Currently, I have my liquidity parked in SPAXX and VMFXX.  The ~5% is better than the piggybank we’ve had since The Great Recession, but I feel that I can do better, safely.

What’s out there?

Thanks.

Bitcoin.

Stop humping Blackrock.

Not sure what that means.

Safe and 10% are mutually exclusive terms.

You can pick one.

LOL... 1980 called and their selling CD's again at 13.5%...

Safe mutual fund? Define safe.
Safe is 5.25% +/- today with CD's. TBills, and High Yeild savings.

Define safe.

I realize that 10% is never going to be 100% safe so let’s go with “not reckless”.

Think flying a single engine aircraft in fair weather.

If by “safe”, you mean it can’t lose money, then no. That’s not the way the market works. If you look at average returns, which include up and down years, there are some that have averaged that return. You have to know your timeframe in which you need the cash to mitigate the shorter term risk.  Short term needs go in cash and cash equivalents. Nice to have easy ways to get 5+% right now. Longer term goes into the market, real estate, etc.

I imagine something like a total stock market fund is the closest you’ll get to 10% and “safe”.

If there was a “safe” mutual fund making 10%, I would borrow $100 million dollars at 8% interest and invest it in that 10% mutual fund and find some way to live off the $2 million per year difference, and the banks would be happy to lend to me because me paying it back would be a slam dunk.

There is no such thing as safe with high returns. The safer it is, the lower the rate of return.

"Are there any safe mutual funds that make 10%?"

Yeah, that's not how this works.

NO, question answered.

FXAIX

https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/summary/315911750

OP,,I've been an investor for all my life,,,retired 15 years ago. I still invest.

Pipeline stock MLPs pay (the best ones) almost 8% tax free. I put a small amount in a new fund the other day (OWSAX) that MAY approach your 10% request. I'll believe it when I see it.

No.

CD’s at 5.25-5.3 are as good as it gets currently.

I bought a few shares of QYLD (covered call ETF) as am experiment to live with it for a little while.  Although it is indexed to the nasdaq 100 it is a bit muted both up and down due to the covered calls.  It will generate ~11%-12% per year in dividend income with multiple caveats, like the dividends are taxed as normal income and that your principal is still exposed to the market and historical long term price erosion.

There are a few of these now, I think the most popular at the moment is JEPI which is a managed fund.

These are definitely not the best way to invest for growth, but if you are older, it can generate lots of income.  

It is analogous it to a reverse mortgage of your house but you are paid 1% per month based on current market value which could swing wildly.

FZROX has done well for me.
I'm currently at a total gain of +15.6%, over three years.

Why wouldn’t you invest in it for growth?

If there was everyone would be doing it.

Yep…..also Long term horizon to get there short term you could experience 40% drop

This is in nominal terms, not considering inflation or taxation.  Which sadly, is how many people define "safe".  I follow the philosophy of that great financial expert Billy Idol.  He is famous for his quote, "There is nothing sure in this world, there is nothing pure in this world".  The best defense is a good offense comes as close to working as anything else, but most people don't look at it that way.

VIMAX, VTV, and VDIGX have done well for me since 2019 with 5-7% returns.  Also SCHD.  Some pay dividends.  Who knows what the future holds.  Do your research and spread your risk.  No such thing as free money.

Cool/ That single engine aircraft represents 3%-5% return.

10% return represents an experimental aircraft that most likely will work as intended...but maybe not.

It's the same place that would loan Dave Ramsey a billion dollars at 0%

It doesn't exist.

I'd say a 10% inflated adjustment return is what you say, but if you were to back off to a 7-8% inflation adjusted return, it's more like the aircraft company that makes those planes that generally work as expected.  So one crashes and you get a bad return for a while, but the company didn't die, it learned and made a better one.

So an s&p500 index. It's "safe" if you can tolerate some occasional periods of loss in value.

It exists, you just need $100m give or take of assets securing it. Then it's any regional bank.  If you don't have the assets to secure it, then it's going to cost more than 8% because the risk is too high for a bank, and private equity isn't looking for s&p500 index ROIs.

So, kind of like Boing?

Hey, wheels and parts might fall off from time to time, maybe a door here or there. It's not Boings fault but it seems to always happen on Boing aircraft.

