Fidelity. Great reputation, available 24/7. The website? i was just on it tonight attempting to do a simple thing for a friend who has money with Fidelity. That website is the clunkiest, cranky, user-unfriendly piece of junk I've run into in quite a while. I did not do what we had intended. Nothing was clearly shown, so that we could even have confidence enough to know that we were not screwing the whole thing up, irretrievably.

Yes, if used to TRP and most mutual fund sites it’s a challenge breaking in on Fido. There’s more of everything - in spades. Pages appear more crammed. But I find their website easier than their app to work with. Still some things I can’t accomplish on the app. Be careful putting trades through - ie: If you’re working with more than 1 account it’s easy to buy something in a Traditional IRA you meant to put into a TOD or Roth. Trying to correct an error like that by selling something right away can cause even more serious problems and might lead to a 90 day restriction. If new, best to call and make sure it’s safe to sell something you bought within the last day or two.
Rest assured @Crash, overall it’s a great site. Just go slow. AAA bond funds? Looks like plenty of help from folks. There are of course some low cost index funds that would provide that exposure. I tend toward good ETFs / CEFs when it comes to fixed income which are easy to buy / sell whereas there are minimum holding times on most mutual funds. GNMA (etf) is an interesting AAA quality choice.

Is this for a retirement account for your son?
If so, and if your son is able to rollover anything from a 401(k) to an IRA, then you can get access to PRWCX through TRP.

Yep, we have discussed PIMIX for years. It's difficult to know exactly what they do at any given time. I used to own a lot of it prior to 01/2018.
But perform Percentile Rank in its category is...1+3 year=20-22...5 years=15. Not too shabby for AUM=124 Billion. PIMIX has much high securitized and lower HY+EM bonds.
Derivative is a complicated subject and difficult to quantify. But, because the ER=0.50/0.51, I think the leverage is very low.
In the past, I posted about RCTIX as a good "cleaner" securitized with better LT risk/reward, see 3 year chart(https://schrts.co/kCDynyVs)
There is a new kid in town...PYLD=Pimco Multisector Bond Active Exchange-Traded Fund. See (https://www.pimco.com/en-us/investments/etf/multisector-bond-active-exchange-traded-fund). Strategy: The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its assets in a multi-sector portfolio of Fixed Income Instruments of varying maturities, which may be represented by forwards or derivatives such as options, futures contracts or swap agreements. “Fixed Income Instruments” include bonds, debt securities and other similar instruments issued by various U.S. and non-U.S. public- or private-sector entities.
ER=0.55. See below its holdings...mmm... definitely unique.

@FD1000 I have been reading that you are a proponent of 3-line break. What is it telling you today regarding ORNAX and NHMAX? Please don't come back in three weeks and tell us what it told you on 7-14-23.

mmm...so you want to learn but over the years you weren't so nice.

Racq wants to learn too, and he has been very nice to you.

@FD1000 I have been reading that you are a proponent of 3-line break. What is it telling you today regarding ORNAX and NHMAX? Please don't come back in three weeks and tell us what it told you on 7-14-23.

mmm...so you want to learn but over the years you weren't so nice.

When analyzing bond oefs, I would suggest you become very aware of their derivative holdings, especially when pushing PIMCO funds. PIMIX holds 11+% in derivatives, along with long term treasuries. Those large negative "Other" categories are not insignificant. If you are skilled trader, you might be more adept at selling quickly, but if not, you can get burned pretty quickly if you don't understand what you are holding and investing strategies, such as leveraging.

Gosh, this is a stodgy old board!
Not at all. Several people on this site have suggested 100% (or near 100%) equity portfolios for young people. But those recommendations came with the proviso that the person had an emergency fund, or perhaps that the income stream was dead certain. And that there wasn't an alternative investment available with a higher projected risk-adjusted return.
A lot to unpack there. If he had an inherited annuity paying a steady monthly income, that would be one thing. A job without more info is not a certain income. Right now, the economy is at surprisingly full employment (3.6% unemployment). When (not if) the economy goes through a recession, jobs will be at risk. Jobs are always at risk of becoming obsolete. Moving from job to job takes time, which is one of the points of having an emergency fund that will last a few months.
A three stock portfolio of leading names may look good now, but then again, so did the Nifty Fifty. (FWIW, well before my time.)
https://bridgeway.com/perspectives/party-like-its-1972-what-can-the-nifty-fifty-teach-us-about-todays-market/
Building a diversified equity portfolio is a good idea for someone starting out. That doesn't preclude him from first building an emergency fund. (That exercise alone has the benefit of forcing one to budget expenses, including health care if employer coverage is lost.)
Starting out with highly non-diversified portfolio is not a great idea. At the very least, he would be better off diversifying now - sell at least some of the stock (being inherited they likely don't have huge unrealized gains). That's not a buy/sell/hold recommendation on the individual stocks, but a suggestion for thoughtful portfolio management.
Moving on to the alternative: paying down debt. As others have said here, that's 7% return, certain. Many sources project lower returns than that for equity over the next decade. Here's Schwab's take as of nine months ago. Admittedly things so far have gone better than projected last year (inflation coming down, employment remaining high).
https://www.schwab.com/learn/story/schwabs-long-term-capital-market-expectations

