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For those investing in bond ETFs, what do you use besides SGOV?
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VBIL is very similar to SGOV, duration also 0.1 year. Current yield 3.66% VGUS, duration 0.4 years. Current yield 3.83% XHLF, duration 0.46 years. Current yield 3.75% All of the above are Treasury bond funds. Their dividends are all of nearly all state tax exempt which make the effective yield higher if you have state income tax. APLU is an intermediate term bond fund with a duration of 6.3 years. It is not a popular one with info easy to find. It is an actively managed fund so the management expense can cut into the yield. It holds a variety of bond types, government and corporate. With the duration of 6.3 years is has significant interest rate risk. If interest rates go up, as they are expected to, you could be waiting for years for the NAV to not be at a loss which cuts into your total return unless you wait it out. It is in no way equivalent to a short term bond fund like SGOV.
SGOV is a short term treasury \_bill\_ ETF. As such it works as cash with basically no risk. Bond ETFs have large risk. TLT for example is down -13% in price for the past year, so about negative -8.5% for the year. APLU is also a net loser for the year, but not as horrible as TLT. Bad time for bond ETFs. Stick with SGOV or one of the other t-bill ETFs... or possibly a AAA CLO etf like JAAA or PAAA.