US Saving Bonds
Bonds issued by the US Government are low-risk investments issued in order to finance the national debt. There are numerous types of Government bonds. Each bond has specific features that determine how much interest is paid to the bond holder, how long the bond’s term is, and how the bond is purchased. The different kinds of bonds are known by their "series" letters. Series E bonds are one of the kinds of US Savings Bonds.
The last of the Series E Savings Bonds stops earning interest in 2010, which means that anyone still holding Series E Bonds is losing out on interest payments soon. Smart financial planning tips from many experts suggest re-evaluating Savings Bond advantages and disadvantages before automatically rolling them over into new Savings Bonds like the current Series EE Savings Bonds.
History of Series E Savings Bonds
Series E bonds, or Government E Bonds, were first issued to fund World War II efforts. The bonds were commonly known as war bonds. The very first E bond was purchased by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The term E bond was just an extension of the original savings bond naming system. Earlier bonds were called "baby bonds" and were named as Series A, B, C, and D bonds. Thus the question What does Series E bond mean can be answered best by saying that it only means that E comes after D.
Early versions of US Savings Bonds were sold through the Post Office. People often still ask about buying Government Bonds at the Post Office as a result of either remembering the earlier practice, or having heard about it from older relatives like parents or grandparents who used to buy bonds in that way. Today, US Savings Bonds are sold by some banks, although the majority are sold through the U.S. Treasury Direct Website for selling savings bonds.
Quick interruption for the writing business start-up guide.
In 1941 when the Series E bond was created, a national volunteer program was created. The country’s business leaders and financial institutions helped sell the war bonds. The sale of Series E bonds allowed the country to quickly increase production of goods needed to fight World War II and continue funding the war effort in general. This patriotic slant toward the sale of bonds greatly increased the number of households with bond investments and raised awareness of U.S. Government Savings Bonds.
Savings Bonds became a staple of most personal financial planning advice because of their safety and low minimum investment.
Characteristics of Series E Savings Bonds
>E Bonds were issued for a fixed-term. The bonds matured after 10 years, but could be granted extensions that allowed them to earn interest for up to 30 or 40 years, depending upon issue date. E Bonds that were issued between 1941 and November of 1965 earned interest for 40 years. The other E bonds issued between December 1965 and June 1980 earned interest for 30 years.
Series E bonds were first sold in 1941 and continued to be issued until they were replaced by Series EE bonds in 1990. That means that the last Series E bonds stop earning interest in 2010. Series E bonds issued before September 1979 have already stopped earning interest.
E Bonds were originally sold for 75% of their face value and they earned 2.9% interest. Original denominations were $25, $50, $100, $500, and $1,000. Later, a $5,000 and $10,000 bond were added, and soldiers were offered a $10 denomination.
Here comes tax time for that huge group of Americans who wait until the proverbial last minute to file their income taxes. For them, crunch time is approaching and they need to find all of those tax receipts and records that they will need in order to file Federal Income Taxes. Fortunately, one of the best tax tricks for 2010 is getting free tax preparation software. The best part is that there is no real downside as long as you are smart and keep an eye out for optional add-ons, upgrades, and online tax filing options that might shatter your free tax software deals.
Many of the deals websites out there (check out Slickdeals.net and Gottadeal.com as well as Dealnews.com for starters) will notify you when companies like Intuit offer free online TurboTax applications for users who show up within a certain time frame. The HR Block guys similarly offer free TaxCut software signups from time to time.
If you are wondering what the catch is, because obviously these companies can’t make money by giving their programs away online, then good for you. The first step to avoid being a sucker who gets scammed is to be aware of what makes sense, what motivates people and companies, and trying to see the find print.
In this case, the fine print comes in the form of add-on offers. Depending on which deal on tax software you get, it might be free to input all the data and print the return, but there is a charge to e-file. Another strategy is to offer free Federal Income Tax preparation and free e-file, but to charge for doing your state income tax return. Unless you live in New York, California, or another state with complicated state income taxes, chances are your state return is pretty easy to do by yourself. Of course, there is always the “subscription” trap, where you think you are getting something for free, but are actually signing up for a $99.95 annual subscription to something. Just make sure you don’t enter a credit card number and you should be OK.
These sites also require registration and while these are legitimate companies that don’t benefit from spam or overly aggressive marketing, you can be sure they’ll be in touch sooner or later.
In Colorado, for example, the State of Colorado offers every resident free online e-filing of their state income taxes. For 90% of residents, all that you need to do is plug in a handful of numbers from your completed IRS Form 1040 tax return (they even tell you which line numbers to use) and then hit submit. (There is more to it for certain circumstances like partial-year residents, land income, and so on.) In other words, you would be a fool to buy TurboTax State edition if you live in Colorado.
