraction of the yields currently offered by individual corporate bonds. Click "Picks at a Glance" on the Bondsavvy subscription page to view the range of YTMs offered by Bondsavvy's current bond recommendations.
- Money market 7-day yields, such as those of Vanguard VMFXX, have fallen 1.75 percentage points to 3.55% since the US Federal Reserve began cutting rates in September 2024. We expect money market yields to fall over the long term should the Fed cut rates further per the June 2026 Fed dot plot.
- Income distributions for bond funds and ETFs vary monthly and do not enable investors to lock in long-term income, as can be done with individual corporate bonds.
- Since bond funds and ETFs do not trade relative to par value and lack underlying financial metrics, investors cannot assess whether bond funds or ETFs are trading at compelling values.
No. The moment you subscribe, you instantly unlock our full inventory of active 'Buy' ratings (currently 35 for Premier, 10 for Basic). You can start building your portfolio today, using our existing research before the live event even starts.
Bondsavvy Subscriber Benefit
Steve Shaw founded Bondsavvy in 2017 to make bond investing simplier and more profitable for individual investors. We have shown how a select portfolio of individual corporate bonds can outperform the leading bond funds and ETFs.
Get Started We update all buy/sell/hold ratings from previous recommendations each quarter based on the latest issuer financials and bond pricing and yield metrics. We will next update our Premier recommendations July 9 and our Basic recommendations July 14. We provide additional email updates in the case of mergers, tender and exchange offers, and other material events impacting our bond issuers.
3. Why should I attend The Bondcast financial webinar?
Once investors understand the benefits of owning individual bonds vs. bond funds, they need to decide which among the 11,000
available corporate bonds to add to their portfolios. Without Bondsavvy, this is a daunting task.
We turn an 11,000-bond ocean into a select number of new bond picks. You simply take the CUSIP code we give you, paste it into your existing brokerage account (Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, etc.), and execute your trade within seconds.
Without Bondsavvy, investors must sift through thousands of bonds and rely on corporate bond ratings for financial
analysis. The problem with this approach is that bond rating methodologies are flawed, often underrating high yield bonds and overrating investment grade bonds. In addition, bond ratings do not speak to whether a bond is a compelling investment, as they ignore a bond's price, YTM, credit spread, interest rate risk, and call provisions.
Bondsavvy Subscriber Benefit
Bondsavvy's corporate bond recommendations are a big step up from bond ratings. Our investment analysis identifies bonds at compelling prices and yields and that we believe can outperform over the long term.
Get Started
Bondsavvy's corporate bond
research evaluates over 15 investment
considerations when we make new bond recommendations. Not only do we evaluate the creditworthiness of a bond
issuer, but we seek to understand whether a prospective bond investment represents a good value. Our goal is
to identify bonds that pay high yields relative to their risk and offer compelling total return opportunities.
Read our fixed income investing
strategy post to learn more.
Watch Steve Shaw present “What to Know Before Investing in Bonds.”
Get Free Video
4. Is The Bondcast a live event? How will I gain access?
Yes, The Bondcast is a live subscriber event we host on Zoom. Shortly before the live event, we will email Zoom details for The Bondcast. Should you not be available on the date of The Bondcast, you can access a recording of the live event several hours after the presentation concludes. Upon subscribing, you will see details for all current bond recommendations as well as the presentations supporting each recommendation.
The Bondcast is
interactive, as our subscribers post questions that our founder Steve Shaw
answers throughout the webcast.
We kick off each edition of The Bondcast with a brief discussion of overarching investment themes.
These themes help us narrow down the bond universe to certain sectors, credit quality, and maturity dates. Figure 1b shows a slide where we discussed key investment themes during a previous edition of The Bondcast.
Figure 1b: Sample Slide from Previous Edition of The Bondcast
You'll notice a table of contents to the right of the slide. Once we post a recording of The Bondcast in our subscriber area, we append a table of contents so subscribers can click on the slides of greatest interest.
5. If I subscribe to Bondsavvy, do I gain access to prior Bondsavvy bond recommendations?
Yes. From our first set of bond recommendations made September 26, 2017, Bondsavvy has made 156 Premier Service corporate bond recommendations, including 92 bonds we have previously recommended selling, were called, or matured.
