Something's wrong at Treasury Direct

Discussion of the Cash portion of the Permanent Portfolio

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Austen Heller
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Re: Something's wrong at Treasury Direct

Post by Austen Heller » Sun Jun 05, 2016 1:03 pm

Hi Sophie,
I have run some numbers to help you solve this issue.
I assume that your bond has the 0% fixed rate, since you keep referring to the 1.54% inflation component. My calculations will be based on your 0% fixed rate bond.

To calculate the bond values, keep in mind that:
1) Interest is compounded semi-annually, meaning the interest accrues only on the bond value for the first 6 months, then it accrues on the bond value plus the accrued interest starting in months 7, 13, 19, 25, etc...
2) Bonds less than 5 years old have the 3 months interest penalty.
3) TD seems to be rounding all of their value to the nearest dollar.

I this first example, I will use a $5000 I-bond purchased in Jan-2015, which has the 0% fixed rate. Compare my calculated final value to the TD value:

Image

In this next example, I will use a $5000 I-Bond puchased in May-2008, which also has the 0% fixed rate. This example is even easier to understand, since the bond is greater than 5-years old, there is no interest penalty:

Image

Based on these calculations, I believe there is nothing wrong at Treasury Direct.
I hope this helps.
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