Bonds...Explain....

SHIFTY101EASY said: "okay, ive been fortunate enough to have aquired 30 bonds from my god father over the years since i was born. Some are 500 dollar ones...some some 100...some 75...and about half are 50 dollar ones.... anyways... these are EE savings bonds....does anyone know anything about them? If i wanted to cash a few of them that had reached face value could i without beaing heavily taxed for it? I dont really know much about them, and am interested in getting the cash out of some of them to use for other things. Any help...thank you."

thezster said: "It's been a few years (bunches) since I cashed in savings bonds. (or my kids for that matter) -- so this isn't "gospel"... You can cash them in before/at/or after maturity date... no penalties/no taxes - especially in your age bracket/income bracket... If anyone has any different information - I'd suggest you take their word for it...."

SHIFTY101EASY said: "oh alright. well i wasnt sure. I remember it says something about them being tax exempt if they are used to finance secondary education or something. Like on the back of them or something....oh well. Would i just take them to the bank if i wanted to cash them and cash them like a check or something? Also, i have a program that is supposed to give accurate info on how much the bonds are worth. Its called Savings Bond Wizard. [url]http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/sav/savwizar.htm[/url] you can find it right there. ^^^ im curious if its accurate or not?"

thezster said: "U.S. Savings Bonds should be tax exempt as I recall... it is/was a bonus for investing in the good ole U.S. of A. Couldn't tell you if your chart is accurate... But assume since it's a " .Gov" website - it should be pretty accurate. You can cash in your bonds at the bank. Produce I.D... they will check the chart to figure the worth... and hand over the cash."

HappyHarry said: "I think the information is correct, as stated. BTW, nice present :) Some of those will be definitely worth some money. They've been earning interest every 6 months for years, and the interest has been compounding."

SHIFTY101EASY said: "yeah, at the time i wasnt too thrilled with them...but i was only a few years old then. I got a 500 dollar one...which is bought for 250 dollars i believe....and its now worth 619 dollars. The other ones all have had similar amounts of interest on them. The final maturity date is 9/2018 . I just wish i knew what a ballpark figure of the final value would be so i can see if i wanted to wait around for that or use some of them now. does anyone know how to calculate how much it will be worth when the bond is fully mature?"

HappyHarry said: "There's a calculator on the Treasury site, isn't there?"

SHIFTY101EASY said: "umm....if there is, i dont see it or im on the wrong website or something."

SHIFTY101EASY said: "i wonder if its possible to cash these online? probably not, but hmm...i know your can buy them online now..."

SHIFTY101EASY said: "ahh i found the calculator in a differnt .gov site. It says the same as the program i have so it must be the correct value."

Sunny said: "i saw a program on pbs with a money manager saying he recommends 30 yrs zero coupons for retirement. i guess now you can buy @ 3500 for 10K in 30 yrs. anybody familiar, default risk? commissions? can are the rates guranteed? thanks"