Series I Savings Bonds for Emergency Fund - 3.54% interest rate

[dblaace]

On the fence about throwing $10k into I bonds in these last couple days, but it's part of my EF ($20k cash in Ally savings) and I'm currently unemployed... so tying up any of my liquid assets for at least a year seems like a bad choice to me. I'm hoping to start working again in the next few months, so in which case I'd have anytime up until the end of April 2022 to lock in the 7% rate for six months?

It's not really tied up, you can withdraw it at anytime, you just lose the interest.

Are you sure about that? Everything I saw says you can't withdraw I-bonds before 12 months. But if you're right, there'd be no reason not to throw it in right now!

Looks like I was wrong. Sorry. I thought I read it somewhere.

In the original post is where I saw it.

A couple downsides are that the maximum purchase is $10k per year per person (could use my wife and kids' SS numbers for the remaining funds I suppose) and that they must be kept for a minimum of one year or else all interest earned is forfeited.

[jpdx]

For those looking to increase their I Bond purchase limits, I know you can also buy using your kid(s) SSN or your business EIN. What are the pros/cons of each?

[Jesstache]

For those looking to increase their I Bond purchase limits, I know you can also buy using your kid(s) SSN or your business EIN. What are the pros/cons of each?

I assume one downside of using your kids' SSN would be that it probably counts toward your yearly $15k gift tax exclusion (assuming they don't have income of their own) and if you are already contributing the max toward a 529, this might not be an option or vice-versa.

[tooqk4u22]

For those looking to increase their I Bond purchase limits, I know you can also buy using your kid(s) SSN or your business EIN. What are the pros/cons of each?

I assume one downside of using your kids' SSN would be that it probably counts toward your yearly $15k gift tax exclusion (assuming they don't have income of their own) and if you are already contributing the max toward a 529, this might not be an option or vice-versa.

Does anybody actually report money given to their kids (aside from those wealthy ones with established estate plans)?

[Roots&Wings]

This form of gift would be easily traceable since it requires SSN.

In case helpful for anyone else, I heard back from Treasury Direct customer service about the gift bonds purchase and they confirmed it's a violation to purchase gift bonds if the recipient has already purchased their annual limit.

Which contradicts an article I'd read that you could purchase and deliver in different years. Ah well, always best to go to the source.

On the plus side, customer support seems good even if systems are antiquated. I'm going to risk the antiquated systems and try buying the extra $5k in paper bonds from tax refund this year. Plus the paper bonds look kinda cool!

[Arbitrage]

I think all the reference to this being a place to put emergency funds contributed to that impression--doesn't really make sense to put emergency funds in a place you can't withdrawal for 1 year, right?

It makes sense for emergency funds as long as you can ladder your emergency funds.  You spread it out over multiple years of contributions so you're never missing what you would need.  Many people have an e-fund larger than $10k, but this can still be done with smaller e-funds.

[Jesstache]

For those looking to increase their I Bond purchase limits, I know you can also buy using your kid(s) SSN or your business EIN. What are the pros/cons of each?

I assume one downside of using your kids' SSN would be that it probably counts toward your yearly $15k gift tax exclusion (assuming they don't have income of their own) and if you are already contributing the max toward a 529, this might not be an option or vice-versa.

Does anybody actually report money given to their kids (aside from those wealthy ones with established estate plans)?

We don't report because we keep it to $15k or less, which is the law.  This year though, we sold a house and had a big chunk of extra $ we didn't count on having so we plopped $30k in each kids' 529, which are tied to the kids' SSNs ($15k from mom, $15k from dad).  I'm pretty certain it'd be easy for the IRS to catch if we also purchased $10k in ibonds through each kids' SSN. Though, I guess we could do it and also just file the excess gift tax form in the spring.  It's close enough to January that we'll just buy $20k more in ibonds then (as a couple) and probably also put another big chunk into the 529s and call it a day.  No extra forms to fill out and keep track of for the rest of our lives.

