Buying bonds in laymans terms

Bonds, as you may now, are fixed-income investments. Their income comes in forms of payments in fixed intervals. These payments may come from a variety of sources, detailing the type of bond it is. For instance, companies may issue a bond to raise money for a revenue-generating project. That income would be how the debt would be paid off, i.e. your income. Government bonds, usually tax-free at certain levels, are usually paid with revenue generated by taxes.

With that being said, there are a multitude of bonds out there. Of course, the riskier the bond (chances of it defaulting) will yield a higher interest payment to account for the risk.

You can invest in foreign bonds, municipal bonds (don't have to pay taxes at all on these) or corporate bonds.

You may also want to look at some bond funds that diversify holdings in different types of bonds. It all depends on your financial strategy really and what you are looking return.

Let me know if you have any questions.

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Is there much risk?

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Credit risk? No.

Interest rate risk? Yes...a bunch. Even with a duration of 3.4 you could see an entire year's worth of income wiped out in a loss of market value if rates spike up at all.

I fully believe corporate and emerging market bonds will provide higher returns over the next 3-5 year time horizon than stocks.

Don't buy treasuries, not anywhere near the return profile right now to compensate you for your risk. I could go into a multitude of reasons but you said to keep it simple.

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Would the vanguard ginnie mae fund fit this bill? Is there much risk? Pays 2.4%, 3.4 duration

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Low risk from your duration and the explicit government guarantee but there is no upside in price anymore and you're only picking up 2.4%. Any investment grade corporate bond fund would do you better over the next couple years.

Thanks fellas

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You could also see the value of the bond possibly fall to 80 cents on the dollar or worse if it's a considerable spike

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That would take an interest rate increase in the range of 5% annually with a duration of 3.4. So, 10 year bond rates would have to go from their current 1.6% to nearly 6.5%+ in a short period of time. which is not likely anytime soon.

'Not likely,' but I'm old enough to not rule out anything these days, especially if the morons ('morans' for you Rant & O-T Lounge readers) in congress don't accomplish something soon on the deficits.