Solid advice:      Don't get advice from GD

OP return is proportional to risk, what you are asking is if there are any investments at 10% (that is clearly in the high risk category) that is not high risk.

If you asking about the best high risk option at 10% that is a different story. I am personally always skeptical about the long term performance of managed funds, so for me I look at REITs with that level of return. Healthcare and in particular Elder Care REITs have performed above that and they are always looking to for more investors to buy in. The last one I got a prospectus on had a $1M minimum and had differnt rates if you invested over $10M, that is uhh, to rich for my blood. These are funds that own the physical real-estate of hospitals and elder care facilities, they are not coupled with the business that operates the facilities, just the infrastructure, the Lans and the buildings. It's odd to see a positive return on a fund when the company has a bad year or goes bust, but that's is how REITs work. Invites are private, you will need to do a lot of leg work to get a seat at the table. The last one I bought into was agricultural, and a friend of mine I intorduced me to the guy after he played golf with the party waiting behind him in Arizona.  

And to be clear I am poors and do not own millions in REIT's, they are not exactly taylored to normal schmucks like me. But you will need a few hundred thousand at a minimum. But 15% is not unusual.

You have to re-define better and safely.

“Safe” is a very relative term.

You can put $100,000 in cash in a safe and in ~21 years, you could open the vault door and buy about HALF of what you could when you first deposited it BUT it would be nearly 100% “safe”.

To put that in perspective, it would only take ~9 Biden Administration years to have the same effect.

Biden’s Administration policies and response to COVID have done irreparable harm to the economy.

As far as WHERE to put your investments, I can only suggest that you diversify with a mix of quality stocks, bonds, and land with a lesser amounts in CDs, PMs and investment grade collectibles like registered machineguns, fine art and historical artifacts with provenance.  

Avoiding debt is a good too. NOT paying 7% on a loan is the same as saving 7%.

I am not a doomer. The economy will correct itself but it will take time and it will be a bumpy ride. If you have a crystal ball, please share it with the rest of us. Otherwise, diversification is probably the best “safe” bet.

I remember when I worked at Putnam back in the late 80s we had at least two funds that fit that bill.

If you use Fidelity, FSKAX.

Extremely low expenses and no additional fees with getting it through Fidelity. Almost my entire "simple 3 fund" portfolio is in FSKAX.

It's a total market index which is about as "safe" as you can get and will give you the returns of the total market.

My Vanguard VFIAX (S&P 500 index fund) Roth IRA mutual fund

1 year + 29.8%
3 year + 11.5%
5 year + 15%
10 year + 12.9%

I wouldn’t say it’s “safe” though.  



It’s a solid fund over its lifetime.

My hand picked HSA fund is at 10.5% ....I would love to send you a list of picks if you can just cover the $120.65 shipping and handling fee.

Greater returns = greater risks.  Especially in the short term.  

Stop thinking about this week or this year, and don't try to hold on too tightly to something small just because it is the first time you have been able to achieve it.

Build a long term plan.

1. Pay off all toxic debt (credit cards, high interest rates).
2. NEVER carry a balance on a credit card month to month.  This is called "paying the stupid tax".
3. Build an emergency fund of 6-12 months of *expenses* and keep it liquid, such as in a High Yield Savings Account (HYSA) or Money Market Fund (MMF)
4. Contribute to your 401k up to the company match maximum.
5. Contribute to an HSA if offered up to the maximum allowed.
6. If your 401k plan allows, contribute to a Mega Backdoor Roth. https://thecollegeinvestor.com/17561/understanding-the-mega-backdoor-roth-ira
7. If you do not have access to a Mega Backdoor Roth through your 401k, contribute to a ROTH IRA (unless income ineligible, then use Backdoor Roth IRA method. https://thecollegeinvestor.com/38006/how-to-do-a-backdoor-roth-ira  
8. Go back and finish contributing to the 401k plan, up to the maximum limit ($23,000 in 2024).
9. If offered a Company Stock plan (ESPP/ESOP) that gives you shares at a discount, AND you can sell immediately upon stock purchase, contribute the maximum amount to this program and sell each time.  You should participate in this regardless of any choices or order of operations above.  This runs in parallel to everything else.
10. Open a taxable brokerage account and begin investing here, and/or real estate, and/or side business.
11. Consider funding children's college in 529 plans or taxable brokerage account, or other state advantaged options.
12. Limit the amount of vehicle debt you carry, as vehicles can be one of the biggest barriers to building wealth as people believe they derive "happiness" from getting new vehicles often.