[Gas-man]

On the fence about throwing $10k into I bonds in these last couple days, but it's part of my EF ($20k cash in Ally savings) and I'm currently unemployed... so tying up any of my liquid assets for at least a year seems like a bad choice to me. I'm hoping to start working again in the next few months, so in which case I'd have anytime up until the end of April 2022 to lock in the 7% rate for six months?

It's not really tied up, you can withdraw it at anytime, you just lose the interest.

Are you sure about that? Everything I saw says you can't withdraw I-bonds before 12 months. But if you're right, there'd be no reason not to throw it in right now!

Looks like I was wrong. Sorry. I thought I read it somewhere.

In the original post is where I saw it.

A couple downsides are that the maximum purchase is $10k per year per person (could use my wife and kids' SS numbers for the remaining funds I suppose) and that they must be kept for a minimum of one year or else all interest earned is forfeited.

My apologies, I must have misinterpreted the details when I read through them originally.  I edited my post to correct this 12 month rule.

[jpdx]

If you purchase I Bonds for a LLC taxed as a partnership, do you select "LLC" or "Partnership" when you create the account?

And how should the accounting work on this? Should the funds come out of the business bank account, and get deposited back into the business bank account when the bond is redeemed? What happens if the business closes prior to redeeming the bond? Seems like things could get messy...

[ice1717]

For those looking to increase their I Bond purchase limits, I know you can also buy using your kid(s) SSN or your business EIN. What are the pros/cons of each?

It becomes your kids' money if you use their SSN. No different than opening up a UTMA account for them. Strict rules for how you can can spend their money and you open up for possible legal action in the future if they disagree with it. Also, I don't think the education tax exclusion counts if the "owner" is under age when you buy it.

[missundecided]

I have a 529 with myself as the beneficiary (I'm back in school, no dependents). From what I've read above, it's my understanding that if I cash out an i-bond for say, $100 to keep the math simple, and I put that $100 into my 529 that same year, no federal tax going in and no federal tax going out?

[appleshampooid]

Thanks all for the discussion, math, caveats in here. Thinking I may throw in $20k as part of our bond allocation, then when it's seasoned for 12 months consider it our EF (which currently sits at $22k earning zip zero zilch).

Sidebar: I tried googling, but came up empty. What is this new fangled forums lang `PFT` that is showing up in every thread?

[2Birds1Stone]

@appleshampooid, it's PTF "posting to follow".

[dblaace]

Thanks all for the discussion, math, caveats in here. Thinking I may throw in $20k as part of our bond allocation, then when it's seasoned for 12 months consider it our EF (which currently sits at $22k earning zip zero zilch).

Sidebar: I tried googling, but came up empty. What is this new fangled forums lang `PFT` that is showing up in every thread?

Probably 'PTF' Posting to follow.

[appleshampooid]

@appleshampooid, it's PTF "posting to follow".

Thanks all for the discussion, math, caveats in here. Thinking I may throw in $20k as part of our bond allocation, then when it's seasoned for 12 months consider it our EF (which currently sits at $22k earning zip zero zilch).

Sidebar: I tried googling, but came up empty. What is this new fangled forums lang `PFT` that is showing up in every thread?

Probably 'PTF' Posting to follow.

Thanks. Didn't realize I had strayed out of the Investor Alley :D. Things move fast out here in General Discussion....

[slackmax]

Remember that the 3.54% rate is not fixed. It is based on inflation which is hot right now but Fed wants to keep it that way.   The fixed portion is zero.  The variable portion resets every 6 months.

Crazy though that I have small amount of I bonds from 20 years ago that had a fixed rate of 3-3.5% so at the moment are earning 7% risk free.  Wish I had bought more.

Fixed Portion 0 % percent .  Variable Portion 7 %.  Unclear to me.

If  I buy $10,000 at alleged 7 %, do I get 7% on all of the $10,000? 

