By Dr. James M. Dahle, WCI Founder
I finally broke down and bought some I Bonds, aka Series I Savings Bonds. As inflation continued to rise throughout 2021 and into 2022, especially with its rise to 8.3% in April 2022, it seemed sillier and sillier to earn 0.55% at Ally Bank (or a negative real yield on TIPS) when I could be making more than 7% with I Bonds with about the same risk. While it's hard to get too excited about earning 0% real, it certainly beats losing 7% real.
So in December, I opened not one but two TreasuryDirect accounts—one for Katie and one for me. Our trust will probably open one soon, too. I then proceeded to buy the maximum $10,000 of I bonds in each account. In the early part of 2022, I'll do it again for a total of $40,000 in I Bonds.
It was hard to get excited about I Bonds when inflation was well-controlled. The main problem I had with them was not the low yields, though. My problem was the $10,000 limit. But when the difference between a money market fund and an I bond with similar risk becomes 7%, I figured it was worth it. Even in the first year where we just have $40,000 invested, 7% of that is $40,000 * 7% = $2,800. Considering I spent less than 30 minutes opening accounts and buying them, it seemed a good use of my time.
[If you bought I Bonds after May 1, 2022, the interest rate rose to 9.62%, up significantly from the 7.20% in the previous six months. That I Bond rate stayed at 9.62% until November 1, 2022, when the interest rate adjusted again and fell to 6.89%.
I've always had inflation-adjusted bonds in my portfolio (10%), but I've just used TIPS in something like the Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities Fund or the Schwab TIPS ETF. Going forward, I'll use a combination of I Bonds and TIPS. As my ratio of taxable to tax-protected space in the portfolio continues to rise, I may eventually even have to move the TIPS to taxable and start buying individual TIPS at TreasuryDirect. Unlike corporate bonds, individual treasuries are no more risky than a fund full of them, at least for the same duration.
How to Open an Account at TreasuryDirect to Buy I Bonds
In this post, I'll walk you through step-by-step instructions to open a TreasuryDirect account and how to buy I Bonds within the account. Note that you cannot do this inside a tax-protected account like a 401(k) or Roth IRA. Another note: if you've waited until the last minute to buy I Bonds at that 9.62% rate, it might be tough to actually log in to TreasuryDirect because so many people are trying to buy them at that 9.62% peak.
TreasuryDirect is a government website that is used to buy and sell government debt directly without any middle man. There are no fees, commissions, or expense ratios. Your fellow taxpayer covers all the costs of your investment there. That's the good news. The bad news? Well, it's a government website run by bureaucrats who don't care all that much about your business. It seems plenty secure but not particularly user-friendly. It wasn't too bad though, as you will see.
The homepage is extremely busy and filled with all kinds of links. The one you want is in the upper right.
There are other accounts you can open there, but you just want the plain vanilla TreasuryDirect account. You can buy I Bonds, EE Bonds, TIPS, T-bills, etc. all from that account.
This is just another busy, useless page. Click through at the lower left.
On this page, you select the type of account you're opening. For most people, it will be individual. However, you may want a trust account, which is at the bottom.
From here, the process is pretty straightforward. You just provide your personal info, choose a password (I recommend you generate a strong password using something like LastPass), and confirm everything. I didn't shoot any more screenshots as it's really straightforward and it would be a pain to black out all that personal info. You should also link the account to your checking account (that's what I did) to make purchases simple. You can also link it to your savings account if that's an easier way to buy your bonds.
Note that it asks for your driver's license number. This is not required information, but I provided it anyway, just like I do for any bank or brokerage account I open. I think it's generally used to help the bank comply with money laundering and anti-terrorism laws. I have no idea what happens if you do not provide it to TreasuryDirect.
If you are also opening an account for your spouse, you will need to repeat the entire process. After you create the account, you will need to log back in before you can do anything. The link is on the upper right on the homepage, a little above where you set up the account. This is the sucky part. You can't just paste in that secure password from LastPass. You have to type it in using a little keyboard that sits on the web page. I'm sure it's very secure, but it's a pain.
