Gyroscopic Investing

You get one shot per year on the I-Bond total.  If you buy and hold, you can accumulate 10K per year for each year.

If you redeem a year (because rates go up), you have "lost" that 10K slot forever.

akratic wrote: Another con to I Bonds is that it's harder to keep track of their appreciated value in a spreadsheet.  I just punted on this issue and pretend they're still worth whatever I paid for them.

The Bogleheads forum is back, here's the thread that explains how to do this in a spreadsheeet.

http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... 3#p1453913

WildAboutHarry wrote: You get one shot per year on the I-Bond total.  If you buy and hold, you can accumulate 10K per year for each year.

If you redeem a year (because rates go up), you have "lost" that 10K slot forever.

Yeah.  Just like with retirement accounts.      The old limits were so far removed from my concern they might as well not have existed.

BTW, some say there may be a way to buy more IBonds if you are married and/or have children where you might be willing to do joint ownership.  I have seen it stated (but not confirmed) that you can buy your allocation, your spouse their allocation, then another joint allocation, repeat with children.  Personally I think it is limited by the SocSec # used for tax reporting.  Anyone look up the answer for certain?

Personally I think it is limited by the SocSec # used for tax reporting.  Anyone look up the answer for certain?

I did 10k, wife did 10k, and revocable trust (my SSN) did 10k (plus 5k paper on tax refund).  No problem with Treasury Direct.

Yes.  A trust is set up with Treasury Direct as an entity account.

The entity uses my SSN for the Tax ID number (although I suppose one could get a tax ID # for the trust you don't have to).  My name and SSN are listed as the entity account manager.  Two separate blocks of data.

No problems.

WildAboutHarry:

when you link your Trust at TreasuryDirect to your bank account, does your bank account has to be a trust account as well?
or is it ok to link the same individual bank account to both individual and trust at TreasuryDirect?

thanks

Same bank account for all TD accounts, IIRC.

If I send in a refund on January 10th for $4000 over what I owe for federal taxes, could I get those in paper I Bonds for Tax Year 2012? Or would this have to be 2013? Also, any idea how long it is before you get your money back in I-Bonds? For instance, if I gave the gov't the $4000 over what I owe on January 10th, do I have to wait till after April 15th before I get my I-Bonds? Thanks for the knowledge in advance.

The tax-refund I Bonds are issued in the current year (i.e. I Bonds as refund for tax-year 2012 will be issued with a 2013 date).

I show receipt of paper bonds in 2012 on April 30th.  I don't recall when we filed, but probably early February to mid-February.

I received mine about 3-4 weeks after filing tax forms. Here is link to form 8888:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8888.pdf