Read Mary’s story:

Buying a CD at 2% from Bank of America is like buying a sweater at Bloomingdale’s for top dollar when everyone knows they can go down the street to TJ Maxx and buy the same thing for less or get interest paying 4-7%; equivalent to a 50% discount at the retail store. In the world of interest-bearing instruments, the lower the price for the future payments results in a higher overall rate of return.

Say, for example, Bill gave an investor $50,000 and received $1000 per year, creating a return of 2% a year. Now, Bill needs money immediately to pay for a new car, fix the roof of their house, pay medical bills, or college for their child. What can he do? Bill could sell it to somebody else in a secondary market. Bill, in order to pay these expenses quickly, sells it to Ted for $25,000. Ted gets the same $1000 per year, but only paid $25,000. Ted, now getting a 4% return, just doubled Bill’s original rate of return and tripling his bank’s lousy rate of return.

Now you see the difference between buying a CD from a bank in the “primary” market versus buying the same cash flow in the “secondary” market. You get the monthly income for half as much, thus doubling your overall rate of return. What is the downside to this? Well, your large chunk of money, in this case, $25,000 is tied up in monthly payments. Not a big deal if you are saving for the future, but if you get yourself in a pickle like Bill did, you have options. Because you negotiated such a good price, you could resell it for more or less what you paid. You may not see this occurring in the real world, but these transactions happen everyday and they are guaranteed by the most secure insurance companies in the world. Those payments are typically insured again by the state of origin, creating a very safe investment.