If you don’t want to watch the deal websites (which is really the easiest way) you can also pop onto the main product webpages at turbotax.com and taxcut.com and see if they are running a public deal. However, you might have to dig around a little bit. After all, these companies don’t want to offer free software to someone who is coming there to buy it!
More personal finance tips and advice
Finance Investing Banking Information and Eduction
Sometimes it seems cold and heartless to think about money and tax deductions. With hundreds of thousands dead and untold masses homeless, not to mention a country destroyed, this can seem like one of those times.
On the other hand, when people choose to open their hearts and give money to help those in need, the U.S. Government thanks them in the form of the charitable tax deduction. Typically, donations to charity must be made by the end of the tax year, December 31st, in order to be deductible in that year. However, with the tragic earthquake that struck Haiti, Congress passed a law and the IRS implemented an exception to the rules for certain cash contributions for Haiti Relief.
In order to qualify, the donations must be considered “cash” donations (checks and wire transfers, and so on do count as cash). They must also be made to a qualified organization, typically a non-profit 503(c) organization in most cases. The donations must also satisfy all other normal requirements for deducting cash gifts to charities.
The deadline for making a cash donation for Haiti relief and being able to deduct it on your 2009 Federal Income Taxes is March 1, 2010 (today).
If you already made a donation, you can deduct it from your income taxes as well.
Unfortunately, one of the requirements for taking a tax deduction for a cash contribution to a charity is retaining proof of the contribution, most often, in the form of a receipt. However, in the aftermath of the Haiti tragedy, numerous new methods of making quick and easy donations to relief organization were created, including the ability to donate via text message.
A live television show broadcast nationwide ran numerous donation options across the bottom of the screen during the Haiti Relief telethon, including the option to donate $10 via text message. The $10 donation was then added to the phone bill of those who sent such a text.
Fortunately, the IRS has clarified that a phone bill from your cell phone company or other telecom provider will satisfy the record of proof requirement. This 2009 tax trick is particularly helpful for those of us who made donations upon seeing the devistation without pausing to think about the tax implications.
Be sure to hold on to your phone bill, however, for your records. If you follow smart financial advice about paying your bills automatically and opt-in for electronic statement delivery as one way to help prevent identity theft, then you need to log on to your account and print out the electronic statement to ensure that you have a printed record of your donation.
If you are wondering if getting free money from the Federal Government by getting government grants is a realistic and true way to make money and profit by knowing what other people don’t know, then read Free Government Grants For Moms Dads Business and Others. You may also be interested in other personal finance tips and advice.
If you are already convinced that you can go out there and get your share of this multimillion dollar giveaway from the Federal Government just by finding and winning grants from the government, then read on.
How To Find Government Grants
Do a Google search for government grants or US Government Grants and you’ll see that the top result is grants.gov
Notice that it is dot GOV and not dot com. If grants.gov is not your top search result, then you got a little too fancy with your search. Remember that nobody pumps up the real government grants webpage. There is no profit in that. If you want to shortcut the process, you can just trust me about the website and go to grants.gov directly.
(Do yourself a favor and open it in a new window so you can follow along here.)
While the Federal Government Grants webpage looks simple, reading a little bit of what shows up on the screen should convince you that this isn’t as easy as it looks. If it was, everyone would be doing it, right?
You’ll notice that the Grants.gov website includes not only regular government grants that they have all the time like grants to business owners, minorities, women, and for enterprises in specially designated area, but also all of the Federal Government grants from stimulus funds issued by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or Recovery Act. So, whether you are looking for normal grants or stimulus spending grants, they are all here.
Getting started finding grants can be tough. The Federal Government is very big after all, and they do offer TONS of government grants for all kinds of things from numerous government agencies.
The best way to get started finding government grants you qualify for is to take a look around at all of the different grants out there. So, click on “Find Grant Opportunities.”
Find Government Grants That I Qualify For
Now, the whole key to getting big money from the Federal Government in the form of grant money is to find which grants that you can qualify for. To find the grants that you qualify for, use the different search options in the middle of the Find Grant Opportunities webpage.
If you don’t know what government grants you qualify for, start by choosing either Browse by Category, or Browse by Agency. These choices allow you to dig through the thousands of government grant programs to find the ones that fit you. As you look through all of the many, many, available grant opportunities, make some notes about which ones you qualify for. With so much grant money available from the government, it might be hard to find the best grants again later.
For example, under Browse By Category, there are government grants for Business and Commerce, the Environment, Health, Education, and even the Arts. Also, there in the right hand column is the listing of all the new grants created by stimulus spending, and triggered by the Recovery Act.
When you have found a dozen or so grants you qualify, it is time to move on to How To Apply For Government Grants Step By Step
If you couldn’t find very many grants you qualify for (or if you did not qualify for any of the many government grants you saw) keep reading this series on Getting Government Grant Money for further tips that might help you find more grant opportunities.
