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When you buy them, you lock in the current rate for 6 months from the date you purchase & then you get the next rate for 6 months after that. So today you get 9.62% for 6 months, so you'll technically earn 4.81% interest on your money after 6 months from the date of purchase. You'll then get the next rate which is most likely 3% for 6 months (often quoted as 6% annually). This site does an amazing job tracking what the future rate will be - https://tipswatch.com/tracking-inflation-and-i-bonds/
They will announce the final next 6 months rate in October. You can buy then (around the 15th) if you want. If you buy after November 1, you won't get the current 4.81% (aka 9.62%). But as stated, the October rate is pretty well calculated. Only 1 more inflation report will adjust it slightly. See the Tipswatch site I linked to for info on how & when it's calculated.
Each person can buy $10,000. If you got a tax rebate you can buy up to $5,000 with that. If you have a company, the company can buy $10,000.
Must be a US Citizen.
Someone who works at the US Treasury thought it was a good idea to make you type a password with a "virtual keyboard" using your mouse. So you might want to create a script in your password manager to enter in the console like this:
var x = PASSWORD_AS_STRING; for(var i = 0; i < x.length; i++){ PasswordVK(x[i]) }
Side note, my 70yr old Mom thought this was an easy process. I felt like an idiot.
There are probably better ways to use $10,000 if that is all you have and you are interested in growing money - online courses come to mind.
Well I do my banking with online banks so I have no access to a brick and mortar branch nor do I really have the time or inclination to try to talk to somewhere there and get what they're asking for.
With interest rates climbing, I do believe there's a chance of deflation risk, which would set the I-bonds to 0% in the next interest rate. That is to say, I-bonds are variable rate against inflation. US Treasury bonds are fixed rate. You get exactly the rate that's on the tin.
I think that I-bonds are more difficult to understand and calculate in light of this. Its easier and simpler in my opinion, to simply invest into 1M or 3M treasuries while waiting for the interest rates to climb up.
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Its a hard balancing act for sure. I-Bonds (and their closely related TIPS brothers) are a play on inflation. Which means you need to understand one more thing in the market.
At least I-bonds are capped at 0% losses. TIPS may lose value in deflation