Savings Bond advise?

Question

I have been purchasing series EE bonds for about 2 years now, one $100.00 bond every month. I have 23 bonds. Should I start alternating with I Bonds? I know the EE Bonds stop losing interest at 30 years. Does that mean that the value only goes to $100.00? Or does it go above that? I need to know if these are good investments.

Answer 1

Contrary to the 1st responder you bonds continue to earn interest for 30 years. And at that time they will be worth much more than $100 each. You can go to here to find out the scoop.

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/products/prod_eebonds_glance.htm

I bonds would be an alternative to consider. They of course are inflation protected.

Are they good investments? Not too good in my opinion. The return is very low. It is a decent way to save money that will not be tempted to spend but in my opinion a better approach would be to investigate investing with American Funds. If historic returns hold true, you will wind up with about 8% better return annually.

http://www.americanfunds.com/funds/returns/alphabetically.htm

Answer 2

Yes, that means a 100 dollar face now (which you paid much less for ) in 30 years will be 100

Stop buying that junky yield stuff like Government bonds. Those things arent competitive yields nowdays. Example, today the
I-bond for last 6 months pays only 4.2% look on the web under I-bonds and see the latest 6 month rate.

Only advantage I see in bonds is you can defer interest.

Why in the world are you buying that junk stuff. For what?? Go and buy some FDIC insured CD's that are called ZEROES. They yield near 6.7 to 7.0 % and mature in 30 years. Of course you will pay taxes on them each year, unless you got them in an IRA, but look at the yield . Look on www.fisn.com and find ZEROS in the CD section. Schwab sells them too.

You can also take your money to Schwab or Fidelity. At those brokerage houses you can get near 5% on your money in a money market fund and you can buy Government sponsored housing FHA bonds near 6% or more. Corporates are like 6.25% /7.0%.

I am not somebody selling anything to you. I am a private individual telling you to cash in those bonds and buy no more of them Invest your money at much higher rates.

Answer 3

You will yeild more for your money with Certificates of Deposit. I would suggest cashing those bonds in and start stacking your money in CD's. You can earn up to 5% with an investment of $10,000 or more in some places.

Answer 4

I would stop buying them, but not cash them out. Start saving for a couple month and my Certificates of deposit at your local bank. You can get around 5% +- They are completely insured by FDIC if you have less then 100,000 in any one bank. If you use 2 banks you can have fully protected up to 200,000(100,000 at each bank. You will get better rates with CDs and it is easier to cash them if you need to.