On 8/4/2020 the 10-year real yield had dropped to -1.05%


On July 23 the US Treasury auctioned 10-Year Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) with a face value of $14 billion. The real yield to maturity on that deal was -0.93% The TIPs were priced at that auction to under-perform official CPI-U inflation by almost 1% for 10 years,

These are signs of the times.

My 1992 edition of Your Money or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, strongly advocated investing in Long-term US Treasury and Agency bonds.

In 1969, when Joe reached Financial Independence, his capital was invested in bonds with interest averaging 6.85% interest and maturities extending into the 1990s...

Today, there are investors willing to accept a negative real yield to maturity on US Treasury securities. I would assume their plan is not to hold the securities to maturity, but rather to sell them at a gain, assuming that negative interest rates will some day be greater than when they bought the TIPS.

Savers are in a peculiar and perplexing situation at this time. They might be able to obtain (at best) 0.8% on a savings account with FDIC/NCUA deposit insurance. Or they might go long Treasuries with a negative real yield to maturity. The "safe" alternatives are not terribly rewarding in terms of yield.