Sorry if this has already been answered. I read about half of the posts.

Thanks

P.S.  edit to add:  I see there is a 'composite rate' as well. Seems like composite rate is what you will earn, not the variable rate or the fixed rate. Composite rate will be higher than 0% but lower than 7%  ?     

P.S.S.  Just saw that current 'composite rate' is 7% , so the variable rate must be  more than 7 %. But 'composite rate' is what you get paid on the entire $10,000.  (Not some portion thereof).   

[Arbitrage]

Remember that the 3.54% rate is not fixed. It is based on inflation which is hot right now but Fed wants to keep it that way.   The fixed portion is zero.  The variable portion resets every 6 months.

Crazy though that I have small amount of I bonds from 20 years ago that had a fixed rate of 3-3.5% so at the moment are earning 7% risk free.  Wish I had bought more.

Fixed Portion 0 % percent .  Variable Portion 7 %.  Unclear to me.

If  I buy $10,000 at alleged 7 %, do I get 7% on all of the $10,000? 

Sorry if this has already been answered. I read about half of the posts.

Thanks

P.S.  edit to add:  I see there is a 'composite rate' as well. Seems like composite rate is what you will earn, not the variable rate or the fixed rate. Composite rate will be higher than 0% but lower than 7%  ?     

The composite rate is what you earn.  The composite rate formula is: Composite rate = [fixed rate + (2 x semiannual inflation rate) + (fixed rate x semiannual inflation rate)].

The composite rate right now is 7.12%.  Yes, you would earn that amount on the entire $10k, subject to early withdrawal limitations and penalties. 

[slackmax]

Remember that the 3.54% rate is not fixed. It is based on inflation which is hot right now but Fed wants to keep it that way.   The fixed portion is zero.  The variable portion resets every 6 months.

Crazy though that I have small amount of I bonds from 20 years ago that had a fixed rate of 3-3.5% so at the moment are earning 7% risk free.  Wish I had bought more.

Fixed Portion 0 % percent .  Variable Portion 7 %.  Unclear to me.

If  I buy $10,000 at alleged 7 %, do I get 7% on all of the $10,000? 

Sorry if this has already been answered. I read about half of the posts.

Thanks

P.S.  edit to add:  I see there is a 'composite rate' as well. Seems like composite rate is what you will earn, not the variable rate or the fixed rate. Composite rate will be higher than 0% but lower than 7%  ?     

The composite rate is what you earn.  The composite rate formula is: Composite rate = [fixed rate + (2 x semiannual inflation rate) + (fixed rate x semiannual inflation rate)].

The composite rate right now is 7.12%.  Yes, you would earn that amount on the entire $10k, subject to early withdrawal limitations and penalties.

Thanks!  I am psyched about these bonds!

Gonna soak up $10k in December, 2021,  then another $10k in Jan, 2022 probably.

[Arbitrage]

If you ever want a quick I bond calculator, I recommend eyebonds.info.  It allows you to quickly see the value of any bonds purchased currently and in the future (for as long as the rate is known). 

For instance, a $10k I bond purchased today will be worth $10356 in May 2022.  A precious $10k I bond purchased in May 2000 (fixed rate 3.6%) will be worth $36200 in May 2022. 

[EchoStache]

I am so itching to put some cash into the Ibonds with the 7% rate!  I currently have $45k in citi savings with 0.50%.  My emergency fund is $15k, the remaining 30k is to pay off the last of my student loans after the first of the year if forgiveness doesn't happen, which seems *extremely* likely.  I can't really afford to tie up the $15k of actual savings for a full year as I will be moving next summer.  Hurts my brain to get .5% when there is 7% available!!!  I just don't think I'm in the right situation to do it.  I also kind of hate to tie up the 30k for a full year when interest and payments resume on student loans in February.  Want to clean up the debt to eliminate any chance of affecting the new mortgage. /sigh. I suppose if the high inflation is here to stay, I can always move the money after the move.  Seems like there is a good chance inflation will remain high for a while.

