Author Topic: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation  (Read 8822 times)

I'm a red panda

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Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« on: July 05, 2016, 01:05:10 PM »
At the bank today, while I was depositing savings bonds (from 1986).

Teller: Oh, this will take a few moments, this is a pain to do.
Me: Sorry about that, unfortunately I have 120 more to bring in over time. (I bring them in once a quarter, rather than when each one reaches maturity, to save me time).
Teller: Oh, bring them all at once.
Me: Yeah, they haven't matured yet.
Teller: You don't have to wait for them to fully mature to cash them.
Me: But they are still earning interest, so I don't want to cash them yet.
Teller: Savings bonds get 0.10% interest. It would be better to just deposit them.
Me: Those are current rates. These are 30 years old. I'm going to hold onto them.
Teller: It would be easier for us if you cashed them all at the same time, why not hold onto these until they are all mature.
Me: Some of them have another 15 years on them. No.

Um, yeah. That's not gonna happen. Fun talk.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2016, 01:08:47 PM »
Many people with service jobs seem to think that doing their job and serving the customer is inconvenient. The attitude gradually becomes obvious to management, at which point either they receive an attitude adjustment, or they are "let go", or their perspective reaches critical mass and bogs down the entire company to the point where they lose too many customers to recover.

MgoSam

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2016, 01:09:22 PM »
What rates did you get in 1986?

I'm a red panda

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2016, 01:15:13 PM »
What rates did you get in 1986?

I think they are mostly at 4% now if they are from the 80s or early 90s (I think it is a little over 5% annualized yield). The ones from the late 90s are around 1.5%. 
The ones I cashed today were $115.32 for a $50 denomination ($25 purchase price).


This was my college fund that I didn't have to spend.
« Last Edit: July 05, 2016, 01:30:12 PM by iowajes »

happypup

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2016, 01:26:49 PM »
Just out of curiosity, where are you depositing them? A local bank or national or what? My bonds are just starting to mature, but my bank won't accept them for deposit, and nowhere I've called is willing to cash them.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #5 on: July 05, 2016, 01:29:07 PM »
Just out of curiosity, where are you depositing them? A local bank or national or what? My bonds are just starting to mature, but my bank won't accept them for deposit, and nowhere I've called is willing to cash them.

Local credit union.

Apparently there is a way to convert them to electronic on the Treasury site, and then you can redeem through there. I haven't really investigated that.

happypup

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #6 on: July 05, 2016, 01:36:09 PM »
Interesting. I was giving my bank the benefit of the doubt that maybe credit unions just don't accept savings bonds, but apparently not.

Thanks for the heads up on converting them. I was looking into the mail-in redemption process and it's cumbersome, so if I can convert them, that'll be a whole lot easier.

randymarsh

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #7 on: July 05, 2016, 01:39:01 PM »
Just out of curiosity, where are you depositing them? A local bank or national or what? My bonds are just starting to mature, but my bank won't accept them for deposit, and nowhere I've called is willing to cash them.

Local credit union.

Apparently there is a way to convert them to electronic on the Treasury site, and then you can redeem through there. I haven't really investigated that.

I did that a few years back. It's pretty simple.

Sibley

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #8 on: July 06, 2016, 02:42:50 PM »
I deposited one this summer, my bank is Chase. No problems.

Basenji

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #9 on: July 06, 2016, 02:54:56 PM »
Cool, I had no idea what to do with my 1986 savings bond. I'll go dig it out.

Zx

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #10 on: July 12, 2016, 07:00:02 PM »
Yes I guess it's now up to you to serve those in customer service, because their jobs are so difficult and unrewarding.

Some of those are pretty good interest-rates. I remember when my grandfather took me down to the bank to open a savings account in 1976 I believe it was and the interest rate was 5% on basic savings.

More recently I had a friend who had three jumbo certificates and every time they would mature after a year he would shop them around to different banks and he would demand a certain interest and shop until he got it.  The last year I knew him he demanded 7% and got it. I can still see his checks for $7000 for what he called, "not hitting a lick".

Haven't seen or talked to him for 10 years and I wonder what he is doing with those jumbo certificates now.

Good on you for holding your ground and cashing in your bonds when you feel like it. Good help is so hard to find!

