Dear Liz: I have savings bonds that have achieved full face value. What should I do? Keep them indefinitely or cash them in to fund my Roth account or what? Am I correct that once they have matured, there’s no more money to be made off them?
Answer: You are correct. Once savings bonds have matured and stopped earning interest, they should be redeemed and the money put to work elsewhere. EE, H and I bonds mature in 30 years, while HH bonds mature in 20 years. You can find more information at TreasuryDirect.gov.
Funding a Roth is a great idea for deploying these funds. Other good uses are paying off high-rate debt or building an emergency fund.
It looks like the question and answer here are referring to different things. The letter writer asked about bonds achieving “full face value,” which happens at an earlier date than their “final maturity.” The bonds in my portfolio, for example, were all issued between 1986 and 1995 – they’ve all achieved full face value, but they’re all continuing to earn interest, because they’re not yet 30 years old.
In Liz’s response to Q&A: Cashing Mature Savings Bonds (http://asklizweston.com/qa-cashing-mature-savings-bonds/); she must have meant to refer to http://www.TreasuryDirect.com, not http://www.TreasureDirect.com. Thanks for a great site! Gary