I am a beginner in bonds scene, went through this thread, @kb_snn - Portfolio Analysis - Shailesh and few others like where discussions are mostly around debt/fixed income instruments.
To summarise my learning, in theory I would park my fixed income part of capital allocation in tax free bonds when available and for such duration when it is not available, buy AAA bonds/papers from good corporates and may be government securities.
However, I could not make an investment decision because 1) no more tax free bonds could be found 2) Post IL&FS and Essel fiascos funds investing in corporate bonds/debt funds seem riskier but I think it may be better than before because of the heightened awareness but still don’t know new exposures has any effect on NAV value due to past realisation of credit risk 3) don’t know if I can sell the bonds if I need to sell before maturity in the secondary market (I assume I should be able to) and there would be sufficient liquidity to avoid capital loss 4) GILT funds appear to be a dumb decision at this point based on @Yogesh_s asia index chart of returns on government securities because they are hottest at this time and there may not be much returns from now on 5) Looked at data shared by @deepender I don’t believe I know enough (and don’t have time and would take the option if I can get a fund to do it for a fee) to trade bonds in secondary market yet.
I would really love some direction and appreciate if the learned and experienced folks here can reply and guide.