Consumers have a hard time telling a genuine egg from a fake one. This is good news for unscrupulous entrepreneurs, who are even conducting three-day courses in the production of artificial eggs for less than S$150. A reporter with Hong Kong-based Chinese magazine East Week enrolled in one such course.
Series I bonds are sold at face value and mature after 30 years. Redemption rules are the same with Series I bonds as Series EE bonds. Series I bonds earn interest at a rate of 1.94% through Oct. 31, 2014.
Today (3/22/2012) the interest rate on the EE series savings bond is 0.6%. There was no way that an interest rate of 0.6% could lead to doubling of the value of a bond in 20 years. In fact, the value of the bond would increase less than 15% over the 20 years. The effective interest rate on EE Series savings bonds had to be a lot more than 0.60%. Using semi-annual compounding over 20 years, a $1000 bond will become $2001.60 (double in value) with an interest rate of of 3.5%. How good is a 3.5% interest rate? The current interest rate on a 20 year treasury bond is 3.06%. The rate on the savings bond is 0.44% higher than the rate of the 20 Year Treasury bond. Given that US Savings Bonds are just as safe as the 20 year Treasury, getting almost a half-percent more yield is great. Once you include the tax benefits, EE series savings bonds are a much better investment than treasuries.