Anne Lee
11-23-11, 12:52pm
I have a few savings bonds. I planned to be the savings bond grandma, assuming my children ever have children.
Buying A Savings Bond Is About To Get Harder (http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/11/21/142419887/buying-a-savings-bond-is-about-to-get-harder?sc=nl&cc=pmb-20111122)
Paper savings bonds used to be a wholesome part of American culture. You bought them when your kids were born, to save for college. You bought them to save for a home.
But starting next month, they'll be a lot harder to get. Banks will stop selling paper savings bonds on January 1, 2012.
Here's the way savings bonds used to work — you would go to the bank, plunk down some money, and get a certificate — a paper pledge that the U.S. government will pay back all your money, plus interest. After a set number of years, you'd take your paper bond to the bank and cash it in. The wait was worth it: a $50 savings bond bought in 1975 was worth over $250 dollars thirty years later.
"We sold billions and billions dollars of savings bonds over the years," explains Mckayla Braden, who works for the Treasury Department. She says savings bonds got their start back in the mid-1930s. The government was expanding its size, launching a range of programs like the WPA, and it needed funds.
Read more: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/11/21/142419887/buying-a-savings-bond-is-about-to-get-harder?sc=nl&cc=pmb-20111122
Buying A Savings Bond Is About To Get Harder (http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/11/21/142419887/buying-a-savings-bond-is-about-to-get-harder?sc=nl&cc=pmb-20111122)
Paper savings bonds used to be a wholesome part of American culture. You bought them when your kids were born, to save for college. You bought them to save for a home.
But starting next month, they'll be a lot harder to get. Banks will stop selling paper savings bonds on January 1, 2012.
Here's the way savings bonds used to work — you would go to the bank, plunk down some money, and get a certificate — a paper pledge that the U.S. government will pay back all your money, plus interest. After a set number of years, you'd take your paper bond to the bank and cash it in. The wait was worth it: a $50 savings bond bought in 1975 was worth over $250 dollars thirty years later.
"We sold billions and billions dollars of savings bonds over the years," explains Mckayla Braden, who works for the Treasury Department. She says savings bonds got their start back in the mid-1930s. The government was expanding its size, launching a range of programs like the WPA, and it needed funds.
Read more: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/11/21/142419887/buying-a-savings-bond-is-about-to-get-harder?sc=nl&cc=pmb-20111122