I-Bonds Now at 0% Fixed Rate?

Posted By Paul


If any of you follow I-Bond rates you may have noticed that today the new rates for the I-Bond came out.

For those of you not familiar with the I-Bond (or savings bonds in general) you can read my original post:

Savings Bonds

The interesting thing is that the fixed rate for any I-Bond purchased in the next 6 months is 0%. I thought that was perhaps a typo or they hadn't updated the info correctly, but it would appear that this is really the case.

So what does this mean? They probably dropped the fixed rate because the inflation rate is so high right now. With the factored in inflation rate that was also published today (2.42%) an I-Bond that you buy today would still earn 4.84% (at least for the next six months until the inflation rate changes).

It also means that the bonds that I bought not too long ago are now making over 6%!

I'm going to keep watching the I-bond rates and once the fixed rate gets up to a decent number again (which might very well be several years) I plan on buying some more. They seem like a pretty decent low-risk place to keep your money, and at least for now they are providing a great return.