I carry munis in FIRE. They give me great peace of mind. I don't do a ladder though. I buy Closed End Funds. I get the benefit of some leverage that way so yield is around 6%. See IIM, IQI, NEA, NVG.
I own some Muni CEFs too - you can get some great returns but there is risk due to the leverage.
* If interest rates rise then the net asset values will fall dramatically. Fine if you don't plan to sell but what if the manager winds up the fund or merges with another fund - some potential for the income to fall. I think "duration" is the concept you want to be aware of.
* Also make sure you understand discounts/premiums before investing in these - I wouldn't touch anything with a double digit premium (i.e. the market is paying 10%+ above the net asset value of the underlying bonds, makes no sense to me).
* Fees - most CEF's have 1%+ management fees on top of the interest costs.
* Potentially safer to invest in MUB (the vanguard muni ETF, no leverage, super low fees) but returns are half what a leveraged CEF will give you.
I get the benefit of some leverage that way so yield is around 6%. See IIM, IQI, NEA, NVG.
*
http://www.cefconnect.com/closed-end-funds-daily-pricing is a great site to research CEFs
* All of the tickers you list currently pay less than 6% based on today's prices.
* So I suspect you've made some capital gains on the underlying funds - congrats but keep in mind the risks above.
Back to the OP's question - I like the sound of directly buying a bond ladder but here are some considerations:
* what are your transaction costs? You will pay higher fees than a fund and if you are not buying new issues (at the broker auction? can you even do this as a civilian?) then you will pay a hefty spread since the market is not very liquid. This will eat into your returns.
* muni bonds can default (Puerto Rico currently, other states in the past) - how diversified are you planning to be? You would want quite a few bonds to spread the risk but then the transaction fees build up.
* what is the return you can achieve taking into the account the above? I'd compare to whats available in ETFs/CEFs, might be less hassle.