In the interest of further consolidating my finances, this past week I cashed in a small collection of 1988 series EE bonds which I’d kept hidden away ever since. All had reached and surpassed their maturity dates long ago, so they were worth their face value and then some.
Here’s what mine were worth, which should give you an idea of what to expect if you’ve got some series EE bonds of that vintage hidden away as well:
1 $500 bond = $684.00
1 $100 bond = $131.52
3 $50 bonds = $68.40 each
All in all, I had $1,020.72 in cash, which I put directly into my savings account to reinvest. This does mean I’ll have to account for $645.72 in interest when I do my 2007 taxes, but I’ve got lots of charitable donations this year to offset this so I think it’ll be okay.
I might have saved cashing these until after I retired to gain a better tax advantage, but was eager to consolidate these gift monies into the rest of my savings to better leverage them for other, more immediate investments.
Do you own bonds? What’s your savings bond strategy?
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I purchase a $10,000 Series I savings bond each fall. My plan is to use these funds to live on for the years in between working and social security. The interest should be tax free then because, hopefully, it will be my only income for those years. I figure each year I buy one will pay for a year’s living expenses (I live on about $12,000/yr).