How to Purchase I Bonds
Now that you have a TreasuryDirect account, you can buy some individual securities in it, such as I Bonds. This process is even less complicated than opening an account. Take a look. First, log back into your TreasuryDirect account. Once you are logged in, you'll see this page:
This page has lots of interesting info, like the circled interest rates being paid on savings bonds right now (in the case of I Bonds, that interest rate is tweaked every six months). It also tells you what you own in your account. Click on the link in the top menu that says “BuyDirect” to go on to the next step.
You can buy all kinds of treasury bills and notes and bonds on this page. Maybe I'll do a post on that later, but in this case, just click the radio button labeled “Series I” and hit submit.
On this page, you simply select how much you want to buy (the maximum $10,000 per account in this case), select your bank (blacked out above), choose a date (like next available), and hit submit. If you just wanted to just buy a little each month, you could set all that up to take place automatically.
This is the final confirmation page. Make sure the info is correct, hit submit, and you're done. Within a few days, you'll have I Bonds in your account.
For a few people, after they create their account when they go back into it they are asked to go to your bank and get a signature guarantee from the bank. I'm not sure exactly who will and who will not have to do this, but if the government cannot verify who you are electronically, it will likely ask for this. If you have moved recently or have your credit frozen, this may happen to you. While it is undoubtedly a pain to do this (and especially without knowing whether you will or not when you start), it will only cost you a few minutes and a little hassle. There is no additional cost.
I Bonds provide inflation-adjusted but still very safe investment returns. The main downside is that you can only buy $10,000 a year of them. While you can increase that amount by opening accounts for yourself, your spouse, your kids, your businesses, and your trusts, it's hard to have them as a major holding in a large account. Otherwise, they're a great alternative to TIPS, and at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 at least, they yield dramatically more. You can learn more about I Bonds here.
What do you think? Have you used TreasuryDirect? Was it easy or did you run into any problems? Do you like the idea of buying I Bonds? Comment below!
Pro tip: When you set up your account, you have to choose 3 questions to answer from among ten. I recommend keeping track of which ones you answered (and the answers if you won’t remember).
If you go to login a month or a year later, they don’t present you with the specific questions you answered, they give you all ten and you have to not only know the answers to your questions, but know which questions you answered!
And if you screw that up, you have to call a phone number and wait on hold for like an hour. There’s no “reset your password” button or anything like that. Ask me how I know. 😉
Cheers!
-PoF
Well that’s bad. I didn’t write down my questions so sounds like I’m going to spend an hour on the phone next year when I buy more.
Hi! Do you know if I can buy additional i bonds with my EIN tax id? I had set it up for 1099 income. ..
Some entities can open an account at Treasury Direct including:
Corporation
Deceased Estate
Limited Liability Company (LLC)
Living Estate (court-appointed legal guardian of the estate of another living person)
Partnership
Professional Limited Liability Company (PLLC)
Sole proprietorship
Trust
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/help/tdhelp/help_ug_292-entityaccountslearnmore.htm
So yes, sounds like a sole proprietorship (i.e. just getting an EIN) could open an account. It’s probably best if it is a real sole proprietorship and the I bonds are funded with real profits from that sole proprietorship.
Whoever’s totally asinine idea that was is very sadistic & should be fired! I can’t remember which questions either. On top of that, I have no clue why my I Bond purchase got rejected, so I lost my chance for 2021. By the time I get their rep on the line, it’ll be tough not to scream at the top of my lungs!❗
Is it still to late to do this. I know most people did this in December
Too late for 2021, but you can do it for 2022 any time this year.
Be aware of the signature guarantee if you close the primary bank and need to add a new bank. TD does not accept a notary guarantee, you will most likely need a signature guarantee from a local bank.
