Bondsavvy has recommended 23 individual corporate bonds over the last year. These bonds had pick date yields to maturity ranging from 4.72% to 9.13%, with the average YTM 5x higher than the S&P 500 dividend yield. With our active investment strategy, our goal is to achieve corporate bond returns that exceed a bond's purchase date YTM.
This fixed income blog post previews the 23 recommended bonds Bondsavvy has presented since November 2024. Key takeaways include:
- Through November 24, 2025, all 23 of Bondsavvy's most recent top bonds to buy have increased in price, with the bonds increasing 3.5 points on average and six bonds increasing at least five points.
- The average pick date yield to maturity of our most recent 23 recommended bonds to buy was 5.99%, about 5x higher than the recent 1.20% S&P 500 dividend yield. Pick date yields to maturity of these bonds ranged from 4.72% to 9.13%, as we show below in Figure 1.
- Corporate bond returns are not capped at a bond's yield to maturity. The four bonds we picked about one year ago on November 14, 2024, have achieved average capital gains of +3.66%. This is on top of the average 5.48% coupons of these bonds.
- The bond recommendations include a variety of maturity dates, including 14 bonds maturing in 10 years or fewer; 4 bonds maturing between 11 and 19 years; and 5 bonds maturing in 20 or more years.
- 18 of the 23 recommended bonds to buy had issuing-company leverage ratios of 2.5x or less.
Please note that we update our recommended corporate bonds each quarter, including during the most recent update on October 9, 2025. As the prices of our latest recommended bonds to buy have risen, we have moved many from 'buy' to 'hold.' For the 64 corporate bonds Bondsavvy currently rates buy or hold, we rate 27 as 'buy' with the remaining 37 as 'hold.'
Our Recommended Bonds to Buy 2025 Preview
Before Bondsavvy, investors seeking the best individual corporate bonds to buy had to sift through over 10,000 corporate bonds available when buying bonds online. Since 2017, Bondsavvy has made bond investing easy and more profitable by presenting approximately 20 new recommended corporate bonds each year.
While the more than 150 corporate bonds we have recommended since our 2017 founding have skewed slightly toward high yield corporate bonds, 17 of our most recent 23 recommended bonds to buy had investment grade bond ratings.
Bondsavvy makes new corporate bond recommendations each quarter during The Bondcast, a webinar exclusive to Bondsavvy subscribers. The 64 bonds currently on Bondsavvy's recommended corporate bonds list offer a wide range of maturity dates and are from issuers across over 15 different industry groups. We will update all of our best individual corporate bonds to buy again on January 8, 2026 during the quarterly Super Bondcast investment webinar.
Figure 1 provides a summary of our most recent 23 top bonds to buy. The table includes the pick date price and yield to maturity; November 24, 2025 bond price; issuing company leverage ratio; and our current buy or hold rating:
Figure 1: Bond Prices of Our Best Corporate Bonds to Buy 2025 -- Pick Date vs. November 24, 2025
|
Pick Date
Offer Price |
Pick Date
YTM |
November 24, 2025
Offer Price |
Issuer
Leverage Ratio* |
Action |
| November 20, 2025 Recommended Bonds to Buy | | | | | |
| Corporate bond 1 | 97.06 | 5.64% | 97.70 | 2.1x | BUY |
| Corporate bond 2 | 100.48 | 4.93% | 101.21 | 2.0x | BUY |
| Corporate bond 3 | 103.33 | 4.72% | 103.94 | 0.9x | BUY |
| Corporate bond 4 | 98.72 | 5.68% | 99.28 | 2.2x | BUY |
| | | | | |
| September 4, 2025 Recommended Bonds to Buy | | | | | |
| Corporate bond 1 | 90.95 | 5.98% | 93.53 | 2.0x | BUY |
| Corporate bond 2 | 103.82 | 6.17% | 107.21 | 2.0x | HOLD |
| Corporate bond 3 | 98.16 | 5.49% | 100.02 | 2.3x | BUY |
| Corporate bond 4 | 95.74 | 5.68% | 97.69 | 3.3x | BUY |
| Corporate bond 5 | 88.00 | 9.13% | 97.04 | >4.0x | BUY |
| | | | | |
| May 29, 2025 Recommended Bonds to Buy | | | | | |
| Corporate bond 1 | 98.52 | 6.64% | 106.52 | 1.7x | HOLD |
| Corporate bond 2 | 104.19 | 5.61% | 107.82 | 1.7x | HOLD |
| Corporate bond 3 | 101.83 | 5.81% | 106.90 | 0.6x | HOLD |
| Corporate bond 4 | 101.37 | 5.42% | 105.11 | 0.6x | HOLD |
| Corporate bond 5 | 78.85 | 5.97% | 84.33 | 2.5x | BUY |
| Corporate bond 6 | 99.36 | 5.24% | 102.67 | 2.5x | HOLD |
| | | | | |
March 6, 2025 Recommended Bonds to Buy | | | | | |
| Corporate bond 1 | 102.55 | 8.90% | 103.62 | 1.7x | HOLD |
| Corporate bond 2 | 99.39 | 5.58% | 103.36 | >4.0x | HOLD |
| Corporate bond 3 | 97.78 | 5.56% | 103.35 | 1.8x | HOLD |
| Corporate bond 4 | 98.84 | 5.61% | 104.00 | 3.1x | HOLD |
| | | | | |
November 14, 2024 Recommended Bonds to Buy | | | | | |
| Corporate bond 1 | 88.73 | 5.63% | 89.52 | 3.3x | BUY |
| Corporate bond 2 | 89.00 | 7.78% | 93.63 | 1.4x | BUY |
| Corporate bond 3 | 104.64 | 5.29% | 108.77 | 0.7x | HOLD |
| Corporate bond 4 | 96.90 | 5.41% | 101.36 | 1.4x | HOLD |
| | | | | |
| Average for all 23 recommended corporate bonds | | 5.99% |
| | |
Sources: Pricing data are from Fidelity.com. *Leverage ratios are Bondsavvy calculations based
on each company's most recent SEC filings as of October 9, 2025, with the exception of bonds recommended November 20, 2025.
