NVDA and AAPL both trade near 44x earnings with dividend yields under 0.5%, making the 5.35% 30-year Treasury a compelling income alternative for retirees.
Cramer now frames the long bond as a core retiree holding, with mega-cap stocks as satellites offering growth but no guaranteed income.
The 30-year yield climbed from 5.24% to 5.35% in one week, pressuring high-multiple stocks while rewarding new bond buyers with locked-in returns.
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Jim Cramer used his Mad Money broadcast on September 10, 2026 to make a case that has been slowly building all year: long-dated Treasuries are once again a serious rival to stocks for investors at or near retirement. His comment, in full: “But historically it’s not so bad to get a 5.3% risk free return. Believe me, when you get older you can still own some Nvidia and some Apple. You might like a little Chevron or a Procter too.”
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The framing matters because it positions the long bond as a credible core holding again for older investors, with mega-cap tech relegated to a satellite role while retirees keep their winners.
What the 30-Year Yield Actually Is
On September 11, 2026, the 30-year Treasury constant maturity yield closed at 5.35%. The rest of the curve read 4.96% at the 10-year, 5.38% at the 20-year, 4.63% at the 2-year, and 4.07% at the 3-month bill. A constant maturity yield is a standardized figure the Treasury publishes by interpolating from actively traded issues, so a 30-year reading always reflects a bond with roughly that time to maturity, even as individual issues age.
The long bond matters specifically because it locks a coupon for the longest span the government offers. For someone planning income into their eighties, that duration is the point.
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Look at what a retiree gets from the two names Cramer called out.
NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) carries a market cap of roughly $5.27 trillion and a trailing P/E near 44. The board just raised the payout, with the latest quarterly dividend at $0.25 and an annualized forward rate of $1.00, but the yield still rounds to essentially nothing. The stock is up 17.32% year to date and 875.38% over five years. Q2 FY2027 revenue hit $96.22 billion, up 105.8% year over year, with Data Center revenue of $89.02 billion on the Blackwell Ultra ramp. Those are extraordinary numbers, and they come with beta of 2.217.
NVDA Price Target — 24/7 Wall St.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is the calmer name, but only by comparison. Market cap sits near $4.85 trillion, trailing P/E around 43, quarterly dividend at $0.27 for a yield of roughly 0.32%. Fiscal Q3 2026 revenue reached $109.42 billion, up 16.4% year over year, detailed in the company’s 8-K filing. Shares have run 44.98% over the past year and 22.56% year to date.
AAPL Price Target — 24/7 Wall St.
The Real Tradeoff for Retirees
The 5.35% on the 30-year is contractual and backed by the U.S. government. A dividend is a board decision every quarter. That is the key distinction. In exchange for accepting that decision risk, an equity holder gets two things a bond does not deliver: dividends that can grow, and a share price that can compound. Apple has walked its quarterly payout from $0.23 in early 2023 to $0.27 in 2026, and NVIDIA has authorized $99 billion in remaining buybacks.
The catch on the bond side is that yield is only risk free if the bond is held to maturity. Sell early, and the price fluctuates. The catch on the equity side is valuation. Paying 43 times earnings for a company with a 0.32% yield leaves no margin if growth slows. This is the same reframing behind our free guide on why the 4% rule is wobbling and what an income-first approach looks like instead.
What to Watch Next
The 30-year has drifted higher, from 5.24% on September 4 to 5.35% on September 11. Any further move up rewards new bond buyers and pressures long-duration equity multiples. NVIDIA’s Q3 FY2027 guide of $108.0 billion plus or minus 2% will test whether AI capex still supports a 44 P/E when Treasuries pay north of 5%. That is the calculation older investors are actually running.
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