Which of our Series I Savings Bonds should we redeem?
Friday, August 26th, 2005
Categorized as: Cashing in US Savings Bonds • Series I US Savings Bonds
We need some advice on cashing in Series I bonds. We are purchasing a new house and we need some cash. We have approximately $30,000.00 in I bonds and we would like to cash in about $8,000.00.
Tom’s response
Each Series I Savings Bond has its own base rate, which is fixed for the life of the bond at issue and varies from 1.0% to 3.6%. Consequently, some Series I Bonds pay a lot more interest than others, so you need to be careful about which ones you redeem.
My book, , gives every issue of I bond an Alert Recommendation, which is a letter grade similar to your kid’s report card, that can help you decide which I bonds to redeem.
The ones you redeem must be at least one year old. You forego the last three months interest on any that aren’t at least five years old - this amount has already been deducted from the bond redemption values displayed by our calculator.
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Tom Adams