10-year TIPS auction yield is 1.43%

Maybe I’m only dreaming, but it sure would be nice if Treasury Direct offered an IRA (or even better a Roth IRA) option. I’d participate in a lot more TIPS auctions if that were the case.

In the meantime, there are brokerages that will let you have an IRA and participate in TIPS auctions with no fees. I use Fidelity, but I know others are out there too.

But it does seem strange that TreasuryDirect doesn’t handle it itself. In particular, it’d be nice to be able to have I-bonds in a Roth. I hope that the adding of trusts and organizations and the like to TreasuryDirect last year is a sign that they’re working on adding that kind of functionality.

Those of us in the private sector receive our full social security retirement benefit at age 67. The typical government employee receives both their retirement medical benefit and pension at age 52 (15 years earlier than the rest of us). And they receive $75,000 per year pensions on average while we only receive $12,000 per year social security payouts on average. A typical government retiree package (medical + pension) at age 52 has a present day value of $4,500,000 while the present day value of our social security and medicare at age 67 is only $480,000 (almost 1/10th of the value of their package). At the same time…I fear that the government will take away our U.S. Savings Bonds so that they won’t have to cut government employee pension benefits….is this possible??

Patty - could you please provide the source of these figures?

I know your very first statement is wrong - you don’t receive the full SS benefit at 67, so I suspect the rest of your us-versus-them message is full of misinformation as well.

So, bluntly, get the facts and stop spewing hate messages.

Tom Adams

Sorry Tom but the commentor is correct for those born in 1960 and after. http://www.socialsecurity.gov/retirement/1960.html
If you were born in 1960 or later, Your full retirement age is 67

Hi Tom,
My error. What I should have said is that for people born after 1960…the “full retirement age” (as the Social Security Dept. refers to it) is age 67. See link below for details.

http://www.ssa.gov/retire2/agereduction.htm

Patty - I apologize for saying that your first statement was wrong. Although you can continue to increase your SS benefit by retiring after 67, you are correct that the SSA calls 67 “full retirement age.”

But I was hoping you’d provide references for the rest of your statements.

I believe they are misinformation because, for example, my sister is a government employee. She’s a teacher. None of the other facts in your message apply to her.

Do they apply to people in the armed forces? Do they apply to the police or firemen in your town?

To get back on the topic of Savings Bonds - Savings Bonds make up a tiny percentage of the US debt. Most of the debt is held by foreign countries.

There are a lot of reasons for you and those foreign countries to be worried that you won’t get your money back, but I’d put the benefits of government workers near the bottom of the list.

What most concerns me is that the financial system has captured the government. Capitalism has been defined as greed rather than trust. Personally, I place the blame for this squarely on the Bush administration and the Republican congress of that time.

Tom Adams

As a civil service employee hired before 1984 I will be eligible for a fully taxed pro-rated pension at age 55. Some law enforcement and military people can retire earlier. In 1984 the vast majority of federal employees are under the FERS retirement system which combines a limited federal pension with social security the need to work until 62 to get a pension I blame Obama and the Dem controlled congress for bringing in the Goldman Sachs /Wall street gang to keep Wall Street not Main Street in control of our nations financial system. Lets not confuse criticism and distorted facts with hate. PS.The average federal pension is no way near 75K At 30 years service one would get 56% of hi 3yr base pay. A govt pension is in fact much more generous than social security however combine social security and a private pension/profit sharing program private sector plans are often better

http://opm.gov/forms/pdfimage/RI90-1.pdf

tom, do you think now is a good time to invest in a tips mutual fund

Greg - It was the Clinton administration that brought in the Wall Street Gang. The Bush years made it even worse by appointing Henry Paulson - former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs - as Secretary of the Treasury and by not regulating anything. And I agree with you that the Obama administration - for all it’s claims of change - has nothing to be proud of in this area. You are also correct that I may have confused criticism and distorted facts with hate.

Steve - Your link to the Federal Employee Retirement System benefit overview is interesting, but the “typical government employee” doesn’t work for the federal government, but for state and local governments and school districts. Moreover, as Greg points out, these benefits are equivalent to the private sector’s retirement benefits, not to Social Security. Both the private sector and the public get SS on top of the retirement benefits provided by the employer.

Kevin - If you are talking about moving a large sum of money from some other investment into TIPS, I don’t know if now is a good time. If you are talking about beginning to make regular monthly investments in a TIPS fund as part of an overall investment strategy, yes, now is a good time.

Tom Adams