Corporate Bond Funds for Diversification and Income

Corporate bond funds are positively correlated with stocks. They do NOT improve diversification. Why do you think they do that? Have you run a correlation analysis with the rest of your holdings? Do that now before wasting any more time with corporate bond funds.

What downside risk are you trying to minimize? If its portfolio risk, you have to analyze the whole portfolio together, not individual assets.

Generating forced income from bonds (or anything else) is undesirable. We live in an era of no fee trading and fractional shares, so income is just a taxable nuisance. Welcome to the 2020s. Do not use 20th Century strategies and expect good outcomes.

You really need a different overall approach here. What you are doing is called a "shopping cart" approach because you are just throwing things in a cart because the look or sound good in vacuum. The better approach is to look at your whole portfolio, identify your goals, construct a portfolio by ASSET CLASS NOT FUNDS to meet those goals with specific macro-allocations and percentages, locate them in accounts, and only then, AS THE LAST STEP, choose funds that fit the asset classes that form the portfolio that meets your goals.

Just buy STRC. Steady price, high yield, tax deferred, highly liquid.

Check out this choose FI episode on bonds.

Ep 194 | The Role Of Bonds In A Portfolio | Frank Vasquez

You’re right about #3. 1 and 2 maybe but is that the role of the bonds for what you need them for? What is it that you’re truly protecting against?

Those aren’t bad funds and did well in 2022 on their own. Ties to what else you have in your portfolio and what your goals are. Have you researched risk parity portfolios?