EE Bond Phantom Return Analysis

[barrett]

In years, say, 10 to 15, the EEs start to become tough to cash in because there's already a good deal of sunk psychological cost. During the last four or five years of holding them, one would feel like, "man, I can't redeem these NOW." 20 years is just a long time to wait unless one can just plunk down the money and never think about it again. And that doesn't work in this situation because the strategy requires the investor to reevaluate periodically whether or not it makes sense to continue holding the bonds. 20 years is a quarter of a lifetime (for most people). The math might make sense but the emotional part probably doesn't... although ZedThou seems to be holding up OK.