Description
Newsletter that recommends bond investments, particularly high yield corporate bonds.
If you’ve subscribed to True Income, please click the stars below to indicate your rating for this newsletter, and please share any other feedback about your experience using the comment box below.
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Subscribed a few months back. Sounded great. . .locked in profits. . .companys already checked out by an expert. Bonds recomended were selling for 70 or 80 cents on the dollar. Now it’s more like 20 cents on the dollar. . .and one is one and a half cents on the dollar. Now bonds are much cheaper. The companys are at greater risk. Supposedly these co’s have enough assets to sell to pay the bond holders if they go bankrupt. I hope so. . .but when? After seeing the value of my investment quickly drop, I asked for a refund and they did. Unfortunately, the 75K I spent is now valued at 15K. I think Mike is a smart man and collecting subscription fees is much more profitable than investing in junk bonds. . .which as I remember he doesn’t do so the investers can get full value of the trades. For me, it was bad timing. . .or bad companys. Now that they are dirt cheep, there’s good reason.
Not a subscriber
This is just another of the Agora/Stansberry group publications which, I agree, is great at sales but great at publishing things which do not work out profitably. I once advised them of a major error in a promotion – they did not correct it (or thank me for the notification.)
This is a relatively new service. Subscribed as a trial, bought three different bonds, one bankrupt (Tribune), others down 65%. Cancelled subscription and hope the bonds I bought can keep paying interest, but payoff is when they become due, if they can pay them off, and that is years away. It was the wrong time for buying those bonds, and he should’ve done better job of analyzing ability to payoff.
market performance
I did subscribe to True Income. Since I had never bought Bonds before, I wanted to see how Mike William’s recommendations did for the first few months before jumping in. It was certainly educational. However, his picks did very poorly, so I asked for a refund and received it promptly (Hence good rating on Customer Service).
Four stars for consistency…because let’s face it, ALL his picks went down in lockstep! now THAT’s consistency!
Customer service is great, and I like having an advisory that recommends high-yield debt…but Mike needs to come up with a few winners here.
I’ve successfully used the newsletter by reading his picks, waiting six months until they’ve gotten even cheaper, and THEN buying. That’s obviously not the way an advisory of this nature should work.
I subscribed to this service in June, 2008. The promotion sounded promising and Mike Williams assured subscribers the junk bonds of the companies he recommended were stable and would be around to pay the interest and the face value of the bonds at maturity. I invested in 3 of his recommendations and purchased 10 of each. One company, the Chicago Tribune is in bankruptcy and has defaulted on a recent interest payment,its now selling for $4.75 another company, Aleris International is now worth 70 cents, the third, Rite-Aid is worth $15. I am sitting on over $19,000 in unrealized losses with little hope of seeing much, if any of that money. I wouldn’t touch anything with Mike William’s name on it ever again.
Its time to buy Tribune Bonds. Yes they filed for BK. A billion plus in assets is not in the BK. Is the trib good for the $ at the end of the year?
Bought RA and continue to receive the biannual interest payments. Will RA pay off face value? Don’t know and won’t know until I think 2013.
Didn’t buy Goodyear, but wish I had. Up up and away!
I didn’t buy bonds because I wanted to trade on the open bond market. I bought because I wanted steady income. I’m getting it.
Mike Williams did warn that the only way to make money in these bonds is to HOLD until maturity. I am holding. I am collecting, and I ignore the bond market ups and downs because I have enough to worry about. But I think $1000. potential return for a $4.75 investment is worth looking at for maybe $500. worth of Trib bonds considering that the trib still has over a billion dollars worth of assets NOT in the BK.
True Income is not for bond traders, it is for bond investors. I don’t think this pub has been around long enough to judge the INVESTMENT advice simply because the first bond investment has not matured. That’s why the stars are missing in some categories. But I have to admit it is looking bad.
Yes, I did break my one year rule and bought some bonds. JK
I think Mike is an honest straight shooter. He is the only letter writer that ever answered one of my inquiries with a personal email response. The problem with Mike’s letter – like most of the others – is that it does not provide critcal numerical backup for it’s assertions. Mike explains clearly with summary data why he thinks that his rec is a reasonable value, but I usually cannot figure out how to verify how he came to his conclusions when I review the 10k,q’s on my own. My due diligence is extremely time consumeing and I don’t think I should have to do all this basic verification given the price of the service. I think Mike should clearly show how he got his numbers and then explain the key parameters that an investor should watch to know whether his assumptions are working out or not.
There other problem with Mike’s picks – you usually will not be able to find them at the prices he recommends because too many other subscribers jump before carefully looking – this is a perenial problem with all these letters. However I do give Mike credit for always having a limit price – but you won’t be able to get the current rec under this price.
