Should the basics of investing start with ‘bonds’ rather than ‘stocks’?
Although Japanese government bonds should be the most familiar asset for us to invest in, they are a financial product that often feels surprisingly distant.
The long-standing financial environment of ultra-low interest rates may be the reason why Japanese government bonds have been pushed out of our minds.
However, in recent years, Japan’s policy interest rate has risen, and domestic bonds have gradually begun to attract attention. Recently, it has been reported that long-term government bonds (10-year) have exceeded 3%, and the appeal of investing in Japanese government bonds is increasing.
Among them, government bonds for individuals, which can be purchased by individuals, have a unique product nature (do they have cheat-level properties as bonds?), and I feel that more and more people are starting to consider purchasing them.
But what exactly is a ‘bond’ in the first place? I suspect there are very few people who truly understand it.
Due to the influence of NISA and iDeCo, there is a wealth of information available on stocks and investment trusts, but we still don’t hear much about investing in bonds.
Shouldn’t we, in fact, learn about bonds before stocks in order to understand financial products?
The book I am introducing this month, ‘Introduction to Japanese Government Bonds,’ answers that question head-on and teaches the depth of bonds in a very easy-to-understand way.