Good news for inflation! 
I suspect the BLS is cooking the books. Probably going crazy with hedonic adjustments.
https://www.bls.gov/cpi/quality-adjustment/questions-and-answers.htm
Frequently Asked Questions about Hedonic Quality Adjustment in the CPI
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Mine’s staying over 9%, but mainly because I’ve agreed to the accepted 10% kickback to the big guy. 
The new rate has been posted -
4.30%
This includes a fixed rate of 0.90%
For I bonds issued May 1, 2023 to October 31, 2023.
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I always thought I-bonds were a bad deal and poo-poo’d them and never bought any for the last 15 years. When the rate hit 9.62% last year I started buying since that seemed like it was enough to compensate investors for inflation. Now that it’s back to 4.3% I am selling all my I-bonds. Maybe I’ll be back if the rate is ever good enough to compensate investors for inflation.
That’s a Russian disinformation campaign. How do I know? Because I have a letter saying so by 100 people in the intelligence community.
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Seems the time to sell 2021 and 2022 I-bonds has arrived. Even 26-week T-bills appear more attractive right now.
BTW, has anybody sold their I-bonds through TreasuryDirect?
This does not make sense. The interest rate is based on inflation PLUS a fixed component. When you bought at 9.62%, the fixed component was 0%, so the composite rate was pure inflation. Now the fixed component is 0.9%, so the composite rate is actually better than inflation.
This assumes that you actually believe that the official inflation numbers correspond to reality all of the time, not just when you find it convenient.
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Yeah, isn’t that the point? They float based on CPI, but not necessarily your personal definition of inflation based on your spending habits.
And they are superior to other bonds in that you can always redeem them at par value minus 3 months interest
4.30% is for purchases during 5/1/23 to 11/30/23, but what’s the rate on iBonds purchased prior to 5/1/23?
The rate depends on when they were purchased…
I think selling the I-Bonds with the 0% fixed component and paying the penalty at the new rate, then buying the new I-Bonds with the 0.9% fixed component breaks even around 11 months (=(0.0338x3/12)/0.0092x12). If you sell at the beginning of the month and re-buy at the end of the month, as one always should, the break even is < 8 months.
Personally I don’t have to make any decisions until October, and by then we’ll have a good idea about the November rate.
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Dont sell until 3-months after the low rate kicks in. Otherwise you’re paying the high rate for the penalty.
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Well the point for me to buy them is so I can get a guaranteed high rate based on inflation that already happened. In that sense, they’re a fixed rate 12-15 month CD that is sometimes quite attractive relative to other 1-1.5 year CD options. The inflation stuff is just a side note and doesn’t matter at all if you time your purchases right.
Longer term it matters if you keep holding them of course .
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That’s funny!
A good set of articles on I-bonds by Harry Sit
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As I get ready to cash my I-bonds, I was wondering if any of you have sold your I-bonds held at TD. If so, was it straightforward? Any issues to keep an eye on?
–TIA
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Yes, it was straigthforward. No issues.
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Thanks, Turtlebug.
No problem. I did use a bank I already had linked to my TD account. I do not know how it would go if you try to cash in while linking a new/different bank.
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