How To Use A Savings Bond CalculatorSavings bonds are a very common form of investment and savings in the US. The government issues these bonds as a way to borrow money, and the people who buy the bonds receive interest on them, with the rate received either related to the market rate or inflation depending on the type of savings bond chosen. These bonds usually continue to accrue interest for up to thirty years or until you cash them in. If you don't keep them for a certain amount of time there is an early cash in penalty. There is no need to pay taxes on savings bonds until you cash them in, but you can pay tax on the interest earned each year in order to avoid having to pay tax when you cash the bond in. If you are trying to figure out how much the bond or bonds that you have are worth, you can use a free online savings bond calculator. One of the options for an online savings bond calculator is on the US Treasury website. You can enter in the series (type) of bond, the date you want the value as of, the issuing date of the bond, and the bond serial number and it will tell you the value of the bond on the date you have entered. You can also get information on the interest earned that year if you need it for your taxes. You can also build an inventory of all of your bonds and what they are worth and save it for future reference. You can also use redemption tables to try to figure out what you would get if you turned in your bond, but this sort of calculator is easier to use. Although there are other savings bond calculators out there, I would think the one on the Treasury website would work the best since they are the ones that put out the bonds and you use the serial number in the calculation. The information that the other calculators ask for is the face value, the issuing year and date, and the series of the bond. This should also be fairly accurate if you don't want to use the serial number for some reason. |