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Old 10-10-2011, 04:14 PM
rburg rburg is offline
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Location: Kentucky, USA
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Even the meager percentages the EE bonds were paying looks pretty darn good these days. In 2000 we started dumping excess retirement savings into I bonds. Those are currently paying 8%. They do adjust every 6 months, and it will probably be only 5+% from November to next May.

But the good thing is they aren't losing money like checking and savings accounts, or the worst option, the stock market. Everyone keeps insisting it will come back. Maybe they're right. The problem is, I may be long since dead when it starts to perform again. And you've got to live until then. So you eat away your principal when you'd hoped and planned on living on profits.

So the advice everyone used to give was to sell off your savings bonds, they were a poor investment. The best advice these days is to look hard at the interest rate they pay, then compare it to someplace else you want to stick your money. The only bad part about the bonds is they eventually mature and stop paying interest. In that situation, you almost are forced to cash them in and pay your income taxes.

Another benefit is you don't pay state income tax on US Government bonds. Here where I live, its just another 6% tax you get to save.
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