Choices

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #11 on: July 12, 2016, 07:08:32 PM »
I deposited one this summer, my bank is Chase. No problems.
We also had no problem cashing some out at Chase, though our closest branch took out the four-teller bay to put in an extra ATM and now has only one teller in the back that used to be only for business transactions but who now serves everyone.

SwordGuy

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #12 on: July 12, 2016, 07:28:49 PM »
I took a bunch down to the main branch of Bank of America last fall.   Other than it takes awhile to figure out how much each is worth, didn't have any problem cashing them. 

I would advise going to a branch that has several active tellers at one time simply as a courtesy to your fellow customers if you have a bunch to cash at one time.

And boy, howdy! Was I pleased when I found out how much those were really worth!

Zamboni

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #13 on: July 12, 2016, 08:26:26 PM »
How old was this teller? 17?

My friend has a theory that banks are trying to make it so that no one remembers when banks used to actually pay interest on accounts . . . seems like they are making progress in this regard.

charis

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #14 on: July 13, 2016, 04:43:02 AM »
A related question.  My kids have various savings bonds gifted by relatives and friends, but I don't have the paper.  How do I go about tracking these down?

Frankies Girl

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #15 on: July 13, 2016, 05:41:25 AM »
A related question.  My kids have various savings bonds gifted by relatives and friends, but I don't have the paper.  How do I go about tracking these down?

I found some info about this but have yet to confirm if legit (likely is, but I'm paranoid). But it is a limited database apparently.
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/savings-bonds-treasury-hunt/msg1141388/#msg1141388

If anyone else has any ideas, I'd be grateful too.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2016, 05:44:03 AM by Frankies Girl »

charis

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #16 on: July 13, 2016, 06:39:30 AM »
A related question.  My kids have various savings bonds gifted by relatives and friends, but I don't have the paper.  How do I go about tracking these down?

I found some info about this but have yet to confirm if legit (likely is, but I'm paranoid). But it is a limited database apparently.
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/savings-bonds-treasury-hunt/msg1141388/#msg1141388

If anyone else has any ideas, I'd be grateful too.

I did the Treasury Hunt request and nothing came up, which indicates to me that it is not accurate because I do have two paper savings bonds that have my child's SS # on them.

markpst

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #17 on: July 15, 2016, 05:45:04 AM »
I had two $25 savings bonds I received as a prize that I did not want to hold until maturity. I was able to redeem via the government website:

https://www.treasurydirect.gov

Drifterrider

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #18 on: July 18, 2016, 11:05:25 AM »
A related question.  My kids have various savings bonds gifted by relatives and friends, but I don't have the paper.  How do I go about tracking these down?

Department of the Treasury.  Google their web site.

dpfromva

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #19 on: July 18, 2016, 01:30:58 PM »
Don't forget to pay taxes on the interest when you cash out (unless you've been reporting it as it was earned, which I'm sure never even occurs to most folks), UNLESS you are using it for qualified education expenses (and meet the other IRS requirements), then it's tax free, because we like educated citizens here in the US.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #20 on: July 18, 2016, 01:52:43 PM »
Don't forget to pay taxes on the interest when you cash out (unless you've been reporting it as it was earned, which I'm sure never even occurs to most folks), UNLESS you are using it for qualified education expenses (and meet the other IRS requirements), then it's tax free, because we like educated citizens here in the US.

Hard to forget, since the bank is required to send you tax forms.  (Unless you go electronic, in which case the taxes are due when they mature, not when you cash out- which is weird.)

o2bfree

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #21 on: July 18, 2016, 03:12:36 PM »
This reminds me of a time I went to my bank to contribute to my IRA. The guy had to ask the manager to come over because he didn't know how to do the paperwork. He said, "I only know how to get money out because that's what people usually do." I had to go back 3 TIMES to make my deposit because they couldn't get the paperwork straight. I've since moved that account to my online financial service, where I can make moves quickly myself.

Goldy

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Re: Your inconvience does not determine my asset allocation
« Reply #22 on: July 18, 2016, 05:52:50 PM »
Now that I'm in my early 30's I have about 50 of these all lined up to cash over the next 10 years.  When I cashed my first one at Wells Fargo the poor teller had no idea how to cash it because the old ones have less than the now required number of digits in the Serial number.  After a good 20 mins she tried putting three zeros in front of the number and it worked.  I also got comments like why did you keep these so long etc.