Paper Savings Bonds?

[Maximumbob54]

Am I the only one that is going to miss these and feels like we may be shooting ourselves in the foot on this one???

I just feel like without that tangible feeling given by having a stack of bonds locked in a box or getting a new one in the mail from payroll deduction may be turning more than just me into ignoring them. I was having a $10 draft from each check and enjoyed still getting them in the mail. And yes, even with the dismal rates. They were my best form of visible savings that I could always count on being good with.

At thirty two I don't feel like I'm being old fashioned.

Treasury Announces The End Of Paper Savings Bonds - The Consumerist

 

[Fishslayer]

I've got a couple K worth of EE or EEE (I R old) in a safe deposit box. Relics of my USN payroll deductions.

Sadly, I'm considering cashing 'em because they are no longer the "good as gold" documents they use to be.

Maybe one day I'll take 'em to Vegas and sell 'em to Rick...

...after he calls a buddy who knows all about worthless .gov paper.

 

[truckemup97]

We have a few that my wife's grandparents bought for our daughter when she was little. I've been saving those, because my grandparents did the same for me as a graduation present. I bought a really, really nice pair of boots and matching belt with mine (Mercedes elephant). Hopefully hers will be worth enough to buy some pencils for college.

 

[pharmer]

If I'm not mistaken, the EE bonds and some others only accrue interest for 30 years. Check the dates. Joe

 

[Just another 22 shooter]

My wife and i bought bonds to help save up for our son's higher education. We started when he was in 3rd or 4th grade. We were sorely disappointed at the return when we cashed them in when we needed them. I'm pretty well soured on US savings bonds.

 

[Steve in Vermont]

We converted our bonds from paper several years ago. They ask for bank information, etc, making it easy to check rates and cash them in. We had mixed feelings. Nice to have the paper but if they were lost or stolen it would be a real pain. It appears almost everything is going electronic.

 

[The Last Standing Knight]

Paper bonds outlived their usefulness years ago. I still have a couple from my old service days myself...will probably frame them on the wall when we go to the Amero eventually.

 

[OKFC05]

Paper bonds are worse than obsolete, they are dangerous to hold. If they are damaged, you get back the original purchase price and lose all the gain.
I have closed my treasury direct account (used for purchasing t bills and such) and disposed of all US, European, and Japanese government bonds and funds that hold them while they were still saleable. If you believe the Fed chairman, any default or appearance of default could make them non-negotiable for an unspecified time.

 

[rburg]

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%.

 

[rburg]

OK, now a story about I bonds. My wife is a nurse who works for a doctors group. She was working in administration, not training as a TSA agent doing indignities to patients.... They had a party each summer at the head doctors house (mansion, mostly.) I didn't want to go, my feeling being that husbands are only there to be tortured. Two groups, the hens cackling in one area, the doctors in another. I felt like a sore thumb, and considered getting roaring drunk just to ease my boredom.

But the doctor who put the shindig on felt sorry for me. So he ordered me over to the male grouping. The doctors were all discussing where they were investing their money. One fund or another, and each was trying to sell the others on their savvy investing skills. When they got to me, I told them it was a secret and I didn't want to amuse them. But they persisted and I revealed we'd been buying I bonds the last few years. They all laughed at the rube. Figured they're medical educations were much better than my accounting and law. I can take a joke.

So the following year was 2003, and the dotcom crash. Same party, same division of people. I tried to hide in the pool but I was ordered out for my punishment. And around the table it went, just like the prior year. Only this time the best performers were the ones who'd only lost in the single digit percentages. So it got to me. Ugh. Head doctor asked "how are those bonds doing, Dick?" My answer "up about 8% over last year, same ole same ole". Funny thing was, no one was laughing.

Its not nor should it be your only vehicle for investing. But it represents a differed basket for some of your eggs. Yes, they're only good for the first 30 years. I plan on being long dead by 2030. The big advantage is that you can keep them in your safe deposit box at the bank. You can go there, take whatever denomination you want out, go see a teller, and sign your name on it. Then deposit it in your checking account and write a check against it. No delay as with somebody's personal check. Its government money.... good as .... well not gold, but as good as the green dollars the teller hands over to you.

 

[therevjay]

If hackers can get into (and screw up) the pentagon computer systim, why would you think the treasureys is secure?

where are your "electronic bonds" after the memory banks are wiped?

Paper is real.

 

[Cyrano]

I've only got one; a $12 Series E my father bought for me in WW II. It has both our names on it (and his rank as well) as I was only 11 at the time.

 

[OKFC05]

Its my duty to call you guys out as being "ok, not real smart".

The ones I bought in 2000

. You get the fixed rate in effect when the bond was issued,

Not so fast.
You get props for being smart enough to buy them when the interest rates were high, but interest rates are in the toilet now for new bond purchases.
I have some tax free muni bonds from the same period that are paying 7% up to 8 1/2% tax free, but current issue munis rates are also in the dumper.

If we could go back in time and pick the optimum time to buy and sell any type of investment, we'd be billionaires.

 

[Andy Griffith]

I'm with Beauregard Clanghorn on the investment strategy...

I must be the last fellow buying Confederate Bonds.

When I can get them cheap that is...

An old box of Confederate cash isn't as worthless as everyone thought since I've watched American Pickers.

At least, the Confederacy can't collect taxes on it...so it's semi-tax free.

 

[BE Mike]

The fact of the matter is that paper magazines, newspapers, books and documents are on the way out. Times have changed and either you go with the times or be left behind.

 

[rburg]

We also bought bonds in 2001, 2002, and so on. We dumped the 2003 and 2006 because I needed money and those were the under performing ones. Bought 2008 and 2009 but dumped them because of the low rates and the $5000 limit. When you buy the bonds, you didn't know or understand if they'd be good or bad. Its not picking in the past, its dumping the ones that turn out to be less good.

I also have been buying them for my grand kids. Those are the ones I regret seeing go away. We just won't be able to do that in the future. But I'll buy next years bonds before the end of this year. The goal is to give them a leg up on others who never saved anything.

 

[therevjay]

Catch up with the times

The fact of the matter is that paper magazines, newspapers, books and documents are on the way out. Times have changed and either you go with the times or be left behind.

That is true, to a point. However, I still see very spendy "wind up" & "self winding" watches for sale. Also alot of folks wearing eyeglasses. And even a few people saying they prefer guns not made of plastic.