[BicycleB]

I am so itching to put some cash into the Ibonds with the 7% rate!  I currently have $45k in citi savings with 0.50%.  My emergency fund is $15k, the remaining 30k is to pay off the last of my student loans after the first of the year if forgiveness doesn't happen, which seems *extremely* likely.  I can't really afford to tie up the $15k of actual savings for a full year as I will be moving next summer.  Hurts my brain to get .5% when there is 7% available!!!  I just don't think I'm in the right situation to do it.  I also kind of hate to tie up the 30k for a full year when interest and payments resume on student loans in February.  Want to clean up the debt to eliminate any chance of affecting the new mortgage. /sigh. I suppose if the high inflation is here to stay, I can always move the money after the move.  Seems like there is a good chance inflation will remain high for a while.

@UltraStache, which is higher, the student loan interest rate or the ibond rate?

If they're about the same, is it risky to to buy the ibonds, or would the two things balance each other out, eliminating the risk?

I mean, you'd have to make some small payment on the student notes, but I assume you can swing the minimum, or reserve it by investing 90% and reserving 10% to make minimum payments for the first few months. Are you in forbearance or some other phase where the interest isn't accruing yet, which would mean you have an advantage from the ibonds until the interest accrual resumes?

[jeromedawg]

A friend of ours just told us about the 7% rate. Really tempted to buy some. Not sure if we should each buy and max out or what. Is it generally worth liquidating invested assets (total index or s&p500 index) for the purpose of purchasing the bonds at this rate?

[BicycleB]

A friend of ours just told us about the 7% rate. Really tempted to buy some. Not sure if we should each buy and max out or what. Is it generally worth liquidating invested assets (total index or s&p500 index) for the purpose of purchasing the bonds at this rate?

I don't think so. By definition i-bonds are matching inflation, which means your profit is zero. Stocks by contrast are an investment that is expected to generate a positive return.

They're just better than long term cash, and for some purposes slightly better than ordinary bonds. Imho.

[FreelanceToFreedom]

When do I Bonds actually accrue interest?

I bought some on November 1st and I'm not seeing any interest accrued yet.

[EvenSteven]

When do I Bonds actually accrue interest?

I bought some on November 1st and I'm not seeing any interest accrued yet.

I believe they reflect the 3 month early withdrawal penalty. So on Dec.1 you are at 1 month, Jan.1 two months, Feb.1 three months, and you will see your first months interest show up on March 1.

[Roland of Gilead]

I am going for $20,000 in I bonds, thanks!  We have $10,000 from a decade back but I had not bought any since then.

Currently our cash is earning .02% so this will be a bit of an upgrade.

[monarda]

PTF. I have a chunk in Citi earning 0.5% and it sounds like a good time to learn about these!

[Queen Frugal]

I just bought my first bond, and I have another purchased scheduled for January.  Thanks for the tip!  I recently read about it on the Kitces newsfeed too.

https://www.kitces.com/blog/federal-series-i-savings-bonds-inflation-712-composite-rate-treasurydirect-compare-fixed-income-investments/

[firelyve]

Trying to get my portfolio simplified and more in line with someone who has just recently 'semi-retired'.  For the last 21 months, my wife and I have been working only PT and plan on winding down completely in the next few years.  Initially, I had a lot of money in cash as a glide into retirement.  As we're still working, I've decided to keep 3 years cash for emergencies or if the market tanks and I don't want to liquidate any holdings, put about 5-10% into bonds, and the rest into stocks. 

Cash is paying nothing now.  I bonds look like an ideal place to park some of my cash, as I can access in 12 months and paying 7.12%.  I'm also considering making it a pretty large part of my bond holding.  With interest rates rising, the value of other bond funds are sure to fall.  Any thoughts on how I bonds would be suited for bond portion of portfolio rather than/instead of/and cash?

