Buying Bonds

I was thinking about the horrible budget in the city and thought "self, what can do you to help that would also help you out?"

I came up with a municipal bond. I go to my broker and attempt to find something worthwhile.
Many of the bonds pay ~5-6%, so it wouldn't be so bad right now to invest in some bonds.

Turns out, you can not get your feet wet in bonds. The minimum bond that I could find/buy could only be bought in 10 lots of $1,000 each ($10,000). I don't feel comfortable spending that sort of cash on something that I really don't know anything about. Also, knowing my municipality, who knows, they could go belly-up.

I think that they could get much more interest in those types of bonds if they let you buy them in $1,000 increments, or even better yet, $100. I started buying t-bills when they made the smallest size be in $100 increments. The small size let me try out the system and see how it works without being worried that I would screw something up and lose a bunch of cash.

There has to be a market for something that pays 5% right now on increments of like $100 or $1000. It would be a good way to start people off on the different vehicles, and then when they make more income, they can move up in price.

I'm staying away from bonds for a while and would have invested if it was available in my price bracket.