<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by VolleyballFerd:
If I understand it correctly, the EE bond will definitely drop Nov. 1 since it is based on a percentage of the daily average of the 5 year bond - and that has pretty much gone steadily down since May 1 when the rates were set.
And so locking in the almost 4% for 6 months at the end of this month would be the best bet.</font>
Hi VolleyBall Ferd, I'm not sure how to read your post. So would buying the EE bonds now before Nov. 1 lock in the current rate for 6 months or would the rate be automatically adjusted to the then-current rate when Nov. 1 rolls around?
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by IfItAintBoeing:
If I remember correctly, US Treasury has set a minimum rate of 4% on EE [Patriot] bonds.</font>
As someone else says, that implies holding it for the life of the bonds. I'm thinking of holding for the 6 months minimum.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by LastClass:
So count on EE rates of around 3.15%.
So if the fixed part drops to 1.5%, the overall I rate will be low 4s. Although this is higher than the current I rate of 2.57%, that's illusory because existing I bonds (that have higher fixed portions) will get the higher floating portion eventually.
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LastClass, that's interesting about how you're estimating the rate for the I bonds. I'll do some more research on whether it makes sense to buy those versus the EE bonds.
Thanks all!!