The primary concern of all bond investors is whether they will ultimately get their money back. This is especially the case with municipal bond investors: Municipal bond investors willingly accept lower yields compared to other fixed income investments primarily due to the safety record of municipal bonds.
When an issuer fails to live up to the payment obligations of a particular …

The interest income earned from municipal bonds is tax-free of all federal income taxes regardless of your tax bracket. This is the most significant benefit of municipal bonds and it is a characteristic unique to municipal bonds. Not even US Treasuries offer income that is free from federal income taxes.
Additionally, municipal bonds can be free of state income taxes as …

Curious as to what a ‘AAA’ or ‘BB’ rating on a bond actually means? View detailed descriptions of what constitutes each of S&P’s ratings here.

This Moody’s study, released in 2002, examines historic default rates among all Moody’s-rated municipal bonds between 1970-2000. A breakdown of Moody’s rating scale is also included.

The House plan for a new surtax to fund health care reform will bump the marginal tax rates above 50% in the majority of states. Check out how your state will fare should the bill pass.

A recent research report on welling@weeden casts an ominous shadow over the municipal bond market.

There are two ways to buy municipal bonds: 1) Investors can buy municipal bonds when the bonds are first issued or 2) investors can buy bonds after the bonds have been issued in the secondary market. This is similar to stocks; investors can buy stock during the IPO (initial public offering) or after the stock begins trading in the market. …

This is an introduction on how to buy municipal bonds in the secondary market in the most basic sense. Individual investors can buy bonds when the bonds are originally issued or buy bonds in the secondary market after the bonds have already been issued. For the purposes of this article, we will cover buying bonds in the secondary market. We …

Every municipal bond trade has 5 basic elements. The 5 elements are maturity date, interest rate, price, $ amount traded, and yield.
3 of the 5 elements are similar to the elements of a bank CD. For a CD, these are the amount invested, the length of the CD, and the interest rate. For a municipal bond, the 3 similar concepts …

Municipal bonds are bonds that are issued by state and local governments. By issuing municipal bonds, local governments borrow money to build bridges, roads, hospitals, schools, sewer systems, stadiums, airports, power plants, prisons, and provide for other needs of local governments. Municipal bonds are generally issued to raise money for major capital projects.