Like a medallion signature guarantee? Those are a pain, especially if it for a large amount of money like >$500K. The only person that could sign that for me was the CFO of a bank.
A Signature guarantee, NOT a Medallion Guarantee.
What’s the difference? I think it’s the same thing, no?
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/signatureguarantee.asp
You either get a notary or you have a signature guarantee.
Not the same. Medallion seems to require financial commitment from the bank in the form of bonds or other instruments. Signature guarantee is just a stamp.
Notaries are not accepted by TreasuryDirect.
Yes, this happened to me, it was impossible to get this from our bank, ended up getting it from our Fidelity branch.
I also succumbed to the attractive 7% coupon rate and got some I bonds last year. It’s been 30 years since I last bought a bond so my bias is clear but I think we still are guaranteed to come out a little behind with these bonds. We don’t quite preserve purchasing power because we still have to pay federal income taxes each year on the interest so it seems to me that the real (inflation-adjusted) return will still be a little bit less than zero. A normal bond would have the potential to have a positive real return but we are far away from that with the risk-free Treasurys having negative real returns right now (and positive real returns only if we get very close to deflation). I understand that bonds also have a role in diversification of risk and our equities could have substantial negative returns for years but to me the attraction of I bonds is mainly in comparison to other risk free assets.
I don’t like low interest rates either. But you still have to choose from what’s available when you go to invest. Right now your stocks are DOWN 5% on the year. Compared to that, I Bonds look pretty good.
Sure but neither of us is investing based on the volatility of the last few weeks. Maybe what I’m troubled by is that when you look at those long term graphs on real returns for equities/bonds/cash and the Treasurys’ real return is a few percent you have to remind yourself that this isn’t true for I bonds because their (pretax) real return is deliberately 0 right now because that is the fixed rate. I agree that this doesn’t preclude their use as a risk hedge and that at least for the next 6 months they will yield more than any other Treasury but that still gives me some pause (and I still bought them). I don’t mean this as a criticism of your post because you state that very clearly.
Right. But you’re weighing a certain slightly less than 0% real return with an uncertain possibility of making more when many projections of stock returns over the next decade are even lower than that. When nothing is very attractive, what do you do? Do you just continually ramp up the risk more and more and more? I would submit that is the wrong approach. The right approach is to stick with your plan (60/40 or whatever), accept what the market gives you, and save more to make up for lower future returns/higher inflation etc.
Bill Bernstein likes to point out that yes, future returns are likely to be lower, but they are also being applied to a larger nest egg than you “should have had.” So it works out about the same in the long run.
I think “When nothing is very attractive, what do you do?” would be a good topic for a panel discussion at a WCI conference. You make good points but personally I think we don’t really know when equities are “not attractive” because earnings growth is always uncertain but we do know that (normal) bonds return no more than their coupon rate in nominal terms. I’d always been 100% in equities with a heavy US overweight and my investment plan is only changing in making a more deliberate effort to increase my foreign stock allocation to 20% and get investment real estate to 10%. I can’t time the market but I also don’t use anything with a negative real return (most bonds now) or no inherent return (commodities, gold, etc.). I am conscious that I may be wrong and a lot of very smart people like you and Bernstein disagree with me about the role of bonds in a portfolio but at this point I can take a 90% drop without jeopardizing retirement so I’m still being a bit stubborn.
With 7% inflation there’s a very good chance your stocks and real estate will also have a negative real return. But hey, “Rebellions are built on hope.”
Yes, there is a good chance stocks and real estate have negative real returns but it is a certainty for the bonds.
In some ways it’s like active investing. Sure, you’ve got a 10-20% chance of choosing a winning active fund manager, or you can take the guarantee that is just less than the market return. Which one do you take?
I’m going to spread my bets. I’ll maintain my 60% in stocks, but I’m also going to keep my 20% in bonds.