Remember, these grants are given away by the Federal Government everyday, but only a select few are willing to learn how to find government grants, how to apply for government grants, and then how to win government grants.
If you are beginning to have some doubts about whether or not grants from the Federal Government are easy money that anyone can get as long as they know a few secrets, then read about Free Government Grant Money For Moms, Dads, Business Owners, Minorities, Women and More…
When I write personal finance articles for Finance Gourmet, I put on my Financial Planner hat. Just a few short years ago, I was a professional financial advisor with all of the required securities licenses. I had my Series 7 License, my Series 66 License, and my Life and Health Insurance licenses as well. In addition, I was a Certified Financial Planner, or CFP if you prefer. 
Most of my clients were upper class, high-income, people with either a high-paying job, or they owned their own business.
As a result, most of the people I worked with day in and day out as a financial consultant were well educated, either through formal education, or as graduates of the School of Hard Knocks. They also knew a little something about money. While it might be those who don’t have any money, or those who really don’t know anything about personal finance who need the most help, they also are the ones who can’t or won’t seek professional financial advice.
As a financial adviser, you find out quickly that trying to “win” discussions with clients who believe something that is incorrect is not worth the effort. No matter how many facts or how much evidence you show them, they will not accept the truth. In fact, a lot of them will stop speaking to you altogether rather than abandon what they “know” to be true, because you are one of “them” or just too dumb to know about the really great thing they learned since it is “outside of the normal system.” It’s a little bit mean, but as we used to say, “You can’t fix stupid.”
Secret Federal Government Grant Programs Give Millions of Dollars Away Every Day
I don’t know if the guy with the green question mark covered jacket on late night infomercials was the first to get people all riled up about government grants with his manic insistence that the government just gives away millions, or billions, of dollars in grants every day of the week. (Presumably just on weekdays. This is the government, after all.) Whether he was the first or not, he was one of the first ones I saw on television.
I got burned many years ago as a 15-year old by the lure of “secret financial information” or “unknown ways to make money or save money.” Using well-known (to the scammers) tricks of the trade to entice the naive, inexperienced, and just plain unintelligent, they made me salivate at the prospect of buying up fancy cars, expensive jewels, and maybe even big houses at police auctions for just pennies.
These things were all the result of busting crooks and seizing the property of drug dealers. The cops, the ad said, didn’t keep this stuff. They sold it at police auctions! But, most people didn’t know about police auctions, so the smart, savvy, insiders, were able to snatch up great deals. The ad said that there was a money back guarantee. How could I lose?
When my mother wouldn’t write a check for me (even if I gave her my own money), I rode my bike to the grocery store and bought a money order. I was “lucky.” I actually got something in the mail instead of my money just disappearing into a Post Office Box somewhere. However, that is where my luck ended. What I got was a plain paper booklet that told me where to look to find police auctions and other government agency property auctions.
As I read it, it dawned on me that I had been had. Sure, there were government auctions, but they were not a secret, not even close. In fact, the best way to find “amazing police auctions” was to LOOK FOR THE ADS IN THE NEWSPAPER advertising them! An ad in the newspaper? That doesn’t sound like much of a secret.
I soon found out the real reason few people ever went to police auctions. They don’t often have anything “good” and when they do, there are suddenly plenty of people there to bid on that.
Money Back Guarantee Is Not Worth The Paper It’s Printed On
The second lesson I learned was that “Money Back Guarantee” doesn’t necessarily mean what you think it does as an honest, upstanding person. The money-back guarantee with my purchase was probably legit. I don’t know, because to fulfill the requirements to get a refund would have taken more time, effort, and money than the original wonderful money making opportunity cost me in the first place. To redeem the guarantee, I had to register for and attend at least 3 police auctions, in at least 3 different jurisdictions, in at least 3 different months. I bet you can guess how often they were supposed to refund people’s money, even if they were honest enough to do it at all.
How To Find Government Grants You Qualify For and Get Your Share of Free Money From the Feds
Why did I tell that story in an article about how to get millions of dollars in Government Grants just by learning about some secret, insider, information about a way to get a too good to be true deal from the government just because nobody knows about applying for these grants, which makes them so easy to get that you would be dumb not to find out about it right away?
Oh, and by the way, there is a money back guarantee.
Hopefully, this helps those of you willing to be helped.
How To Avoid Being Scammed and Conned Out of Money By Promises of Free Government Money For Moms, Dads, Entrepreneurs, Education, Veterans, Women, Minorities, and so on…
For those of you who KNOW that free government grant money is out there waiting for you if you are just smart enough to know what to look for and smart enough to know how to apply, then I offer you this chance to prove to yourself what the reality is before you send anyone any money.
Remember how it turned out that police auctions aren’t secret? Government grants aren’t either.
Here are the Step By Step Instructions To Get Government Grant Money For Free
