Summer may be unofficially over, however, paying the price for months of costly fun and vacations is just beginning. Redeeming U.S. Savings Bonds could be a smart option to pay off those bills.
Bond owners should take their bonds out of storage, dust them off, go to SavingsBonds.com and use the complimentary calculator to learn cash in values, interest rate performance, and total interest earned amounts for each bond.
Most investors don’t realize that U.S. Savings Bonds do not all perform the same, nor do they earn the same rate of interest. The month and year of issue and the series of bond (E, EE, I) will determine the interest rates, rules and regulations for each bond.
Once educated on values and performance, investors should carefully consider redeeming some lower yielding bonds – or use the SavingsBonds.com Cash In Report© – which takes out the guesswork and identifies the best bonds to cash in first.
According to SavingsBonds.com, bond owners claim they purchase savings bonds for college and retirement purposes. However, bonds are often cashed in early to pay off debt and used for rainy day expenses, such as home repairs, cars or vacations.
Unfortunately, uneducated bond owners often hastily redeem the wrong bonds resulting in irreversible costly redemption mistakes. Additionally, they are not aware that a 1099-INT will be issued for all of the interest earned for each bond redeemed. Potential tax liabilities should also be taken into consideration when redeeming savings bonds.
“Never arbitrarily cash in any savings bonds,” says marketing director Jackie Brahney of SavingsBonds.com. “Obtain current values, interest rates and understand potential tax liabilities by using a bond calculator before you rush down to the bank to redeem.”
Redeeming lowest interest rate earning bonds in ones inventory, rather than carrying high interest credit card balances for years might make financial sense. Accessing an on-line savings bond calculator and the SavingsBonds.com Cash-In Report© to quickly and easily identify which bonds to hold and which to redeem is a very smart decision.
By: Jackie Brahney, Marketing Director, SavingsBonds.com, jbrahney@savingsbonds.com 732-887-8941