Invest all of these in a low fee Total US Equities Market index fund (if offered) or an S&P500 index fund, to start.  
DONT TOUCH it.  Just be steady and don't change, be careful who you listen to, and don't make emotion based moves into cash because what you just "know", likely is not so.


Recommended reading:
https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Path-Wealth-financial-independence/dp/1533667926
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119847672?tag=arfcom00-20
https://www.amazon.com/Richest-Man-Babylon-Original-Classics/dp/B0C1J5ML66
https://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Next-Door-audiobook/dp/B0000547HR

I didn't really mean any specifically, just that the single plane analogy implies a binary result of fly or die, which is certainly relevant to many investment vehicles, but others mitigate risk by average performance over time.

My portfolio is a 10.5% earning one across the last 19-years.

I have a mix of VTI (total market), VOO (S&P 500), VYM (dividend), VUG (growth), and BND (bonds) - and I'm using the VYM dividends rather than re-investing them.

Any similarly balanced approach to stocks ought to do 10% a year average.

T Rowe Price has some MFs that have done well over 10 years. If you can't gut through the downs or don't have time to wait you ought to do something else.

Talking ETFs  here, but the high (>5%) dividend ones seem to fall into a few categories.

- Super risky financials/real estate that go kaput and sometimes never fully recover during market dips. See: KBWD
- Passively managed investments that are just a bot which does options trading and takes fees. See: RYLD
- Actively managed that are a mixture of dividends, options trading, etc. See: JEPI

I would pick the last one on the list. The bots like RYLD or RYLG could be ok if you are good with the underlying investment and don't want to deal with selling shares to collect income


There is one coal company (ARLP) that paid like a 20 or 40% dividend with $3 a share a few years ago. Now its over $20 a share and still paying 13%, so I guess there are outliers in the high dividend world

This shit should be copy pasta as far and wide as “did you know truckers have bad knees….”

No.  If there was, you'd have heard about it and so would everyone else.

Short Term Corporate Bond ETFs are a safe bet. 6~7%.
Use the portion of money which you might need to withdraw for emergencies. The price for these ETFs doesn't change much regardless of the market gains or losses, the dividend is steady.
I had an emergency which needed $25,000 to cover. I put it all on a credit card with no interest for 18 months. I used the monthly dividends of my Bonds ETFs to pay $1,200/month, and $200 out of pocket. So, in the end I was only $3,600 out of pocket on a  $25,000 debt. This is just an example of how it works if you needed money for emergencies.
I can use the $1,200/month income any time, but I don't need it now.

Then there's active trading. Meaning you'll have to keep a close eye on high dividend stocks which pay close to 10%. I've had good results with this strategy.
Use the portion of money for long terms. Do not withdraw, and actively change your picks as the analysts ratings go down, and pick another when the analysts ratings go up.
Use a stock screener, all brokerages have one.  Filter: dividends of 8%~12%. Then filter market cap Medium or large. Then filter analyst ratings of high. Then filter revenue growth YOY, positive for consecutive at least 5 years.
I make a steady $1,600/month with this strategy which is being reinvested. Every month it's + $30. Next month will be $1,630, month after that $1,661...
I have not withdrawn any from this part. My goal is to get to half a million, and then convert it all to Short Term Bonds. And then withdraw the dividends, that's about $3,000/month income tax free, since it's in ROTH account. That's about 10 years from now.


Then there is stocks which don't pay much dividends but may explode in value. Those are the risky ones.
Put some money in it, but not much if your goal is steady income and a little growth.
I've made 800% gain in one stock in just 2 years, and a few others of 50% or more gains in a year or so for a few others.
I had a few losses, but the gains make up for them.  I use automatic stop loss, so I never lose more than 5%.
I convert half of the gains to bonds. That's just a nice bonus added to the main income account.

Truckers have bad knees?

Additionally the bank would probably have all their own money invested in 10%, it's not like they're totally  stupid.

MO stock

Who doesn’t want a safe bet with high yields?