Thanks again. After a little more study, I need to pick up a few individual bonds and learn. I'll find something with a few years to maturity and ask questions. It doesn't have to be the best purchase ever. I promise I won't just buy a couple $100K bonds and ask "Well how'd I do Crimson and Otter?" 
I have a degree in Biz, but it was so long ago. I do remember the study and it was really basic in retrospect. The basics of bond yields is not complicated. Then I pull up a listing on my broker and even short T-bills look complicated. Just not as simple as buying 10 shares of JNJ and collecting the Div lol. I did own a small position in a high yield corporate bond fund a while back. Most all the companies were BBB or better. It was pretty volatile compared to my short-term bond funds, but less than most individual stocks. I'm OK with the volatility part. You guys probably realize that. I sleep just fine knowing I might just buy 2000 shares next week because I have 20 put contracts open at once. What I am NOT OK with is investing real money into that bond fund I just described, then really having no idea why it made a fairly large move in a couple days.
As a young man, I remember my friend's Grandfather explaining bonds to us. You give them $1,000. They pay you better than the bank interest for ten years then you get you $1000 back. That's not what going on at CNBC lol. I know it can be incredibly complicated if you want it to be. I like your callable bond idea if I can find one I like.
I have a degree in Biz, but it was so long ago. I do remember the study and it was really basic in retrospect. The basics of bond yields is not complicated. Then I pull up a listing on my broker and even short T-bills look complicated. Just not as simple as buying 10 shares of JNJ and collecting the Div lol. I did own a small position in a high yield corporate bond fund a while back. Most all the companies were BBB or better. It was pretty volatile compared to my short-term bond funds, but less than most individual stocks. I'm OK with the volatility part. You guys probably realize that. I sleep just fine knowing I might just buy 2000 shares next week because I have 20 put contracts open at once. What I am NOT OK with is investing real money into that bond fund I just described, then really having no idea why it made a fairly large move in a couple days.
As a young man, I remember my friend's Grandfather explaining bonds to us. You give them $1,000. They pay you better than the bank interest for ten years then you get you $1000 back. That's not what going on at CNBC lol. I know it can be incredibly complicated if you want it to be. I like your callable bond idea if I can find one I like.