I have no idea what the odds of stocks having a real return over the next decade is, but it’s entirely possible it won’t be much different from those I Bonds. Remember S&P 500 returns from 2000-2010? 0% real would have beat them as I recall.
Good points and I would never try to argue you are making the wrong choice. Certainly I am trying to spread my bets more than in the past as I’ve only recently started buying investment real estate (with helpful advice from this forum). If we were speaking on the panel discussion I would counter that 10 years is too short for judging an investment (Fama has said the same thing about 20 years in defending his factors) and that all our investment plans are a form of active management with a lot of judgement calls (domestic vs international, corporate vs government bonds and their duration, alternatives, etc.) but that’s just being provocative.
You makes your bets and you takes your chances indeed.
Hi PharmMedMD- I thought I bonds had the option of deferring federal taxes until you cash out?
You can pay as you go or all at the end (what I’d do since you may die and get a step up in basis or use them for education and not owe the tax).
You can defer but those taxes still exist (unless, as Jim points out, you die and your heirs get the stepped up basis). I would still recognize that they exist and have an impact on the ultimate returns just as I would for any other investment. (Taxes are by far my largest expense and the taxes I am paying on investments are greater than my yearly living expenses.)
I believe the heir can have the bonds reissued in their name, but I suspect tax will be owed on the accrued interest. Unlike the step up basis of an inherited stock/mutual fund.
I think you are correct, it’s accumulated interest, not an increase in value, so no step up in basis.
Nice summary of an excellent investment. We don’t hear much about them since there is zero profit in their promotion.
I miss the days when I could invest $30k into I-bonds annually.
Nice article! I was also lured by the 7% interest rate and opened a TreasuryDirect account and bought $10K in Series I bonds in December for the first time. I plan to buy another $10K shortly for 2022 as well. I found the account opening and purchase processes pretty easy and straight forward as you described in your article.
I’m also going to attempt to buy another $5K in the paper I bonds with my tax return for 2021. Has anyone on this forum done this before? I usually keep track of my tax liability throughout the year and try to pay enough to avoid penalties, but not overpay (or not overpay by very much) so as not to give Uncle Sam a free loan throughout the year; however I read on another site that the IRS doesn’t let you pay more to cover the I bond purchase if you owe taxes when you file your return. Is this true? Since I had to make an estimated tax payment for 2021 by Jan 18 2022 due to an end of year stock sale, I decided to add an extra $5K to that payment to see if that will help me buy the extra $5K of I bonds which should now be with actual refund money. Since I plan to file my tax return in February once I get all of my 1099s and W2, Uncle Sam won’t get my free loan for very long (I do my own taxes). It will be an experiment for me this year. Has anyone else done this before? Any insight to share about the process of buying I bonds through your tax return?
I know lots of people do it. I suspect if nothing else you could pay $5K with an extension and then file your taxes the next week if you wanted to.
This is the first year I will purchase via a tax refund. You will need to file form 8888 with your return.
Hey Gary, have you filed your taxes yet and purchased additional iBonds with your tax refund? my accountant says I have a refund due and I wish to purchase iBonds with it. Does it have to be paper iBonds like Michelle mentioned above? Or can I do through treasury direct somehow?
Chasing performance now guys? 🙂
It is great to learn about another option but I suppose I am a Boglehead at heart. It makes sense if bonds are in your financial plan. One issue not touched upon is liquidity – need to hold for at least 1 year, if sold before 5 years the prior 3 months interest is lost.
Growing up in a country that had up to 80% monthly inflation rates, bills were being stamped with new denominations every 6 months as it was too expensive to print new ones and telephone lines and food were considered investment options, this is all too familiar. This is what happens when people think they are rocking it financially in the middle of a pandemic and just too many stimulus checks. In any country that experienced hyperinflation, bonds and real estate thrived. The question now is how long will last.
Bonds generally don’t thrive in an inflationary environment. That’s the unique thing about TIPS and I Bonds.