As a Bondsavvy subscriber, you gain access to our existing bond recommendations, as well as all new bond picks for as long as you are a Bondsavvy subscriber. View our corporate bond returns page to see the performance of previously recommended bonds, including the bond names and CUSIPs for bond recommendations we have exited.
6. How long is The Bondcast and what's the agenda?
The Bondcast is a 60-minute presentation, which consists of i) Overarching investment themes and market
conditions; ii) Pricing and financial ratios of our recommended bonds and bond issuers; iii) Historical bond prices
and call provisions; and iv) Analysis of each bond issuer's business, growth, risks, capital allocation, capital
structure, and recent financial performance.
Based on the investment analysis presented during The Bondcast, subscribers will be able to decide which bonds
they want to add to their investment portfolios. Click to view a sample edition of The Bondcast.
7. How many corporate bond
recommendations will you make at each edition of The Bondcast?
We typically make four new bond recommendations during each edition of The Bondcast. Our corporate bond recommendations are at the individual bond, or CUSIP or ISIN, level.
8. How are Bondsavvy recommendations split between investment-grade and
high-yield corporate bonds?
Our Premier Service has a mix of investment grade and high yield bonds. Our Basic Service is only investment grade. View our corporate bond returns page
to see a breakdown of our investment
grade and high yield bond recommendations and the performance of each relative to the leading corporate bond ETFs.
9. Am I going to have to do a bunch of work to make corporate bond investments?
No.
Bondsavvy does the heavy lifting for you. During The Bondcast, we will
provide you key pieces of information on each company and corporate bond we are recommending, boiling down each
recommendation to two to three PowerPoint slides.
Along with additional color provided during
The Bondcast, you will have the information you need to make an investment. All you'll need to do
is copy and paste your selected bond CUSIPs (or ISINs for non-US investors) to execute trades through online bond
trading platforms such as
Fidelity.com, E*TRADE, Schwab, Vanguard, and Interactive Brokers, or whichever brokerage you use.
Watch Steve Shaw present “What to Know Before Investing in Bonds.”
Get Free Video
That said, investors must understand that
investing in individual corporate bonds is not a "set it and forget it" investment strategy in the way bond index
funds are. It is incumbent upon Bondsavvy subscribers to view our new recommendations and recommendation
updates so they can make investment decisions.
International subscribers should look into which online brokerages support corporate bond trading in their areas.
10. What happens if a bond recommendation changes?
Bondsavvy updates its bond recommendations each quarter
during The
Super Bondcast financial webinar. During The Super Bondcast, we review each issuing
company's updated financials, as well as each bond's update price, yield to maturity, and credit
spread. We then discuss the rationale for each updated buy/sell/hold
recommendation.
We complement The Super Bondcast with written recommendation updates we email subscribers and post in the Bondsavvy subscriber
area.
11. Can I view prior editions of The Bondcast?
Yes, for as long as you subscribe to Bondsavvy,
you have access to recordings of all Bondsavvy financial
webinars, including The Bondcast and Super Bondcast.
12. Is Bondsavvy an SEC-registered trading
platform, broker-dealer, investment adviser, or asset manager?
None of the above. Bondsavvy is not registered as an investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act
of 1940, or the securities laws of any state
or other jurisdiction, nor is such registration contemplated. Bondsavvy makes recommendations on
individual corporate bond investments and charges
a fee to customers. We do not hold customer assets, and we do not execute trades on behalf of
customers.
13. Are Bondsavvy's corporate bond investment recommendations specific to my portfolio?
No, Bondsavvy does not provide personalized advice. As Bondsavvy operates under the publishers' exemption of the
Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the investments discussed during The Bondcast do not
take into account an investor's particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs. In making an
investment decision, each investor must rely on his or her own examination of the investment, including the merits
and risks involved. Please
read the Bondsavvy general disclaimer.
While Bondsavvy does not provide
personalized advice, we have published the How
To Build a Bond Portfolio blog post, which provides some key considerations for investors
constructing bond portfolios.
We hope to welcome you as a new Bondsavvy subscriber and that we'll see you on The Bondcast.
Get Started
Watch Free Sample