Saving Bonds
Saving Bonds are issued by US Treasury Department. These are not tradable anywhere in the market. The bonds are non-marketable securities. For any buying and selling activity, you need to go to the agents authorized by the government. These agents are called Issuing and Paying agents. The saving bonds are registered securities. This means that they are registered and held in name of the person who owns them.
Generally there are three series of interesting saving bonds. They are, I Series, E/EE series and H/ HH bonds.
Series EE Bonds : They replaced the Series E bonds. You can easily buy the EE bonds at a discount of half their face value. They come in denominations of $50 to $10,000. There is however a limit. There is a ceiling of $30,000 (on the face value) during any calendar year. These bonds increase in value as the interest accrues / accumulates. They will generate for you interest for 30 years. When EE bonds "mature," or are due for maturity, you get your original investment back plus all of the interest also. They are the accrual type of marketable securities.
Series HH Bonds: They are available for purchase only in exchange for Series EE or E bonds and Savings Notes. The other way is to procure the proceeds from a matured Series HH bond. They are quite different from the usual EE bonds. Series HH bonds are purchased at their face value and are available in $500 to $10,000 denominations. But there is no upper limit on the amount you can invest. These bonds don?t increase in value and have a maturity period of 20 years.
Series I Bonds : These bonds are available at face value only. They grow with inflation-indexed earnings for maximum period of 30 years. You can buy Series I bond in $50 to $10,000 denominations, the limit being $30,000 in any calendar year.
Bonds and Series EE Savings Bonds are of similar type as they are accrual securities. They will give you some earning, that is, accrue interest monthly at a variable rate and the interest is compounded semiannually. You receive your earnings when you redeem an I Bond or Series EE Savings Bond.
Series HH Savings Bonds are current income securities. You receive your earnings semiannually and you receive the face value of Series HH Savings Bonds when you redeem them.
The benefits of parking some savings in these saving bonds is two way: first you get a cut in the taxes thereby some tax benefits are there. The other benefit is that they are more secure then other securities as their value almost always rises. It never fluctuates much so the usual ups and downs that other securities see, is not a regular feature in this bond.
Another great thing is that they are registered securities so in case you loose these bonds (paper bonds etc), all you have to do is get in touch with the authorities ands you will get a replacement soon. Thus there is no issue of their being lost, destroyed etc.
The bonds are very affordable as you can start purchasing them with as less as USD 25.The bonds are available right from denomination of USD 50 to USD 10,000.So all you have to do is to analyze your needs, financial goals and then purchase them.
In case you are tied up, no need to fret, these bonds are valuable online also. So all you have to do is few clicks on the site and you have bought them electronically, without moving anywhere from the comfort of your chair. There more then 40,000 financial institutions that sells these bonds.
You can sell them anytime you wish to, once the initial holding period of 12 months is over.
Saving Bonds are safe and secure securities to park savings for good returns. They are easy to buy and come in small as well large denomination also.
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