[rantk81]

I bought my first-ever $10K lot of I-Bonds on the TreasuryDirect website yesterday.  I've got another 10K ear-marked for early January.  (And I'm seriously considering making a big 'unnecessary' Q4 "estimated" over-payment to the IRS, to be able to buy $5K more in "paper" I-Bonds via tax-refund.)

Up until this point, my "portfolio allocation" of bonds has been absolutely zero.  Being in a low-interest-rate environment for more than a decade, I've seen bonds as actually being a higher risk than buying stocks.  (Why buy "normal" bonds, and expose myself to inflation/interest-rate risk, with very little coupon/upside?  It made no sense what-so-ever!)

However, In recently learning about I-Bonds, and how the interest rate floats around to reflect the inflation rate -- that's exactly what I've been looking for, to add some stability to my portfolio!  Just a shame that I'm limited as to how much I can buy each year.  I wish I had learned about I-Bonds sooner.

[DeniseNJ]

I'm not changing my asset allocation, which is all total US stock and SP 500.  But my cash savings/emergency fund is going into I bonds, simply bc savings acct and CDs are pay half a percent.  I know you can't touch it for a year but 10K a year should build up into a nice little stash.

[Jack0Life]

Just bought $10k of I bonds for me and the wife.
Question is I plan to buy $20k more in Jan. Will we still get 6 months of 7.12% on the new $20k until the next inflation rate ? When is that day day to buy I Bonds for the current 7.12% rate ??

[Arbitrage]

Just bought $10k of I bonds for me and the wife.
Question is I plan to buy $20k more in Jan. Will we still get 6 months of 7.12% on the new $20k until the next inflation rate ? When is that day day to buy I Bonds for the current 7.12% rate ??

Yes, you will get 6 months at the current rate regardless of when you purchase. 
April 30, 2022 is the final day to purchase before new rates are effective.

[Roland of Gilead]

I am not seeing a situation where any person/couple would not buy $10,000/$20,000 of these this year and in Jan assuming they have any money in taxable allocated to bonds.

It is sort of a gift to poor people.

[Jack0Life]

Just bought $10k of I bonds for me and the wife.
Question is I plan to buy $20k more in Jan. Will we still get 6 months of 7.12% on the new $20k until the next inflation rate ? When is that day day to buy I Bonds for the current 7.12% rate ??

Yes, you will get 6 months at the current rate regardless of when you purchase. 
April 30, 2022 is the final day to purchase before new rates are effective.

Thanks.

[Jack0Life]

Just for kicks, I went to the treasury website and calculate some earlier I Bonds.
A $10,000 I bonds bought in 05/1999(that's the earliest they let me) is now worth $34,544

[tooqk4u22]

Just for kicks, I went to the treasury website and calculate some earlier I Bonds.
A $10,000 I bonds bought in 05/1999(that's the earliest they let me) is now worth $34,544

Is that right? That's almost a 6% return.   But it may make sense bc the base rate was much higher back then as I eluded to earlier in the thread....and I still don't believe it.  Haha. And that was back when inflation was "just" 4%!   

Remember that the 3.54% rate is not fixed. It is based on inflation which is hot right now but Fed wants to keep it that way.   The fixed portion is zero.  The variable portion resets every 6 months.

Crazy though that I have small amount of I bonds from 20 years ago that had a fixed rate of 3-3.5% so at the moment are earning 7% risk free.  Wish I had bought more.

[Jack0Life]

Just for kicks, I went to the treasury website and calculate some earlier I Bonds.
A $10,000 I bonds bought in 05/1999(that's the earliest they let me) is now worth $34,544

Is that right? That's almost a 6% return.   But it may make sense bc the base rate was much higher back then as I eluded to earlier in the thread....and I still don't believe it.  Haha. And that was back when inflation was "just" 4%!   

