Income Investing Today: Safety & High Income Through Diversification
It has been widely reported that the baby boom generation has not adequately saved for their rapidly approaching retirement years. Because of this, many boomers believe the only way to catch up is by investing in common stocks. But stocks are inherently risky, particularly for those close to, or in, retirement. Income Investing Today offers an alternative—income, through diversification over a variety of securities, that can provide a healthy annual cash income without the downside risks of the stock market.The virtue of income securities, says fixed income expert Richard Lehmann, is that once you understand them, the selection process is substantially easier and safer than for stocks, for a number of reasons. Credit ratings make risk evaluation highly reliable. You also aren't as vulnerable to price fluctuations due to quarterly earnings reports and missed forecasts since the companies' survival—not its prosperity—is your main exposure. And you won't often see a bond or preferred drop by 20% when a company misses its sales or earnings forecasts, but when this happens it probably represents a buying opportunity.Lehmann shows you exactly how to achieve a high level of income without inordinate amounts of risk and details the best way to diversify portfolios into nontraditional income securities across a range of sectors—so that interest rates alone won't overly affect a portfolio. The author clearly explains the basic investing concepts you need to understand and the various investment vehicles that are currently attractive. He describes the full spectrum of choices available to people interested in income investments, including bonds, Canadian energy trusts, convertibles, REITs, closed end funds, hybrids, and more. In addition, he suggests specific investment strategies and portfolio allocations that will help you build a safe, diversified portfolio of investments.In spite of all you may have heard about stocks versus income investing, it is not an either-or choice. Properly done, a portfolio with a diversification of income securities can, over time, equal or exceed the returns from common stock investing with much lower risk. It has worked for the author. In Income Investing Today he shows how it can work for you.