It’s the solution that will make them thrive 🙂
I bought 20k last year and 20k this year, as money sitting in my online savings account was basically being devalued through inflation/low interest rates. My question is whether I should include these in the “bonds” section of my investment allocation or not (as doing so means I should not buy more bonds this year – most of which are in total bond funds or muni funds). These I-bonds feel more similar in use to a CD, and I’m not sure I will hold on to them for the long-term when/if inflation/interest rates return towards historic trends. Thoughts?
Yes, they’re bonds. If your written investment plan calls for inflation-indexed bonds, that’s where these would go. If your plan doesn’t call for inflation indexed bonds, you either need to modify your plan or don’t buy these.
After a year you can sell I Bonds, after 5 years there is no longer an interest penalty. So don’t feel like you have to hold them forever. It’s not a money market account, but it’s hardly a super illiquid investment.
I honestly never thought about specifically inflation-indexed bonds – I’ve used a Vanguard/Fidelity total bond fund in 401k/roth and intermediate-term/NY long-term muni fund (in taxable) to make up the target 21% of my portfolio in bonds. I’m still in my 30s so retirement is not for a while. Is there any source you have to recommend on what % of bonds to consider having in an inflation-indexed allocation? Thanks again.
You mean like our Fire Your Financial Advisor course? 🙂 We definitely talk about them there. My portfolio splits half in inflation indexed bonds and half nominal bonds, but some argue you don’t need inflation bonds until you’re retired. There’s no right answer.
Did anyone receive interest yet? I started mine mid-December and haven’t received anything. I thought it accumulated interest monthly. Am i wrong?
You won’t see the interest added until 6 months from the issue date. While I bonds earn interest monthly, it is only compounded semiannually (per the TreasuryDirect website: “Every six months from the bond’s issue date, interest the bond earned in the six previous months is added to the bond’s principal value, creating a new principal value. Interest is then earned on the new principal.”). Hope that helps.
So I tried opening an account and they asked for that account authorization form. I had to go to the circuit court in my town to get it filled out since my bank (chase) does not allow that.
Just to open an account you needed a medallion signature guarantee? That’s odd.
We had to do the same thing when we opened an account in my husband’s name. Something about them not being able to verify his identity online (but of course they couldn’t tell us why 🙄). Chase was a PITA and refused to sign the signature guarantee. Our local bank with whom I have a business loan finally did. My brother works for Fidelity and says they have been seeing a ton of these forms/signature requests. It’s obnoxious!
Are you planning to hold the bonds until maturity? Or do you have some other plan on when to sell them?
Long term hold for now, although if there were an opportunity to spend them on the education of a grandkid in 25 years or something that might be a nice tax play. I suspect I may end up buying some individual TIPS in that Treasury Direct account too eventually so I figured I might as well get it opened up.
Can you also expand on and post on how to “buy for your wife and kid”
I got 10k for myself but could never figure out how to get it for my spouse and kid without opening another brand new accounts.
That’s exactly it, you have to open an account for each of them. We have two accounts, one for me and one for my wife.
Good article.
Can we put away an additional $10k via a trust? Anything special we need to look out for?
Yes, you can open as many trusts as you want and open an account for each of them and put $10K into each of them every year. What a pain though.
What about LLCs? I’ve got one for my locums work and one that owns an investment property. Thanks
Yes.
In my portfolio, I want my safe assets to significantly increase in value when the stock market crashes. Long term treasuries usually do. The actual income from safe assets is less of a concern, since the total return for the portfolio comes mostly from equities regardless, and if the safe asset increases in a crash I can hold a higher percentage of equities for a given downside risk. My biggest issue with I bonds in a portfolio is that they don’t increase in a crash.
The risk of doing that is that the 1970s happen again–poor stock returns and high inflation battering your long treasuries.