Remember that the 3.54% rate is not fixed. It is based on inflation which is hot right now but Fed wants to keep it that way.   The fixed portion is zero.  The variable portion resets every 6 months.

Crazy though that I have small amount of I bonds from 20 years ago that had a fixed rate of 3-3.5% so at the moment are earning 7% risk free.  Wish I had bought more.

Not sure if it was correct but I put in those dates and that's the numbers it came out with.

[Arbitrage]

Just for kicks, I went to the treasury website and calculate some earlier I Bonds.
A $10,000 I bonds bought in 05/1999(that's the earliest they let me) is now worth $34,544

Is that right? That's almost a 6% return.   But it may make sense bc the base rate was much higher back then as I eluded to earlier in the thread....and I still don't believe it.  Haha. And that was back when inflation was "just" 4%!   

Remember that the 3.54% rate is not fixed. It is based on inflation which is hot right now but Fed wants to keep it that way.   The fixed portion is zero.  The variable portion resets every 6 months.

Crazy though that I have small amount of I bonds from 20 years ago that had a fixed rate of 3-3.5% so at the moment are earning 7% risk free.  Wish I had bought more.

Not sure if it was correct but I put in those dates and that's the numbers it came out with.

Yes, correct.  Re-plugging the website I mentioned earlier for easy I bond calculations: eyebonds.info

[SteadyStache]

If you purchase I Bonds for a LLC taxed as a partnership, do you select "LLC" or "Partnership" when you create the account?

And how should the accounting work on this? Should the funds come out of the business bank account, and get deposited back into the business bank account when the bond is redeemed? What happens if the business closes prior to redeeming the bond? Seems like things could get messy...

Just purchased my first bond. I'm also curious what happens if the business closes prior to redeeming? Read somewhere that the bond can be transferred to the business owner. Can anyone confirm if this is true?

Additionally, can I create an account for DW, and connect MY bank info? Or can I just purchase a 10K gift for DW instead?

[monarda]

Thanks so much for this thread. Just bought my first I bond. If I can find more cash that I don't need for a year, I'll be buying more this month or in January.

[Arbitrage]

Just a bump for this thread to remind people to keep buying those I bonds for 2022, if you use any fixed income in your AA or emergency fund.  Inflation seems pretty persistent right now, so it seems unlikely that the inflation component will fall off a cliff.  Quick google search tells me that we'll get at least 5% for the May reading (unless we somehow see deflation between now and then), so you'll get 7.12% for 6 months, then probably 5% or more for the following 6 months.

[Holocene]

This is a good reminder.  I bonds seem like the best game in town for fixed income these days.  It's at least way better than my savings account paying 0.5%.  I bought $10k in Oct and another $10k in Jan.  Will probably get another $2k or so with my tax refund too.  I was trying to decide if it's worth dealing with the paper bonds for this.  But with inflation staying high and bank rates nowhere close to the I bond rate, it seems like it is worth it.  I think I can send in the paper ones to get it put in my TreasuryDirect account.  That's what I did with some old EE bonds.  A bit of a hassle.  Wouldn't it be easier for them to just increase the limit by $5k rather than send paper bonds back and forth?  Oh well.

[Cool Hwhip]

Just bought 10k this morning.

[rantk81]

I received my first-ever 5K in paper bonds yesterday (from my tax refund.)
It came in 12 separate envelopes, each containing one bond.  The denominations were:

4x 1000
1x 500
1x 200
6x 50

On the very same day (yesterday), I logged onto the TreasuryDirect website to try to "convert" them to be "electronic" on my account.  The instructions were extremely "long-winded-wall-of-text" spread across a couple of different web pages.  I think I did it correctly. I ended up "adding" all 12 of the paper bonds to a "basket/cart" one-by-one, and then ended up having to print a PDF/summary of it (which they referred to as a "Manifest".)  I signed the PDF, and put that in an envelope (along with the 12 paper bonds), and it will be in today's out-going mail, right back to the treasury.