Why Own Our Best Corporate Bonds to Buy 2025
Owning individual corporate bonds enables investors to lock in high income for a specific time period and to
have the opportunity for capital appreciation. Individual corporate bonds also, at maturity, provide for a return of
the $1,000
face value for each bond you own. That said, we seek to achieve corporate bond returns that exceed a bond's pick date yield to maturity by using our active bond investing strategy.
Since corporate bonds are priced as a percentage of their face value, investors can evaluate a bond's price, YTM, and
credit spread and compare these metrics to the
bond issuer's financials. This financial analysis is the heart of the Bondsavvy investment service and enables us to identify bonds that can achieve
strong total returns over the long term. This analysis is not possible when investing in bond funds and ETFs, as we
discuss below.
A compelling alternative to money markets, CDs, and bond funds
In the September 2025 Fed dot plot, the US Federal Reserve
projected one-half point of additional interest rate cuts through 2026. Should this happen, popular money market funds such as Vanguard VMFXX
would see their yields fall to approximately 3.35%. In addition, since Vanguard VMFXX targets a net
asset value per share of $1.00, VMFXX cannot have capital appreciation. Some CD rates may currently seem attractive;
however, CDs often pay their income at the end of their term (compared to corporate bonds, which pay interest
semi-annually), can come with onerous call provisions, and lack capital appreciation opportunities.
Mega bond funds such as Vanguard VBTLX are not fixed income investments. They do not
pay a fixed coupon and do not return an investor's principal at maturity, as they do not have a maturity
date. Bond funds such as VBTLX own thousands of bonds, which drives muted (and often low) returns and makes
investors unable to build a portfolio that fits their investment objectives. Further, since bond funds and ETFs do
not trade relative to a par value and lack underlying financial metrics, investors cannot assess whether a
bond fund investment represents a compelling value.
Owning individual bonds vs. bond funds is the lowest-cost way to invest in bonds, as investors do not pay recurring fees based on a percentage of what they invest. In addition, bond funds incur significant trading costs. Bond funds do not disclose the amount of these costs and exclude them from the "expense ratio" fund managers, such as Vanguard, trumpet. By taking actions to limit our market impact, we have enabled our subscribers to purchase bonds at competitive prices and to maximize their corporate bond returns.
Why Own Corporate Bonds Now
We strongly advocate investors build bond portfolios over time; however, as of this update, there are several factors making now a compelling time to invest in individual corporate bonds:
- Investors seeking the best individual corporate bonds to buy now can can lock in high yields for the long term. In addition, since Bondsavvy's recommendations are highly selective, we can identify bonds that can increase in price and achieve total returns higher than a bond's purchase date yield to maturity.
- The S&P 500 has been trading near a 29x price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio compared to approximately 19x ten years ago, according to Gurufocus.com.
- Funds mimicking the S&P 500, such as the $715 billion iShares IVV ETF, are not as diversified as the name "S&P 500" implies. As of November 24, 2025, the top-10 holdings of iShares IVV accounted for approximately 40% of the fund's market value. The top-25 holdings accounted for 52.2% of the fund's value.
- The 30-day SEC yield for iShares IVV was 1.04% as of October 31, 2025, about one-sixth the average pick date YTM of our 23 recommended bonds to buy 2025 (per Figure 1). Income investors can generate higher income with greater principal protection by owning individual corporate bonds vs. dividend stocks.
- Money market 7-day yields have fallen about 1.5 points since September 2024, to 3.87% as of November 21, 2025. They could fall further into the 3s should the US Federal Reserve cut rates further per the September 2025 Fed dot plot.
- Income distributions for bond funds and ETFs vary monthly and do not enable investors to lock in long-term income, as can be done with individual corporate bonds.
- Since bond funds and ETFs do not trade relative to par value and lack underlying financial metrics, investors cannot assess whether bond funds or ETFs are trading at compelling values.
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