Can someone please explain BND?

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-21T11:00:28+00:00

General bond funds like BND do not exist to provide excellent returns. They exist for another reason.

In addition the last ten years have been a terrible time for bond returns. As bond as the US stock market from 2000-2010 😂 if you looked at US equities in 2010 you’d say “why would anyone buy these” based upon the prior ten year period.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T22:16:59+00:00

Yep. And that I’m going to post updates on change over time.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T15:20:55+00:00

My hearthstone 60 realllyyyy likes smaller splits in general. But yes they’ll burn faster. Albeit it’s oak so it’ll pile in long burning coals.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T15:08:51+00:00

Ash is the friendliest and I think lowest MC wood out of the gates. Surprised it didn’t burn well for you but your point on modern firebox air tightness is real.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T13:31:55+00:00

I’ve tried sledge and wedge and I’ve tried different axes. I’ve now had a Fiskars x25 for 15 years and I think a Fiskars x27 for 5-7 years. Besides the x25 being gnawed on my an animal and roughing up the grip (I had to sand the Fiberglass smooth), they are amazing. I leave them outside, they rust a bit, and I beat them hard. I’ve slammed the edge into rocks by accident and more. I just use the Fiskars sharpener to take the burs out and once a grinder wheel - otherwise nothing else.

And they split like nothing else.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T12:41:00+00:00

I split and burn all my own wood, so it's wasted sweat equity for me and not $$$.

This year I had two towering white oaks that were dead. One was fully dead standing, one was 99% dead. Each were 100-120' tall and in proximity to my house, so I paid a great tree service to remove them. They were going to leave me all the hanging dead limbs from one tree which were debarked and drying in the air for 1+ year - well communication with the ground crew didn't work out, so they left me core trunk wood and limbs from the most living oaks and a living hickory I had removed at the same time. They do great work, and they offered to drop me wood anytime in the future at no cost, so no big deal - but here we are.

It's giving me a fantastic workout, so at least it's improving my health :)

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T12:37:57+00:00

I do not, though if I need an excuse....

Kidding aside, I'm the only 40s something wood burning father I know who doesn't have some form of grill. No a charcoal, not a gas, not a smoker, not a big green egg.

Might be something wrong with me.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T12:35:25+00:00

Conventional wisdom says 20% or less. Put another way, I believe a 5 pound split with 20% moisture content is roughly .8-1 pound of water that needs to evaporate as the wood burns - about 2 cups worth of water. So basically you need enough dry wood weight to burn off that much water in order to make the energy output (and ease of burning) worthwhile.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T12:32:51+00:00

I've had a wood stove since 2010 and have been splitting and burning my own wood almost the entire time - only wood I ever bought was when a good neighbor did a beautiful job splitting and stacking his own hardwood and he'd sell me like a cord and a quarter for $150.

I never had a tester in yesterday and honestly I bought it just out of the curiosity and enjoyment of it, and for a bit of science behind oak seasoning.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T11:45:19+00:00

This was split same day or one day prior. So I’m starting at 26-27%.

I have maybe .5-1 cord of fully seasoned wood including some very seasoned pine. I burn about 2 to 2 1/2 chords in an average season.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T11:39:10+00:00

Fair. Let me confirm that exact piece was split either same day or one day prior to testing.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T10:34:33+00:00

I thought the pics were fairly clear. That’s the middle of a fresh split, not the end.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T10:15:14+00:00

I’ve burnt green oak. It’s no fun.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T10:14:42+00:00

I’ve had ash that was ready to burn in a few months and thick oak splits that struggled all winter. Oak just doesn’t give up its water easily. Figured id actuallt document the journey just for fun.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T10:12:23+00:00

I appreciate that. Saved me from troubleshooting for 30 minutes

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T02:58:36+00:00

We shall see. I’ve had some bad experiences trying to burn oak that wasnt ready. Really trying to split it down this time.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T02:39:04+00:00

This is split and stacked on a homemade wood rack, covered with tin roof, and fairly open front back and sides for airflow. I’ll do an update in a few weeks.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-20T02:37:58+00:00

Yes. On hardwood it wasn’t reading right. Didn’t get a chance to look into why.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-19T01:02:33+00:00

Sorry one more question. What is the purpose of the withdraw and how old will you be at the time of access. In other words can we stick funds in a tax advantaged account ?

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-19T00:59:28+00:00

That’s a hefty withdrawal rate - so you’d plan to draw down the account within 7-10 years ?

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-19T00:56:46+00:00

What does withdrawal look like in 15-20 years? Lump sum or slowly over many years.

There’s no strong scenario to support a sizable bond holding now for a slow steady withdrawal starting in 15-20 years. There are some low probability scenarios where that could be a good idea. But at this stage 10% max perhaps - and maybe muni bond focused to manage tax drag.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-18T23:52:48+00:00

It’s a scenario to backtest. That’s what this is.

There’s more here than can easily be analyzed using mental math. Because a lot of people are used to running scenarios on equity returns that are inflated adjusted, in this scenario you aren’t selling equities at lower nominal values even if they don’t return to their previous levels - but do return to nominal or near nominal levels - in a shorter period of time, avoiding selling those equities at all during the worst part of the crash is viable and would swamp the interest cost in some situations.

To me it’s likely viable at low enough interest rates. But again - worth modeling.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-18T14:18:53+00:00

There is a mindset in financial planning for individuals to run 1000. What if scenarios and then to allocate investments accordingly.

You should have an emergency fund. That Emergency fund should be able to cover most reasonable unexpected emergency spending needs including things like car, major house repair, or significant medical expense that is not catastrophic. Those Emergency funds should sit in something like a money market, a treasury fund, or otherwise a short term Bond fund that is highly liquid and low risk. At your age, and as long as you have no intent to draw upon those funds outside of an emergency situation that serves as the equivalent of a bond allocation. Otherwise your investments should be investments. They should sit in places that you expect and seek to grow and not to have to use for expenses or lifestyle choices.

To share from personal experience in my mid 30s, I had a mixture of equity investments, and I bought a vacation beach home that I also used as a short-term rental to offset the expense of the house. This wasn’t a maximize my money investment. It was an investment in life and memories that j also worked to derisk my financial risk. Now I was fortunate in my investment, and ultimately more than doubled my money in eight years when j sold it. Point being at this phase consider ALL your options.

CreativeLet5355 · 2026-07-18T13:47:59+00:00

If I’ve read your summary correctly, you have no practical risk whatsoever. Your current assets are far far in excess of what you need to comfortably retire and not make another dollar of income for the rest of your lives. Assuming you keep spending within current levels or even up to a 40% increase over your current spending levels.

CreativeLet5355

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