Here's Why to Buy I Bonds from Treasury Direct

Why would anyone want to buy I Bonds? Does a guaranteed interest rate of 7.12% do anything for you?

While you may not be a huge fan of the issuer — that would be the U.S. Treasury, a department of the U.S. government — you’re not going to find many safer sources of fixed income. After all, they have the power to create money.

How do you buy these I Bonds? It’s not as simple as buying shares of BND or VBTLX from Vanguard, but it’s not terribly complicated, either.

I recently lined up my first purchase of Series I Savings Bonds online from Treasury Direct, and I’ll walk you through the steps.

These bonds are not new, but they’re newly enticing. You see, the interest rate is tied to one of the U.S. Governments measure of inflation, the CPI-U, and that’s been going nowhere but up in recent months.

Why You’re Suddenly Hearing About I Bonds

In summary, it’s a combination of a fixed rate (currently 0%) and a variable rate, each of which are updated every six months in November and May. The fixed rate has been under 1% since May of 2008 and has not been above 2% since 2001.

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