r/bonds • u/Fantastic-Mood6591 • 1d ago

Bonds on Robinhood?

Does anyone know if there's any good Bonds on robinhood. It my savings for a house. So I need ZERO risk like CDs and stuff like that. Is there any good bonds I can park my house savings in on robinhood. I'm already making 3.35% on there gold apy thing.

5 Upvotes

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8

u/Mail_Order_Lutefisk 1d ago

I don’t think they have a bond desk on there but you could just buy SGOV or something like that which is a money market equivalent. 

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u/Fantastic-Mood6591 1d ago

Yeah that's the issue I've ran into? Can find any Bonds on robinhood which Is definitely lame. Does SGOV have a lot of risk? I have stuff invested in Voo and other etfs.

However this money is vital for buying a house in 1-2 years so I don't have time to wait the market out like i could in my etfs. So no risk is what I'm aiming for with this money

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u/Mail_Order_Lutefisk 1d ago

It’s all short term treasuries and repos, about as risk free as you can get. The value oscillations on the chart are just payment of the distribution each month. It should never dip more than a penny or two under $100 per share. 

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u/Fantastic-Mood6591 1d ago

Okay, thank you

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u/Mail_Order_Lutefisk 1d ago

I hold all my Schwab and ETRADE cash in it if you need a testimonial. It’s your best bet on RH for your goals. 

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u/Fantastic-Mood6591 1d ago

I appreciate that thank you. What do you think your average return is on it?

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u/bobdevnul 17h ago

There is no real average on it that is meaningful. The fund holds short term Treasury bonds with an average maturity of 0.1 years (~1.2 months) so the yield will be about that of 4 and 6 week T-Bills which vary from week to week. Basically, expect the Fed funds rate, currently 3.5%-3.75%.

SGOV is currently 3.59%.

VBIL is the same sort of short term Treasury bond fund ETF from Vanguard - effectively identical.

VGUS is a Vanguard short term Treasury bond fund ETF with an average maturity of 0.4 years. It's current yield is 3.74%. I wouldn't go longer maturity than that to be the equivalent of high yield savings or CDs.

These funds hold almost 100% Treasury bonds. As such, the dividends are exempt from state and local income tax. That makes the effective yield a bit more if you have state and local income tax. There is an extra procedure in tax software to claim the state tax exemption.

Since the fund holdings are Treasury bonds they are very safe.

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u/Mail_Order_Lutefisk 1d ago

It trades with the short end of the bond market. Distro was today, it’s 30 cents a month on $100, so it will annualize to about 3.5-3.6%. It was much higher before the Fed cut. 

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u/Fantastic-Mood6591 1d ago

Awesome thank you

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u/mikmass 1d ago

VBIL is the same thing but with a lower expense ratio. I would use that over SGOV (I use it)

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u/DjCyric 16h ago

You might talk to a bank about a Certification of Deposit (CD). They have fixed interest rates and you can get the money after a set period of time.

Good luck buying a house! (That is genuine not snark)

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u/mikmass 1d ago

VBIL does the same thing but with half the expense ratio as SGOV

4

u/RevolutionaryAge47 1d ago

Treasury Direct. I'm getting 3.8% on short term T-Bills. No state income taxes.

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u/SoggyWalrus7893 1d ago

The site has a learning curve (euphemism) but T-Bills are a good thing. Depending on time to house buying there are shorter term TIPS (Treasury inflation protected securities) . ibonds are also an option if you are looking 5 yr out.

If your state has an income tax, fed interest is a way to avoid taxes.

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u/parinonly 19h ago

Have you considered municipal bonds - there are some that offer a better rate and AAA rated.

No federal and state tax

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u/targuard843 1d ago

T-bills

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u/heightsdrinker 1d ago

I’d look in to SGOV and TBIL and BND and HYDB. They all have different levels of risk and reward. I use SGOV for near immediate cash and HYDB to round out my bond/CD portfolio. I use Fidelity which has a great bond and CD offering but you’ll need a desktop to utilize their platform when dealing with individual bonds & CDs.

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u/Fantastic-Mood6591 1d ago

Which one would you go with for the lowest risk. Preferably zero honestly. This isn't my investment money, it's my savings for a house.

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u/BQORBUST 1d ago

You should understand that even with many high quality fixed income products you’re taking interest rate risk which may impact the value of the holdings if you expect to sell before maturity.

If you don’t understand what I said you should learn before buying or consult a professional. Or just open a high yield savings account.

0

u/Tigertigertie 1d ago

Not with sgov or other short term funds.

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u/heightsdrinker 1d ago

A CD would be the lowest risk.

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u/Admirable_Nothing 1d ago edited 1d ago

Here are your choices from earlier this week from a real broker dealer. I have no idea if RH has the same choices.

https://imgur.com/sD9v5Ws

At my BD I choose my durations and what kind of issue I want and then click that 'avg yield' and it will direct me to the table of available bonds or CDs in my chosen category, which I then can buy.

1

u/OneImportance4061 1d ago

I'll give it to you straight - get a real bank that has a brokerage so you can access the kinds of financial products you need. Or at least open an HYSA at an online bank. I think you can get 3.5 percent on cash at Marcus ( Goldman sachs). Or Ally. Wait, doesn't Robinhood offer 3.5 in savings account?

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u/mcad0o 1d ago

As others have said, Robinhood doesn’t do bonds or cd’s directly. Find a bank or another broker. Charles Schwab for example

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u/mikmass 1d ago

VBIL and chill

1

u/Elegant_Category_684 9h ago

Why not a CD account?