Which is why I said “usually”. The 73-74 is just about the only exception. The S&P had a real total return of about -1.5% during the 70s. If I bonds had existed just as they do today, they would have had a 0% real return in the 70s. Given all the gains due to inflation and less favorable taxes, they probably would have lost to equities. That’s nothing to get excited about. Plus small cap value, real estate, or gold would have done far better. A good reason to diversify.
No guarantee of course that the worst possible scenario in the past is as bad as it will get.
I bonds would have creamed stocks in the 1930s too.
I bonds would have done poorly in the 30s relative to other safe investments because there was lots of deflation. They would not have risen when you want them to rise so you can rebalance back into stocks.
To paraphrase you, I hope the best investment isn’t a bunker full of freeze dried food and ammo
TIPs and I bonds have a deflation component protection built in too.
The inflation portion can’t be negative. But it still would have performed far worse than long term treasuries in the 30s
Agreed. But they would have walloped stocks.
One suggestion when buying I bonds is to purchase near the end of the month. Treasure Direct allows you to choose your purchase date. If you pick a date a few days before the last day of the month, you’ll get credit as if the bond was purchased on the first of the month. Not a huge impact, but it shortens the 12 month holding minimum a little and squeezes out a few more pennies in interest. Just need to leave a few days to ensure the system processes the transaction by the last day of the month.
If you want to spread out your bond purchases a bit, it’s possible to set them up via payroll deduction on TD (“payroll savings option”).
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/products/prod_tdpayrollinfo.htm
Wait…can you buy the 10k per person (for you and your wife) EVERY 6 months when the rate resets, or is that 10k/person a yearly maximum? I ask b/c you said you have purchased 20k already in 2022 and will buy another 20k for a total of 40k?
Per year. $10K for me for 2021. $10K for me for 2022. $10K for my wife for 2021. $10K for my wife for $2022. $40K total.
Copy that. Thank you. Is there any loophole allowing for retroactive contribution up to a certain date so I can contribute for 2021?
No.
Thanks, Jim. How do you feel about using them for an emergency fund over the long-term?
I think it’s fine for part of your emergency fund, at least after the 1 year mark.
But not for a 6-month emergency fund?
Oh, I see now that you meant after the 1-year “maturity” for the bonds. Thanks!
It’s fine AFTER you’ve had the I bonds for a year. They’re illiquid for a year.
I know I can’t use my IRA to buy iBonds but wonder if there is a loophole? I believe LLCs may purchase iBonds, so is it possible to use a SDIRA LLC checking account to buy iBonds? The LLC would own the iBond. The LLC has its own EIN and its operating agreement allows bond purchases.
I bet that would work.
These might be super-dumb questions, but as we are dealing with the government, they bear asking:
(a) is the interest on these I-bonds actually componded, or does it get deposited into some kind of sweep account? With your typical brokerage handling a mutual fund or ETF investment, there’s the option to either “reinvest dividends and capital gains” (meaning that you automatically buy more of the investment in question, at that day’s trading price, for whatever amount of total Div’s and CG’s are distributed that day) or “deposit into sweep account” (so on the day that one might be paid, say $100 in dividends, your sweep account gets a $100 deposit). A yield of 7% is ok-ish, but if your funds are tied up for 1-5 years and there isn’t compounding, it would seem like the utility is reduced.
(b) the fixed rate (which is stated to apply for the life of the bond) is currently 0%. The inflation rate is currently 3.56% and is set for 6 months. If you check out the historic inflation rates of these bonds (available at https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/research/indepth/ibonds/res_ibonds_iratesandterms.htm), the most recent rate before the current one was 1.77% (for 6mo, which is 3.54% annually). Over the past ~7 years, the interest rate has not otherwise broken 1.4%. When one buys these bonds, is the bond inflation rate (again, currently 7.2% annually) also set for the life of the bond, or can it adjust sometime in the next 6mo? Again, 7% is ok-ish, but if you’re not guaranteed that rate for the life of the bond, would that maybe take the luster out of these, esp when you factor in the penalties associated with redemption in less than 5 years?