(Vanguard and others offer similar projections, though similarly predicated on a 2023 recession.)
Something you didn't mention about the student loan is whether it might qualify for loan forgiveness (should that become a reality) and whether the amount he would pay down would cost him some of that "free" money. That might militate against paying down the loan.
As you said, this is a learning experience for your grandson. Even if the risk of a catastrophic failure is small, should it happen he might not return to investing for years. It would seem to be better to virtually eliminate that risk (diversify now, have a cash reserve), even at the cost of (possibly) reduced returns for now.

@FD1000 I have been reading that you are a proponent of 3-line break. What is it telling you today regarding ORNAX and NHMAX? Please don't come back in three weeks and tell us what it told you on 7-14-23.

In the Allocation fund world, there are PRWCX and FBALX, and then there's everybody else.
The only other Allocation funds I would own are
Group 1: CBLAX, VGWAX, FMSDX, SGENX
Group 2: FPURX, TIBIX

what others say --- combo fbalx and fmsdx, 1/3 ea
fairly close correlation, but still
plus a third in tcaf

Hank, thank you for deleting part of your previous post. There is not a "pure" definition of bond funds and you know it. Use your judgement.
Let's look at BAMBX "Strategy: The fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in a range of global asset classes, with a focus on fixed and floating rate debt securities and equity securities. It will normally invest in both U.S. and non-U.S. securities, including securities of companies located in emerging markets."
AOK: looking below, it's not
https://digital.fidelity.com/prgw/digital/research/quote/dashboard/composition?symbol=AOK
Convertible: I'm posting for about 15 years and I haven't seen much discussion about it. Hybrid security. A convertible bond pays fixed-income interest payments, but can be converted into a predetermined number of common stock shares.
I also would not include preferred stocks
CEFs: they are leverage FI but again not really part of your typical bonds.
RPSIX is OK, but LT I prefer PIMIX which has better performance for YTD, 1-3 years (https://schrts.co/fVnIsDbp)
=========
Observation: several unique MBS funds have shown good momentum in the last several weeks. Even PIMIX is on the run since the previous week.
In my world, I hardly ever use HY,EM bonds because of their higher volatility.
YTD: FAFRX is at 8.5%, not too shabby + lower volatility than HY funds.
PIMIX stat report as of 6/30/2023

+1

@Crash. BTW. Just set up #1 child's Roth using proceeds from a 1000$ UGMA gift from my parents when she was born. Went a little flashier with an equal distribution of IHI, IXN, IYK, RWJ, SYLD, and SPGP.
Still working on what to do with her taxable account.

90% in bonds? Fine by me. Share away.

I don’t have much “pure” anything. Prefer to give a manager some “wiggle room” running a fund and not lock them in to “pure this” or “pure that.”
Hope @FD1000 will answer those 5 questions about his thread I tossed out earlier.

I wish someone would leave a card on my 2012 Honda Accord with 83,000 miles ! Air conditioning is blowing hot and cold-thought the problem was solved August 2022. I'll find out tomorrow when I take it to the repair shop !

My ‘18 Hybrid Accord’s resale value temporarily exceeded its earlier new (MSR) purchase price 2-3 years after I bought it (according to Kelly BB). Bit of a shocker. Points to the scarcity of cars during / after the pandemic when most new car lots were bare. Dunno. Haven’t a complaint in the world about the car, but would enjoy a new one with all the latest tech.

@hank Is this the thread? Although only 5 weeks ago.

Yes. That’s it . Thanks @Crash. Might be of interest to @MikeM and others.

@WABAC
My father saved EVERYTHING. I have his first income tax return the check book from the year I was born, and the original brokerage slips for the Exxon stock his father bought him in 1938. His father wrote a letter to the broker requesting he buy the shares.

+1.

Great point FD.
In your judgment …
- Would a fund like RPSIX (an income fund with 90% bonds and 10% equities) be acceptable here, or must all the funds discussed have 100% in bonds?
- Does the name bond have to be included in a fund’s name?
- Also, can the “bond funds” discussed here hold any cash? (It was my earlier impression they could.) BAMBX is over 90% fixed income, but has a lot of cash.
- Also, would 30-day T-Bills in a fund be OK here? Some investors count those as cash. So, maybe exclude shorter term funds? Limit thread to just those with 1- year or longer duration?
- How about Convertible Bonds? Can we discuss those here?
Please clarity what the rules are regarding the above. Thanks.

summary:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/opinion/paul-krugman-soft-landing-inflation.html