Wealth guru Bill Gross is confident investors can grow their portfolios by being conservative.

“I don’t especially think that stocks are going to go up 10% over the next 12 months, and so stick to those safe arbitrage, those closed-end funds that yield 6 to 7 to 8%," he said during an interview with the Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.

"Those are in my own personal portfolio and you know it’s been looking good for the past 12 months,” he said.

Although the U.S. economy is expected to grow over 2% in the first quarter, Gross says the U.S. needs to produce a GDP of three to four percent, FBN reported.

“You need four percent nominal GDP to grow profits and that hasn’t been taking place. I don’t see a recession, but I think critically we should be looking for nominal GDP at two percent which to me would be a nominal GDP recession,” he said.

Gross, manager of the $1.3 billion Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, also expects the Federal Reserve to remain wary for the rest of the year.

“It centers around global economic conditions as opposed to domestic. I think the Fed is well-versed and very happy in terms of consumption and a 2% GDP [growth] number for the U.S., but I think they observe problems in China, they observe problems in emerging markets and think eventually that those problems might come back to the United States and so they are cautious," he said.

"They probably won’t move in March and they may not move for the rest of the year depending upon those conditions.”

Gross, 71, took over the Janus fund in October 2014 after being ousted from Pacific Investment Management Co., where he led the Pimco Total Return Fund to become the world’s largest mutual fund.

Related Stories:

• Bill Gross Gives Thumbs Down to Negative Interest Rates
• Bill Gross Asks World's Central Bankers: 'How's It Workin' for Ya?'