Right, I thought about this but didn't bother to mention it in the context of this thread, since if you're building a $500K or larger ladder, not being able to buy even one TIPS is not an issue.I found IBIF useful in a pretty idiocratic situation, where I had built a small ladder in an inherited account I transferred from Schwab. But the full transfer was held up by an illiquid mutual fund I've had to slowly sell off since.
So I never had the cash to buy a full bond in one place, so I bought the shares of IBIF in both places as the cash became available (and I set to reinvest the dividends); in the end, the 2029 rung will mostly be individual TIPS, but with some shares of the ETF.
Though, now that I think of it, I could still buy a bond or two at Schwab and have that transfer.
Based on Schwab quotes yesterday, the cost of buying a single TIPS, including accrued interest, ranges from $645 to $2,191.
I have used VTIP to hold the proceeds from maturing TIPS in excess of that that can be used to roll to another TIPS, but given the small amounts involved, there's not going to be much difference between VTIP and a money market fund.
Statistics: Posted by Kevin M — Sat Oct 11, 2025 6:57 pm — Replies 37 — Views 2257