Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Discussion of the Bond portion of the Permanent Portfolio

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Kbg
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Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by Kbg » Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:10 am

Probably looking at a 6.56% rate...https://tipswatch.com/
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by pp4me » Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:36 pm

I'm not an I-Bond hater, just a Treasury Direct hater. I just wish there was somewhere else to buy them.

After closing our accounts a couple of years ago I managed to open a new one for my wife the other day and deposited $10k. When I tried doing the same thing for myself, it told me I already had an account, even though it tells me my old account no longer exists. Gave me a number to call but I haven't been able to bring myself to call it yet.
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by dualstow » Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:28 pm

pp4me wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:36 pm
I'm not an I-Bond hater, just a Treasury Direct hater. I just wish there was somewhere else to buy them.
+1
Clunkiest website ever. I was locked out for years. I would surely have bought more i-bonds in the past several years, but I just hate the website.
RIP Marcello Gandini
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by jalanlong » Thu Sep 16, 2021 3:06 pm

dualstow wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:28 pm
pp4me wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:36 pm
I'm not an I-Bond hater, just a Treasury Direct hater. I just wish there was somewhere else to buy them.
+1
Clunkiest website ever. I was locked out for years. I would surely have bought more i-bonds in the past several years, but I just hate the website.
They recently "updated" the website and you cannot link a new bank to your profile online. You have to take a form and have it signed at a bank in order to add a new bank account to your profile.
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by barrett » Thu Sep 16, 2021 6:35 pm

dualstow wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:28 pm
Clunkiest website ever. I was locked out for years. I would surely have bought more i-bonds in the past several years, but I just hate the website.
dualstow,

Were you trying to redeem bonds via Treasury Direct or just check on their value? This is our first year using the site and no problems so far. Wife & I both bought $10,000 worth of I-Bonds earlier this year. Planning to buy more in early 2022 but your post gives me pause.
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dualstow
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by dualstow » Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:47 pm

Oh, don’t worry, Barrett. I was able to get done what i wanted to. I have only redeemed paper bonds so far - did that at a bank. Although, I also have some digital i-bonds that were probably ready to be redeemed a few years ago. I should look into that. O0

My two problems were (a) Any time I hit the back button on my browser I set the website into a tailspin.

(b) Log in problems. And then — this part is on me — I failed my own seurity question on the phone because i had made up fake answers and didn’t record them well back then. So I was locked out. I just left things like that for a few years, thinking if I couldn’t get in, maybe thieves couldn’t either. Then I went through the rigmarole to restore my credentials.

Now, a lot of time has passed since my last login. I have everything written down. They mailed some decoding thing on a credit-card-sized card. I hope I don’t get locked out again.
RIP Marcello Gandini
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by Kbg » Thu Sep 16, 2021 10:04 pm

I don't even know how long I've been on TD...never had a problem.
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by vnatale » Thu Sep 16, 2021 10:45 pm

I have now bought two years in a row with no issues.

However, this is reminding me that I still have not heard anything from the IRS regarding the $5,000 that was supposed to have been purchased via my tax return filed May 2021...so this is now four months later.
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by dualstow » Fri Sep 17, 2021 7:47 am

For the record, I haven’t had any issues buying, nor checking the status of the bonds.
RIP Marcello Gandini
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by barrett » Fri Sep 17, 2021 8:01 am

dualstow wrote:
Fri Sep 17, 2021 7:47 am
For the record, I haven’t had any issues buying, nor checking the status of the bonds.
Thanks for clarifying, dualstow.

I had to get over my strong preference for paper I-Bonds before I was able to buy the digital kind. I guess jhogue gradually brought me to drink at the cool mountain stream. I was also hesitant to add a layer of complexity if my wife should have to manage our investments on her own at some point. With that in mind I have been streamlining everything in recent years. But with so many of my old E-Bonds maturing in 2021-2023, it makes sense for us to load up again.
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by sophie » Fri Sep 17, 2021 1:32 pm

jalanlong wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 3:06 pm
dualstow wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:28 pm
pp4me wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:36 pm
I'm not an I-Bond hater, just a Treasury Direct hater. I just wish there was somewhere else to buy them.
+1
Clunkiest website ever. I was locked out for years. I would surely have bought more i-bonds in the past several years, but I just hate the website.
They recently "updated" the website and you cannot link a new bank to your profile online. You have to take a form and have it signed at a bank in order to add a new bank account to your profile.
If that's true, it's good news. They used to require a medallion stamp to change the bank account associated with an online account, and then I noticed a year or two ago that they did away with that. Glad they brought back that safeguard.

