Lance Roberts calls current Treasury yields a gift: $1 million at 5% generates $50,000 annually before Social Security. The 10-year Treasury yield hit 4.94%, sitting at the 97.6th percentile of its trailing-year range, making this an unusually high-yield moment. Treasury interest is exempt from state and local taxes, improving after-tax returns versus CDs or corporate bonds at similar yields.
Read More: Avoid these 13 retirement mistakes before they derail your future (sponsor) Financial strategist Lance Roberts, speaking on Thoughtful Money with Adam Taggart, put it plainly: "For people going into retirement, this is a gift. I mean, I can now take $1 million in my retirement, pick up 5% a year. There's $50,000 of my income I don't have to worry about.", according to Thoughtful Money with Adam Taggart The choice retirees faced for over a decade, take equity risk or accept almost nothing on cash, is no longer the only option.
Government bonds now pay enough that a meaningful piece of retirement income can come from Treasuries alone, before Social Security is layered on top. Roberts argues the "There Is No Alternative" trade, which pushed savers into stocks because cash and bonds paid nothing, has reversed. Roberts said, "The Tina trade is now over because the alternative is I can just sit in cash money markets right now and get over 3%." He added that he can "buy Treasuries in the 5 to 7 year duration, pick up 4.5%." On the institutional side, pension funds and insurance companies typically target roughly 7% annual returns, according to Thoughtful Money with Adam Taggart.
Roberts noted: "Now I can go buy Treasury bonds at 5%. I've got to make 2% out of my equity side, according to Thoughtful Money with Adam Taggart. So all of a sudden I can vastly reduce my risk curve on the equity side." The same logic applies to individual retirees.
One investment mistake could create big risks for your retirement. Many investors make the same critical errors: being too conservative, making big bets on "sure things," or paying excessive fees. Any of those blunders can endanger your hard-earned savings.
Now you can learn the mistakes even experienced investors make (and ways you can sidestep them before it's too late) with this new guide: 13 Retirement Mistakes and How to Avoid Them from Fisher Investments. Access your complimentary copy here (sponsor) Roberts is describing an unusual moment, not a routine one. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was 4.94% on September 17, 2026, which sits at the 97.6th percentile of its trailing-year range.
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