I-Bonds Discussion Thread (continuation of the FW thread)

Noobs buying at the beginning of the month?! :rofl:

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Whose access/interface sucks? TD’s? It just takes some getting used to (not using the browser’s back and forward navigation also takes some getting used to).

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Grzzled veterans not waiting to enter their buy orders for the end of the month…

It says they’re turning the site off for schedule maintenance at midnight so they can catch up with all the new accounts. It let me make a trust account just now but still can’t log in to fund…

Got in just now and bought another 10k. That was more painful than trying to buy concert tickets.

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I Bond Composite Rate of 6.89% includes a Fixed Rate of 0.40%

https://www.treasurydirect.gov/news/2022/release-05-02-rates/

Fixed is not as high as I expected but not a zero either

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Here’s why https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/01/treasury-department-sold-record-series-i-bonds-on-friday.html

Wish I hadn’t maxed out, but maybe T Bills here I come.

I was expecting zero so pleasantly surprised.

Five-year tips real rate is 1.6% today and six month Tbill is 4.6%.

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I bow to your wisdom / vision, even though you didn’t exactly explain why you expected it to be non-zero. It makes little sense considering the demand (even if it was for the previous period) and the fact that there’s nothing better.

Manufactured Revocable Trusts!?

hard enough for me to handle my familys 4 SSNs.+ don’t want to deal with issues w/ Treasury. Don’t mind churning with private banks but not US Govt.

It’s neither illegal nor immoral IMO. At the very least you can have 2 individual and one joint trust without churning.

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I agree with the article

I like both investments, and I will continue to buy both.

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Hoping to gain some insight… Giving today’s interest rates, is an I-bond still a better alternative than, say, a 26- or 52-week T-bill?
–TIA

Two different animals. Depends on your goals.

How much do you want to invest? The Ibond is limited to $10 K per individual per calendar year while Tbills are unlimited

When do you need the money? You cannot cash an I bond in the first year after you buy it. You pay an interest penalty if you cash it before five years. You can sell Tbills on the secondary market anytime.

The tbill is not inflation-adjusted and the interest rate is substantially lower than inflation depending on the period when you measure the inflation.

The closest treasury security to an ibond is actually a five year tips. See the discussion by tipswatch linked by @xerty

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Thanks for the info.

Thanks for the reply. I should have given more context to my situation. I have a chunk of cash in brokerage accounts that I’ve been using to buy/reinvest short-term T-bills (mostly 4-, 8-, and 13-weeks). I don’t anticipate taking any new stock long positions in the next 6-12 months, and won’t need the cash either.

Now that the calendar year starts, I can buy another $10K in I-bonds. Question is… would $10K in an I-bond be potentially more profitable than $10K in T-bills? The uncertainty with the I-bond is the variable rate, which is why I hesitate.

If you had $10K that won’t be needed anytime soon, would you invest it in T-bills or in I-bond or something else?

My guess would be IBonds will the better return. But it’s purely a guess. You know you’ll be getting 3.45% for the year just from the first 6 months’ interest, which doesnt require much from the yet-to-be-determined second 6-month period to clear 5% for the year, and I doubt short term TBill rate will get to that level.

But when only holding for 1 year, it gets a lot trickier due to the 3-month early redemption penalty. I suspect (and it’s purely a blind guess) that when including that penalty, the net returns will basically be a wash and it really wont have mattered which you invested in.

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More discussion of I bonds and TIPS.

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