Its my duty to call you guys out as being "ok, not real smart". Wait, lets make that "IN NEED OF REMEDIAL EDUCATION", in caps for shouting. The more modern folks would chide me for being so blunt, and just call you math challenged and uninformed. Go back to school, learn just a little, then come back and talk to us.

Yes, I've got some of our retirement savings in the worthless bonds you deride. We've had some for years, and those at times didn't really pay market rates.

But the I series bonds we purchased in 2000 are still paying about 7.75% interest. Lets see your local bank beat that. Go out and google I bonds and follow the links. Better still, they accrue interest and I don't have to pay the income tax until I cash them. The ones I bought in 2000 (back then you and your wife could each purchase $30,000) have just doubled. I bonds are sold at face value and begin being worth more at the first interest period. You can't cash them for the first year and then you take a penalty for the first 5, like a CD at a bank. Except the bank CDs are paying maybe 1% right now.

The treasury is stupid. They're going to kill off the goose that laid the golden egg.

Oh, I bonds are interest adjusted. That means you get a composite interest rate, adjusted every May 1 and November 1. You get the fixed rate in effect when the bond was issued, plus the inflation rate based on the CPI-U over the prior 6 months (times 2 because its for only 6 months.)

Go read up on savings bonds before you call them old fashioned. It might well be a much better investment than the places where you're dumping your money currently.

Edited to add: whoops, I lied. Our bonds from 2000 are currently paying 8.28%.

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Dick Burg