wastedkarma t1_ity4dke wrote on October 27, 2022 at 3:48 AM

Reply to comment by 93195 in Treasury Direct log in issue by Mrs_WorkingMuggle

You can only buy $10000 per year per entity so how does it crash? Are people making a bunch of fake companies and buying i bonds?

brshoemak t1_itycpjy wrote on October 27, 2022 at 5:14 AM

FOMO more than likely. People hear about I Bonds because they hear a magical deadline is coming up. They also realize it's a good deal. Traffic picks up and a page times out. The media covers that fact (search Google for examples) and suddenly everyone wants I Bonds.

High demand on a site that looks like it was made in GeoCities 30 years ago causes timeouts and amplifies the FOMO. Vicious cycle.

93195 t1_ityu47a wrote on October 27, 2022 at 9:10 AM

If you are married or have a trusted partner to gift with, you can buy future year’s maximum. For example, if you’ve already maxed 2022, you can buy another $10K for your partner as a “gift” to deliver in January 2023. Starts the six months of high interest now, and doesn’t even lock anything up for longer, because ineligible for redemption until October 2023 anyway.

And if you’re willing to lock up the money an extra three months to January 2024….you can buy a third $10K (x2, with partner) now too.

wastedkarma t1_itz5lu0 wrote on October 27, 2022 at 11:34 AM

Wait how do you do the last part you said?

93195 t1_itz659l wrote on October 27, 2022 at 11:39 AM

You go into TreasuryDirect, you make a gift purchase for someone else. There is no limit on the amount you can buy as gifts, only a limit on what an individual can get in a calendar year, either from purchasing it themselves or receiving as a gift.

So for example, a married couple can each buy their own $10K for 2022, then buy another $10K now as a gift to deliver in 2023, or even another $10K to deliver in 2024. Buying now for 2024 only adds three months to the lock up period, as the 1 year doesn’t run out til October 2023 anyway.

It’s not hard to do, you just register it in their name and check the “this is a gift” box when you buy it.

TreasuryDirect explains it:

https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/gift-a-bond/