Also, heads-up, regarding the issue of the security questions: you do have the option of answering ALL 10 of the questions, if you don’t remember which 3 you chose. If you go on to the site a few times, you can also get ‘reminded’ of which questions you answered if you try to make edits to your account info (it’ll ask you). DO NOT, however, try to navigate away from the page (even cancelling the edit request) without answering the question, or you’ll eventually get locked out of your account. Ask me how I know …
Not dumb in the least.
Interest on savings bonds compounds semiannually. I don’t think there’s an option to have it paid out. It’s automatically reinvested.
The fixed rate is fixed (0% right now I believe). The inflation rate changes every 6 months. So it’s entirely possible it will soon be lower. I would guess it would be lower at some point in the next 5 years. If that makes you not want to buy them, then don’t.
Thanks for the question tip. I should go back in and write down which questions.
Bought $10K. Will also buy $10K for my spouse.
Thanks for the post/pictures/tutorial. Made it easy.
As of this post my other retirement accounts are off 3.7% due to the recent correction/pullback.
I never saw where to setup a beneficiary! Can I still do that now? Thanks
How do I add a secondary owner or beneficiary to my securities?
Adding a secondary owner or beneficiary to securities registered in single ownership form is simple in TreasuryDirect. You can edit securities being held in Current Holdings; however, you cannot edit savings bonds held in your Gift Box. Securities in a Conversion Linked account (CLA) must first be transferred to a primary or another linked account in order to add a secondary owner.
Your electronic savings bonds and marketable securities may be registered in your name alone, your name with a secondary owner, or your name with a beneficiary. Each registrant’s taxpayer identification number must be shown. Note: Registrations in entity accounts may not name a secondary owner or beneficiary. All securities in an entity account carry a registration identical to the entity account name.
To add a secondary owner or beneficiary to your securities registered in single ownership form:
Log into your primary TreasuryDirect® account.
Click the ManageDirect tab at the top of the page.
Under the heading Manage My Securities click “Edit” a registration.
On the Edit Security Registration page, choose the security type you want to edit and click “Select”.
On the Summary page, choose the security or securities you wish to edit and click “Select” (you may edit up to 50 securities to the same registration).
On the Detail page, select the registration containing the secondary owner or beneficiary you desire from the drop-down box. (If you’ve never created the registration, you can do so by clicking “Add New Registration”. Once you’ve created the new registration, the system will bring you back to the Detail page where you’ll find the new registration listed in the drop-down box.) Note: Entity accounts may only have one registration. All securities in an entity account carry a registration identical to the entity account name.
Once you’ve selected the desired registration, click “Submit” to complete the change in registration for the security.
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/help/tdhelp/howdoi.htm#addsecondary
My research suggests one can buy I Bonds in a “self-directed” solo 401K since it’s a trust. Sound right?
Haven’t heard that at all. A trust, definitely. A retirement account just because it has the word trust in the name? Haven’t heard of anyone every doing that. You might try sending that question to Harry Sit. If anyone would know, it’s him.
When buying I bonds under your spouse’s name can you use your bank account or do the names of the bond holder and bank account have to match?
They don’t have to match. You’re fine. Any particular reason you don’t have a combined checking account yet?
For clarification, is it true that this round of I Bonds Nov-April has a composite rate made up of a fixed rate of zero and a variable rate of 7.12? I realize that we all anticipate rate and inflation increase but it seems important to point out that the bond that claims a fixed rate really does not have one? If I’m reading the rate chart wrong I’d love to know.
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/research/indepth/ibonds/IBondRateChart.pdf
It has two rates. One fixed, one variable. When you buy one the fixed one is fixed forever.
Yes, but my point is that this issuance of I Bonds has a 0% fixed rate making the rate fully variable correct? It seem s important to note there is no real fixed rate on these.
The “real” rate is fixed. It’s the nominal rate that isn’t.