Perth Mint does this as well, which is good because their online access is pretty rudimentary plus they've already been hacked once. I wish more brokerages had that feature, at least as an option. In this day and age of hackers and fraudsters running unchecked, with all levels of law enforcement & government doing absolutely nothing to stop it, there's really no excuse.
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by dualstow » Tue Oct 12, 2021 12:02 pm

I logged into Treasury Direct for the first time in ages. It went better than I thought- just a one-time code to my email, and the password worked. I still don’t have my security question answers, so I can’t edit my profile, but that’s on me.
RIP Marcello Gandini
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by barrett » Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:47 am

This just posted at Tips Watch:

https://tipswatch.com/2021/10/13/inflat ... la-at-5-9/

So the new inflation rate for I-Bonds starting on 11/1 will be 7.12%. Also of note on that page is that the SS COLA is 5.9%. I'm guessing that the above is the "reason" that gold is spiking this morning but it could just be that Dualstow bought himself a new Maple Leaf! O0
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by dualstow » Wed Oct 13, 2021 12:23 pm

Actually I bought two Kangaroos. O0
RIP Marcello Gandini
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by Hal French » Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:01 pm

So, silly question: if I were to buy now, will I enjoy 2 weeks at 3.54%, and then everything resets to the 7.12% rate... Or would I be locked in to 3.54% for 6 months?

In other words, buy now, or wait until 11/1?
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by Kbg » Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:46 am

The rate is set every six months and you get that rate for six months regardless of the announcement date. Quick example.

Bond bought in Sept (3.54%)

Rate change on 1 Nov to 7.1%

Bond bought in Jan

September bond stays at 3.54 until March at which point it rolls to 7.1% until Sept next

January bond begins at 7.1% and will receive that rate until July

In sum, you always get the stated rate for six months regardless of what month you purchased your i-bond. Your rate begin/end dates are based on when the bond was purchased.
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by sophie » Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:13 pm

You won't miss out on the 7.12% no matter when you buy - you just have to wait a few extra months in order to get it. Meanwhile, the 3%+ interest rate is still a very good deal.

I would give serious consideration to buying in October, which gives you an extra month of interest that still beats the pants off what banks are offering, and plan to buy again in January, if you can. The January aliquot will get the 7.12% interest, and the October bonds will get it a couple months later. You'll need to keep both for 5 years or you'll lose 3 months interest - and I'm not sure if they take the first or last 3 months but I think it's the former. That's why delaying won't help you in the long run.
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by jalanlong » Thu Oct 14, 2021 1:17 pm

sophie wrote:
Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:13 pm
You won't miss out on the 7.12% no matter when you buy - you just have to wait a few extra months in order to get it. Meanwhile, the 3%+ interest rate is still a very good deal.

I would give serious consideration to buying in October, which gives you an extra month of interest that still beats the pants off what banks are offering, and plan to buy again in January, if you can. The January aliquot will get the 7.12% interest, and the October bonds will get it a couple months later. You'll need to keep both for 5 years or you'll lose 3 months interest - and I'm not sure if they take the first or last 3 months but I think it's the former. That's why delaying won't help you in the long run.
You get penalized the 3 months interest prior to the time of the redemption. So if you happen to hold a bond when the inflation rate drops to 0 or close to 0 then you can get out of it for almost nothing since 3 months of 0 is 0 !!
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by D1984 » Fri Oct 15, 2021 6:12 pm

Kbg wrote:
Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:46 am
The rate is set every six months and you get that rate for six months regardless of the announcement date. Quick example.

Bond bought in Sept (3.54%)

Rate change on 1 Nov to 7.1%

Bond bought in Jan

September bond stays at 3.54 until March at which point it rolls to 7.1% until Sept next

January bond begins at 7.1% and will receive that rate until July

In sum, you always get the stated rate for six months regardless of what month you purchased your i-bond. Your rate begin/end dates are based on when the bond was purchased.
If I bought some electronic I-Bonds in late May of this year (around the 25th or 26th of May 2021 IIRC) will they get the 3.54% annualized rate (i.e. a total of 1.77% for six months because six months is half of a year and 1.77 is one half of 3.54) for May 1st through Oct 31st.....or will they be stuck getting the previous 1.68% annualized (i.e. a total of 0.84% for the six months from 1 May 2021 to 31 October 2021) instead of 3.54% annualized?