I’ve reviewed all of Mike’s picks since inception. He gives you only 10 per year which is not enough for a diversified portfolio. He sold one (Realogy at a 25% loss before it went into bankruptcy. Two picks (Aleris and Tribune)are in bankruptcy and not paying current interest. The other picks are interest current and trading at various discounts/premiums to the original recommended prices.
I’m still in my 90 day trial window subscrption and I have only felt comfortable pulling the trigger on one rec (Cott).
It was a rec from a past issue that had dramatically dropped in price from the original date (It still is below that price.) But because it is such a simple company, I was able to verify Mike’s analysis and after seeing that the new CFO was buying shares, I figured upcoming news might be good. My broker (Fidelity) had to be hounded to dig up an offer – But so far so good.
As of this instant I don’t think I’ll keep the service as I have to do too much work myself monitoring my positions for the price I’m paying – Mike does send out occasional email updates, but once again he does not provide the data to backup his assertions. Also, I have not been able to buy the two latest recs at below the recommended prices. Fidelity can usually not even get me any offers on a day to day basis.
I think Mike is on the right track, but either the service needs to be drastically reduced in price or many more recs (3x)and detailed numerical analysis must be provided at the current price for my money.
True Income has been good to me. But I haven’t bought everything. My best buy was the RA bond. I was in at 35. I felt bad at 25. Now it is around 74.
True income has had some real losers. Trib last I looked was in the teens. Aleris, another loser. But on average I am money ahead and I’m glad I subscribed.
With bonds time is important. The bond market is fickle. Who knows what drives it. You have to wait for that maturity date to roll around. That’s the real payday!
I subscribed in September,’08. I own bonds from Rite Aid, Freescale, Tribune, and Aleris. With Tribune, I speculated and bought bonds at an average of $60 each, knowing they were in Chapter 11——not a strategy that is recommended by True Income, but a potential windfall if Tribune pays up. I was blindsided by Aleris filing for Chapter 11, because I had a bunch of these bonds already. So, being the speculator I am, I more than doubled my position with Aleris at one-twelfth the price, and if Aleris pays out, I’ll be one super-happy investor.
My Freescale and Rite Aid bonds are doing just fine.
I do plan to renew—–hopefully I can get a good renewal deal.
I plan to combine some more bonds like maybe Cott, Freescale, and Rite Aid, and also do option plays with Advanced Income.
I don’t know how the future of these bonds will play out, but I feel that if the economy rebounds, so will the bonds.
If so, Mike Williams will be seen as a genius.
I have a suggestion for Mike. We know the market is volatile, but you might want to give us some more updates, even if the news is the same. It seems like a long time between your messages to us; and even though it might seem pointless to e-mail us more often—–say, once a week—-I think all of us subscribers would feel more connected. A simple message like, “Nothing has changed, but I want you to know that I am watching all of these companies closely.” would be comforting to those who own Tribune and Aleris, especially those who bought at a much higher price than I did.
I’ve been a subscriber for less than one year to True Income, but I believe I have enough experience to refute some of the complaints about the service.
Most of us get plenty of advice on how to invest in stocks, but very little is written about more conservative strategies such as covered calls and bonds, both of which should be a component in everyone’s portfolio.
I understood Mike’s position on the recommended bonds to be that they would “generally” be held to maturity, so while my bond portfolio is up 17% so far this year in aggregate, the most important part is that I’m getting paid the dividends and will receive my investment back at the end of the bond’s term. Therefore, I feel I’m getting the exact return promised (as long as the company remains solvent). By holding to maturity, I pay little attention to the fluctuations in pricing; I use this service as a long term investment that I believe it was intended to be.
Bottom line: if your broker called and said if you give me $2900 today, in 2011 I’ll give you back $5000 and pay you a 12% yield to maturity, would you make the deal? Well that’s exactly what was recommended with Cott Beverages in True Income, and I’d be very happy to get more deals just like that.
Have I invested in every suggestion Mike has made? No, but I’ll bet when someone gives you that next great stock tip, you weigh the risk-reward before you put your own money at risk.
True Income is no different, and is an important component of my personal investing.
My name is Mike Williams, and i write the True income newletter. I have read all of the subscribers’ comments and appreciate the positve and understand the negative comments. On balance, I think these are accurate, fair and balanced reviews. You will note they are time specific. Comments from subscribers at the bottom of the markets in March would be less flattering than comments now. It is important to note True Income is a portfolio approach. Two months out of the year are dedicated to thorough portfolio reviews. And it is important for subscribers not to cherry pick the list, but to equally weight all recommendations. They have been carefully selected to work together as a portfolio with exposures to different sectors and different industries. As of the end of October 2009, we hold 17 investments, including two bankruptcies. The total return since inception in February 2008 has been 11% and the total return this year has been 67%. This investment approach is not for everyone. It is best suited for investors who need dependable high income levels and who are able to enbrace a portfolio approach. Thank you all for your comments and support.