Interestingly, when I log into my TreasuryDirect account online, there is nothing that I can find to indicate that there are $5000 worth of bonds "pending to be received" by the treasury.  There is, however, a section called "My Converted Bonds" at the bottom of the page, under an Accounts Listing of "Linked Accounts Information" (which is new, after I followed the instructions.

I hope I did everything correctly!  This all seems like a lot of wasted effort, wasted postage, and wasted time.  Why can't the IRS form simply let you add an existing TD/online/electronic account number to have the bonds automatically added to?  This wasted quite a bit of time yesterday, and I'm still not 100% sure that I did everything correctly.  I scanned a backup copy of everything (the signed PDF and all 12 of the bonds) before I mailed it off.

Oh well.

[jpdx]

What a mess dealing with 12 paper bonds instead of one simple transaction. Thanks for letting us know the process.

[seattlecyclone]

What a mess dealing with 12 paper bonds instead of one simple transaction. Thanks for letting us know the process.

Yeah I did this once several years ago and found it not worth the hassle. Never again. To this day the bonds that used to be paper are still in a separate "converted bonds" section of my online TreasuryDirect account, displayed separately from the ones I bought online.

[DaMa]

I understand you cannot cash out for 12 months.  Has anyone cashed in an I-bond through Treasury Direct?  Do they transfer funds to your bank (i.e. checking account)?  How long does it take?

[Arbitrage]

I understand you cannot cash out for 12 months.  Has anyone cashed in an I-bond through Treasury Direct?  Do they transfer funds to your bank (i.e. checking account)?  How long does it take?

I cashed one out last year when we were buying a house.  Was simple enough, and transferred to my checking account within a few days.  Don't remember exactly how long it took, but it wasn't long. 

The harder part was convincing the lender that I bonds were valid assets, and that when I cashed it out and the money appeared in my bank account, it wasn't a gift from a mysterious benefactor.  Side note - Better Mortgage was a pain in the butt to work with. 

[Holocene]

Interestingly, when I log into my TreasuryDirect account online, there is nothing that I can find to indicate that there are $5000 worth of bonds "pending to be received" by the treasury.  There is, however, a section called "My Converted Bonds" at the bottom of the page, under an Accounts Listing of "Linked Accounts Information" (which is new, after I followed the instructions.

I hope I did everything correctly!  This all seems like a lot of wasted effort, wasted postage, and wasted time.  Why can't the IRS form simply let you add an existing TD/online/electronic account number to have the bonds automatically added to?  This wasted quite a bit of time yesterday, and I'm still not 100% sure that I did everything correctly.  I scanned a backup copy of everything (the signed PDF and all 12 of the bonds) before I mailed it off.

It sounds like you did everything correctly.  I did the same process a few months ago to convert some old paper EE bonds my grandparents had gotten for me as a kid.  It does sort of feel like it goes into a black hole for a bit.  But eventually my bonds showed up in my TreasuryDirect account.  Like seattlecyclone said, they will always remain in the separate linked converted account that you saw show up which is a bit annoying but oh well.  Since you have a copy of everything, you should be safe if anything goes wrong in the mail.

As much of a hassle as that is, I found it to be a bigger pain trying to redeem an EE bond at the bank.  I had one that I redeemed this way.  I think most tellers don't have much experience with this so it's just a bit slow to get done.  Since I had 4 more, I figured it was worth it to make them electronic.  And now they can't get lost!

I have $2100 of ibonds on their way to me from my tax refund.  I'm not looking forward to the hassle of converting but I just couldn't pass up the 7% interest.  Totally agree with you on the wasted effort/time/postage.  It'd be nice if they'd just allow electronic bonds for tax refunds.  Or just increase the purchase limit to $15k.  It's such a waste sending in the mail back and forth.  Especially since they send multiple envelopes and denominations.  I guess this is where our taxpayer dollars are going...