ShmoopTube

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finance a la Shmoop what is a savings bond well it's kind of like charity

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charity because interest rates on savings bonds are exceptionally low even

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by government standards well there was an era in America when taxpayers happily

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and willingly loaned money to Uncle Sam and were happy to do so because they had

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great faith and trust that the people we elected were in fact decent honest [old government photos]

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hard-working representatives who had the interests of the nation placed far ahead

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of their own personal gain it was the era of Jimmy Stewart and a whole bunch [photo of Jimmy Stewart]

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of others you should think the greatest generation yeah we know even a pretty [picture of John Wayne]

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good generation check Congress for details so savings bonds used to be a

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standard birthday present for young people kind of like the cross pin that [kid's birthday party]

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nice Jewish boys would get at their bar mitzvahs grandmother's after slathering [boy's mar mitzvah]

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in a bathtub of angry perfume loved handing the $50 savings bond envelope to [woman in hot bath]

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their college-bound progeny well savings bonds are issued by the US

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Treasury and have no stated maturity date instead what happens is that the

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savings bond welljust pays the interest for some

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period of time like say a decade and at the end of that 10 years while it simply

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stops paying interest you can cash in the bond at that time or just let it

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ride essentially renting money to the Gov for free and yeah you don't want to

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confuse a savings bond with this bond yeah who needs no safety

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