Does the new I bond rate have you worried?

Monday, May 15th, 2006
Categorized as: Yesterday's News (old post archive)

I bought a bunch of I bonds with a rate of 6.73% in December. What’s the rate now? I don’t want to earn under 3%! What should I do?

Tom’s response

Just hang on. The rate will change again in six months. Over long terms, inflation runs in the 2.5% to 4% range. Add that to your bond’s 1.0% base rate and you get 3.5% to 5%. If inflation runs even higher than that, you’ll get even even higher rates.

Your bond will earn 6.73% for six months (Dec - Jun), then 2.01% for six months - this is an annual yield of 3.85%, well above your goal and within the historical range you can expect with this kind of investment.

You are hedged against any risk of default, any risk of inflation, and any risk of capital loss. Your investment also has tax advantages. In today’s environment, this is a great place for money you can’t afford to lose.

Rate this post (1 to 5 stars): 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars
(Average rating: 4.50 stars)
Loading...

FDIC Insured Certificates of Deposit can pay 1 or 2% more than savings bonds when held for a similar length of time. See top CD Rates Below:

One Comment

On May 15th, 2006 Dan said:

It’s also worth mentioning that, when you’re finally able to redeem, it’s the LAST three months worth of interest that is sacrificed to early redemption penalty.

So at the 12-month mark, if the new fixed rate at that time is significantly better, you could just cash out those 1% fixed rate I-bonds and replace with the new. Your only sacrifice would be 3 months of interest at the lower rate and an extra year before you can withdraw penalty-free.

Comments Closed

June 1, 2010

After six years, over 400 posts, 3,680 real comments, and over 90,000 spam comments (thank you, Akismet, for making managing a blog with comments possible), I am closing public comments on Savings-Bond-Advisor.com. I will contine to update the main articles on this site, but not the comments.

Virtually every question about Savings Bonds has been asked and answered on this site multiple times. Use the search feature (see the box in the gray area near the top of this page) or the detailed menu on the lower part of the home page to find the information you're looking for.

Tom Adams

Savings Bond Calculator



Help

Savings Bond
Questions

Get an answer to your questions from the Treasury's Savings Bonds team.

Click below to ask a question.

Ask the Treasury