Monday, December 17, 2012

My Father loved to buy bonds

My father was a bond buyer...on the table next to his bed was a Guideon Bible, and a S&P Bond book...most of you would not remember that book, but brokerage firms gave them out for each stocks and bonds, and for bonds it listed the bond, all the details, and the rating of the bond. My father worked on the railroad---as a postal clerk, and had worked before and after WWII for them, and he had religiously saved so much a pay period and after six months or so he bought ONE bond for a $1000 dollars. Only after he died or got close in the bond panic of the 1970's did I learn of his bonds...and then because my mother was concerned with the spike upwards of interest rates...what would become of the value of these bonds---they had been terribly trashed....and it was a lesson that I learned and have faithfully passed on to my children...and to anybody that will listen. I also remember my dad saying during those final few years, that there was not anybody on Wall Street or in the firms that he could trust anymore...they did not know him and he did not know them...he had become a number and it terrified him.... The irony is for me that now that interest rates have been effectively held at zero, and the Federal Reserve has in effect targeted Seniors to make them paupers...as a way of saving the federal government money....the time has come full circle as the next move in interest rates is probably up....Stay tuned.