I ask because when I logged into my TreasuryDirect account two days ago it only showed an accrued interest amount that would be similar to the latter above instead of the former.

EDITED TO ADD: I just re-logged into Treasury Direct to check and the purchase date was the 18th of May 2021.
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by Kbg » Fri Oct 15, 2021 11:50 pm

D (and everyone who asked a similar question),

Here ya go a month by month blow...https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/re ... htm#change

And

"Because I bonds that are less than five years old have values that do not include the latest three months of interest, values displayed by the Savings Bond Calculator for these bonds will not reflect rate changes on the schedule in the table above (When does my bond change rates?) When looking at changes in values for these bonds, rate changes will seem to be delayed by three months."
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by barrett » Sat Oct 16, 2021 7:42 am

D1984 wrote:
Fri Oct 15, 2021 6:12 pm
Kbg wrote:
Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:46 am
The rate is set every six months and you get that rate for six months regardless of the announcement date. Quick example.

Bond bought in Sept (3.54%)

Rate change on 1 Nov to 7.1%

Bond bought in Jan

September bond stays at 3.54 until March at which point it rolls to 7.1% until Sept next

January bond begins at 7.1% and will receive that rate until July

In sum, you always get the stated rate for six months regardless of what month you purchased your i-bond. Your rate begin/end dates are based on when the bond was purchased.
If I bought some electronic I-Bonds in late May of this year (around the 25th or 26th of May 2021 IIRC) will they get the 3.54% annualized rate (i.e. a total of 1.77% for six months because six months is half of a year and 1.77 is one half of 3.54) for May 1st through Oct 31st.....or will they be stuck getting the previous 1.68% annualized (i.e. a total of 0.84% for the six months from 1 May 2021 to 31 October 2021) instead of 3.54% annualized?

I ask because when I logged into my TreasuryDirect account two days ago it only showed an accrued interest amount that would be similar to the latter above instead of the former.

EDITED TO ADD: I just re-logged into Treasury Direct to check and the purchase date was the 18th of May 2021.
Though it's not overly troubling to me, I have a related question. Like D1984, I also bought I-Bonds through TD in May of this year and was expecting to see the first interest payments show up for those on August 1st. In other words, for the three-month period from May to July, I was expecting the TD site to not show any interest. BUT, it wasn't until September 1st that those bonds started showing interest. That's four months if May is included.

Again, this is not the end of the world but goes against how I thought I had understood a finer point of I-Bonds.
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by barrett » Sat Oct 16, 2021 10:58 am

Never mind my last post. Just realized that if I redeemed the May of 2021 bonds in May of 2022, that I actually would get nine months of interest payments (September to May inclusive). Carry on!
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by GT » Thu Oct 21, 2021 3:06 pm

dualstow wrote:
Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:47 pm
Oh, don’t worry, Barrett. I was able to get done what i wanted to. I have only redeemed paper bonds so far - did that at a bank. Although, I also have some digital i-bonds that were probably ready to be redeemed a few years ago. I should look into that. O0

My two problems were (a) Any time I hit the back button on my browser I set the website into a tailspin.

(b) Log in problems. And then — this part is on me — I failed my own seurity question on the phone because i had made up fake answers and didn’t record them well back then. So I was locked out. I just left things like that for a few years, thinking if I couldn’t get in, maybe thieves couldn’t either. Then I went through the rigmarole to restore my credentials.

Now, a lot of time has passed since my last login. I have everything written down. They mailed some decoding thing on a credit-card-sized card. I hope I don’t get locked out again.
Looks like (a) could still happen - TD states this is for security reasons -
From TD website
For Account Security: Please use the buttons and links we've provided on each page. Using your browser to navigate (including the back, forward, and refresh buttons) will end your session.
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by dualstow » Thu Oct 21, 2021 5:26 pm

Ah, look at that! A feature, not a bug. O0
I hate it.
RIP Marcello Gandini
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Re: Sucks to Be An I-Bond Hater

Post by Kbg » Mon Nov 01, 2021 3:27 pm

At least for 6 months you may want get cozy with a clunky website.

"A combination of a fixed rate that stays the same for the life of the bond and an inflation rate that is set twice a year. For bonds issued from November 2021 through April 2022, the combined rate is 7.12%"
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