And that's the good news.

According to Crane Data, which tracks money funds, 465 out of 747 taxable money-market funds are yielding 0.01% or less, with 135 of them at yields of zero. That's 0.00%, zilch, zippo, nil, nada, bupkis.

The average money-fund yield dipped even lower in 2014, but in today's environment, there's barely any yield to be found anywhere else in the fixed-income markets either. In March, not even a 30-year U.S. Treasury yielded more than 1%, and this week most of the Treasury yield curve sits barely above zero:

Diversified bond index funds? If you're lucky, you can find one that yields as much as 1.1%.

Governments have flooded the world with liquidity, and everywhere income investors look, there's nothing but sand.

In this income desert, it's tempting to reach for yield: junk bonds, emerging-market debt, business-development companies, mortgage REITs, high-dividend stocks—anything whose yield begins with a digit greater than 1.

But you can't safely get fat yields in a 1% world.

In Greek mythology, Tantalus was condemned to spend eternity in fresh water that would recede as soon as he tried to drink it and under a tree whose sweet fruit would sway out of his grasp as soon as he reached for it. The word "tantalize" derives from his name.

Don't be tantalized into reaching for yield. Painful as it may be, I urge investors to stick with ultra-safe, low-yielding choices for their cash: I-bonds, online bank accounts, CDs. The whole point of holding cash isn't to generate a high return; it's to keep your money safe.

This yield drought won't last forever, but it could last long enough to stretch many people's patience past the breaking point. Discipline matters the most when it's the hardest to achieve. As I've often said, successful investing depends, at most, 10% on knowing what to do and at least 90% on knowing what not to do. 

Reaching for yield never ends well. Just ask Tantalus.

What are you doing with your portfolio to get a little more income in this yield drought without compromising safety? Let me know.

Be well and invest well,

Jason

Did a friend forward this email? Sign up here.

Here are some of the best things I found last week outside The Wall Street Journal:

• A detailed, down-home look at Warren Buffett as he prepares to celebrate his 90th birthday this coming Sunday (Omaha World-Herald, h/t @jtkoster)
• What's the most important number in personal finance? It measures how disciplined you are at turning your income into net worth, says blogger Nick Maggiuli
• Are tech stocks and other expensive shares really less risky than value stocks? No, says analyst Nicolas Rabener
• But buying value stocks is actually like short-selling technological progress, argues investor Kai Wu
• Low interest rates may be driven by demographic waves that could take decades to reverse, say two University of California researchers
• To make positive future memories out of the coronavirus lockdown, find new places to sequester yourself, suggests economist Tim Harford
• The rugged dreamscapes that artist Gladys conjures up out of stock charts are spectacularly beautiful (h/t @LibertyRPF)

Here are some of the best things I read recently in The Wall Street Journal:

• The booming business of big energy companies buying forests and turning them into pollution credits, by the intrepid Ryan Dezember
• What don't employers and employees alike know exactly what to do with right now? It's called vacation, write Anne Steele and Chip Cutter
• Companies seem to be treating this year's virtual annual meetings as an opportunity to muzzle shareholders, Nina Trentmann shows (related research paper here)
• The typical stock in the S&P 500 has never been more expensive, warns Paul Vigna
• The pandemic may be driving a deeper wedge between the haves and the have-nots among American workers, says Christopher Mims 
• Even so, working remotely can offer astute employees new opportunities to shine, contends Rachel Feintzeig
• Our reviewer likes a new biography of the witty, politically muddled and dazzlingly brilliant British biologist J.B.S. Haldane

After my column on Morgan Housel's new book The Psychology of Money, I asked: What does money mean to you? Here are a few thoughts from readers.

I would reply with a very insightful piece of philosophy: “The most uncomfortable place to live is just beyond your means.”  It’s another way of saying “wanting to spend less money than you have.” —Denny Alexander

Born in 1932, one of nine children, to a coal miner father and homemaker mother — we learned it’s what you do with money that makes it important. We all turned out to be frugal but generous, thrifty but never cheap, enough money to enjoy life but not enough to be big spenders. —Joan Zimmerman

Once I realized that we could, and indeed preferred to, spend less than we have, it changed my perspective. I became responsible for using that excess wealth in as positive way as possible to help our family and our community. Instead of owning the account, I became a steward of the account, using as much wisdom as I can muster to make things a bit better for others. —Patrick Townsend

In the old legend the wise men finally boiled down the history of mortal affairs into the single phrase, “This too will pass.” Confronted with a like challenge to distill the secret of sound investment into three words, we venture the motto, MARGIN OF SAFETY.

— Benjamin Graham