Back in our parent’s time, War Bonds were pushed to help fund World War II. They were paper symbols of the money they stood for, and were a good if conservative way to invest your money with a guarantee and a steady rate of return. In a word, bonds both then and now are predictable. But now the marketplace for bonds is changing with the times.
It is now possible to buy U.S. Bonds over the Internet. While you own the bonds, you hold them with the United States Treasury via the Internet. It is also possible to convert and change any bonds that you may have or are holding now, transferring them into electronic form. These bonds and any you purchase electrically are held with the U.S. Treasury in an electronic account. Easy, quick access, and with many options, buying Bonds electronic is a new and exciting way to invest in bonds. All this and more is an option when you open a U.S. TreasuryDirect Account
Creating your own TreasuryDirect account is simple, and you may open an buy bonds, savings bonds using your at work deduction, or you can set it up to debit money from your credit union or bank account. When they are ready to be cashed in at maturity, the funds can be channeled directly to your credit union or bank account.
Electronic savings via TreasuryDirect has the same maturity and interest rates as paper bonds, but it’s all done electronically. No mailing, instead, all you need is access to the Internet. Other Treasury items are available for purchase through TreasuryDirect, including notes, Treasury bills, binds and TIPS. The information you have to have handy when you sign up includes:
-A browser for the World Wide Web that supports 128 bit encryption. That is Netscape 6.2 or later, or Internet Explorer 5.01 or later.
-An e-mail address
-A physical address of record in the United States.
-A Savings or Checking account
-Your social security number (your taxpayer ID number.
Owning bonds is a low risk investment, and is also very convenient now that buying them has gotten so much easier. You can purchase up to five thousand dollars worth of bonds a year.
Before 2003 buying bonds up to thirty thousand dollars annually was possible, but then it was reduced to focus bonds at the consumer with less money to spend.
