I know this has been beat to death
 

But what is everyone doing to replace or augment their bond portfolio? I'm in the process of rebalancing and I'm struggling with having 30% of my portfolio earning 3 maybe 4% in BND or similar total bond funds.

I keep about 15 percent of my bond investments in the Vanguard High Yield Bond fund. This fund is low grade corporate bonds, but it currently yields about 6.25 percent.

Treasuries are above 4%. So no reason to settle for 3%. If you are willing to have a relatively long duration (e.g. 10 years) in your bond portfolio and mix in agency and corporates, should have no problem getting above 5%. But that is if you own the securities and hold them to maturity. If you have a bond fund then you have interest rate risk, which could help you or hurt you depending on what rates do.

Personally, I keep my bond portfolio duration very short, and just settle for <5%.

Look at BIL, very short term treasury bills, with both interest/dividends and cap gains.
With the yield curve very flat, you are getting the same rate as longer term treasuries.

So unless you go to a high yield index, which are the corporates, BIL will get the best return for all comparable treasury issued time periods.

As long as bonds are higher than inflation, they are doing their job in your retirement portfolio.

GFTU

Good Fortune to Us!

Get a professional financial advisor
 

Instead of relying on folks you probably don't know and who have varying degrees of investment savy, get a PROFESSIONAL financial advisor.

What is a professional financial advisor? Most people who call themselves financial advisors are salespeople trying to make a commission or an AUM (assets under management) fee.

Now THAT will cost you dearly if the advisor takes 1% of assets under management every year. Bonds bring in 4%; advisor takes 25% of income @ 1% of AUM; client is left with 3% return.

A fiduciary advisor paid a fee by the hour and seen every year or so is the way to go if one is uncomfortable making their own decisions or wants someone to talk things over.

If you see a fiduciary advisor every year or so, how can they make a living?

Probably like my CPA who sees some clients once a year at tax time, others all year long.

I think the question cannot really be answered without knowing a lot more, such as age and circumstances, risk tolerance, investment breakdown for the remainder of your portfolio, etc. I suggest joining Bogleheads Forum and posting your question and other information there for added advice.

oh please. . like no one here has any experience with their own retirement and we are sure that professionals are in the business to make money, so starting with experience here for free might not be a bad idea. .

you never know what you can learn from experienced posters. . .

If you expect to earn significantly more than 4 percent in investment grade bonds, you are dreaming. You need to invest in low grade bonds or stocks that will carry some risk.

And in many states the requirements to be a financial advisor are less than those to be a licensed barber or plumber or other trades.

For bonds, one is looking for 1-2% over the rate of inflation for a decent return.
The purpose of bonds is to reduce risk to the portfolio, as well as to have a return which is negatively correlated to equities. There are occassions when bonds and stocks are positively correlated, but that is not the long term relationship.

Bonds also provide cash return when stocks are losing. . effectively constantly supplying cash for withdrawal without impacting the equity portfolio.

I am sure that you would not like bonds at 8% or so as it will upset your equity portfolio much more than just a better return on bonds. .

I get this, however I have used 3 different advisors over my "career" and have never had results that beat a well balanced index portfolio.