Mike Williams
Editor, True Income
I did a review last year this is and up date his performance has been right i have winners and undefined loosers but more than 100% up overall and rising because of the coupons
customer service is sad if you need it
dont take to much time to read it easy to understand
his picks well…are not often avalable in the market but mostly good
i recovered what i paid earned more than 100% and still collecting
the fee a little high,but i`m the buyer so i have to keep pushing for my side
i`ll give him one more star than the previous year
Mike Williams does an excellent job of investigating lower rated bonds and the companies that issue them. His picks have been consistantly profitable for me. His analysis of the companies’ finances are similar to what I would do is I were considering the stock. I am very pleased with the newsletter and have made many thousands in profit.
I subscribed to this letter in 2008-9. Anyone can find junk bonds selling at a discount but the value of this letter is in his analysis — Can They Pay Us — evaluating the prospects for the issuer to make the agreed payments. This is tough and he was wrong on some but overall had a good record in my opinion.
I cancelled because the two discount brokers that I use only sell investment grade bonds online and I hate dealing with salesmen (brokers), which I had to do to buy the recommended bonds, almost all of which were in “junk” status. He did recommend one investment-grade bond which I was able to buy, issued by a subsidiary of AIG which in his opinion was being unfairly knocked down because of the AIG connection. He was right and I made a lot of money on that one.
Many of the negative reviews seem to date from the first half of 2009 when the markets were in a historic crisis. I don’t think any service should be downgraded for suffering temporary declines in portfolio value during that period.
I have been a subscriber to True Income for nearly 2 ½ years. Read all of the following as opinion please. Volatility in his portfolio has been nearly as high as stocks, but with a more predictable outcome. Bonds that he picked prior to the late 2008, early 2009 crash got hammered along with stocks. But I held, and almost all of them came back and some went on to large profits. He has picked three bonds that have been near or total wipeouts, so these are not “risk free” investments. But most of his picks have done rather well.
During 2008 and 2009, most of his picks were conventional bonds. With the rally in stocks and bonds during 2010, bargains are not as easy to find and many of his latest recommendations have been convertible bonds. But forget the marketing language. He recommends bonds, period. All normal stuff.
I do not follow his advice precisely. For example, in 2008 – 2009 I bought some of his picks after they crashed and rode them back. He sold one bond at a rather large loss, and I held to sell for a decent profit. Another bond, I sold early and it has run much higher. So my results might be different than others. I am up just over $160,000 on his picks, not counting dividends, which have been substantial. I do not always agree with him, but I like the service and I have made money.
I am a very recent subscriber with only my first bond purchase, therefore I did not rate the service. In addition to my bond purchase my portfolio includes; Mutual stock funds, Individual stock purchases, stock and etf options, and gas wells.
I liked the prospect of reasonably certain income at higher than current interest rates.
My purchase is one of the high discount bonds with fairly short duration.
I do not plan to purchase a large number of bonds and will probably terminate my subscription at the end of the year.
I do appreciate the analysis of the likelyhood of full value.
I’ve subscribed for a while now and this is by far the best subscription I’ve ever had…if you read chapter 8 of Intelligent Investor and “get it” you’ll like this service, if not then you should go and get something more flashy. Generally if you look at bonds as trades, you need to look elsewhere, bonds are not stocks and you shouldn’t treat them as such. As a bond newsletter, this is the best I’ve found.
I have been in this service since the begining about 3 1/2 years ago. I liked the concept about these bonds and have bought all but few of the recommendation. Only 3 have gone bankrupt and only one of those was I almost totally wiped out. One of them I bought at 50 cent on the dollar and sold at 35 cent on the dollar. The other is currently in bankruptsy and is trading at 40 cents on the dollar.I bought at 60 cents on the dollar. This is the best news letter that I have. It seems people are afraid of “junk bonds” (I hate that term). At this juncture the bankruptsy rate for these bonds is in the 2% range. At the height of the crisis it was at 12%. You could almost throw a dart on the wall and buy a bond that will not go bankrupt. Imagine what a little research can do. Diversify well and keep your postions small and you can make a lot of money. I get constant monthly interest payments that conpensate me for my risk and due to position size and diversification I have the occasional bankruptsy priced in. I look to make 10% to 12% in each bond I buy and most have yield much more. It’s Bernie Madoff kind of money without the ponzi scheme.