This'll be the Savings Bonds & U.S Treasury Securities Item, Where we can gossip about EE Bonds, HH Bonds, I-Bonds, T-Bills, and T-Notes! Alot has changed over the past few year in regards to Treasuries: -Savings bonds (both I & EE) now have a minimum holding period of a year. (previously it was only 6 months) -The HH Bond has dropped from 4% to 1.5% for the first time in 10 years. -In Oct 2001 the Treasury suspended it issuing of Treasury Bonds, and is now calling 30-year bond issued in 1978 in early. Discuss.4 responses total.
So a few weeks ago my mom sent me a EE savings bond that she had bought in Dec 1989. It had a face-value of $50, meaning she paid $25 for it back in 1989. So I put all the info into the Savings Bond Wizard - a free program to calculation the current price of U.S. Savings bonds - and it gives me a current price of $53.94 interesting.... 53.94 - 25 = $28.94 [earned in interest] 28.94/25 [ratio of interest to principle] = 115.76% ROI 115.76%/13.5 [yrs] = approx 8.57% APY so I did a few more calculations for kicks. EOY APY 1996 7.326 1997 7.56 1998 7.813 1999 8.064 2000 8.334 2001 8.607 2002 8.578 well I go to http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/sav/savoldee.htm and it says midway down on the page: "Bonds with issue dates of November 1986 through February 1993 have a guaranteed minimum rate of 6% per year, compounded semiannually, for their 12-year original maturity period." well the 12th year would have been Dec 2001. I guess from now on the rate is gonna be base of the market-based rate - which is 85% of yields of 5 year Treasury securities for the previous 6 months. Notice from 2001 to 2002 the avg yield went down? Furthermore while the nominal APY is 8.5% APY, after calculating in the cost of inflation ( http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl ), the Real APY drops down to approx 5.021% APY. 115.76% [Nominal ROI] - 47.98% [CPI-U adj for 2003] = Real ROI 67.78% 67.78% / 13.5 = 5.021% Real APY Not that I'm complaining. A real 5.02% kicks the crap out of a nominal 1% Money Market Account.
And now, you can buy bonds with a credit card. This practice has lead to a plethora of interesting opportunities for those who have a 0% introductory APR on their cards, and/or have rewards/cashback credit cards
I have an old savings bond that was bought for me when I was born. It reaches maturity after 30 years, so I'll cash it in shortly after I turn 30.
The current rate for EE bonds is 2.66% and is guaranteed to reach face value in 17 years. The current rate for I bonds is 4.66% but it has no guaranteed level of earnings since it is adjusted for inflation relatedd cost of living expenses.
You have several choices: