Wednesday, October 1, 2008

A Savings Bond Calculator Will Save You Time

By Arnold Clout

If you are investing in US Savings Bonds, the US Treasury Department has put out an online savings bond calculator to estimate the growth of your US savings bond investment. The savings bond calculator is very useful and handy in calculating the value of your savings bonds over the years.

To begin using the savings bond calculator, you need to know how much you are going to invest. The initial investment is the first input field of the savings bond calculator. You can invest a large sum of money upfront or you can invest as little as $25.

Then the savings bond calculator will ask you to estimate the interest rate which you expect your savings bond investment to grow at. The drop down menu of the savings bond calculator makes this step easy. You don't have to pick a number out of the hat, you can choose between 1% on the low side, all the way up to 8% on the high side.

The government designed US savings bonds to be easy and affordable for small investors. Instead of investing a large sum upfront, you can invest a small amount periodically. Again, the savings bond calculator makes it easy for you by having a drop down menu ranging from $0 to $10,000. If you don't plan to invest any more after the initial investment, the value you would choose would be $0 in the savings bond calculator.

Next, the savings bond calculator will let you choose how often you want to make the periodic payment. You can choose among weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, semi-annually, and yearly. Investing quarterly is not an option built into the savings bond calculator.

Next, the savings bond calculator will ask you how long you want to invest in savings bonds for. You can either invest to maturity which is usually 30 years or you can invest for shorter period of time. Bear in mind that the longer you invest to maturity, the more money you will accumulate. You should not invest past the maturity date.

The last variable needed to use the savings bond calculator is the tax rate. This is your federal tax rate percentage at which your earnings are taxed by the government.

With all of the information above, you can easily use the free savings bond calculator. You can use it as often as you like, and the more you use the savings bond calculator, the more you will learn about your savings bond investment. - 15224

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