How to enter and track US Savings Bond

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pstarfam
pstarfam Member ✭✭
edited February 2022 in Investing (Mac)
I've read the Windows comments about how to put in a US Savings bond account- but it seems quite different than what I see on the mac.

Suggestions?

Best Answers

  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Answer ✓
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    Here's what I do for my I-Bonds. I'm sure there are many other approaches.

    I create a bond security with the name containing the initial amount and purchase date. It looks like this:



    The coupon interest is the I-Bond base interest without the inflation "bonus". I put a Buy or Add Shares entry in a separate brokerage account (Type: Other) to hold these. I never need to enter transactions into that account other than the initial acquisition. 

    Then once each quarter, I update the price to reflect the current total value based on the the info from the treasury website. That looks like this:



    If we own more than one of these (eg. my wife and I each have our own), I still only have to update the security once to cover them all. This gets the value reflected for all positions. Quarterly updates are plenty good for my purposes, although you could certainly use a shorter or longer timeframe that suits you.
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Answer ✓
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    @pstarfam A Buy transaction in any Quicken investment account uses cash in that account for the purchase. So unless you transferred cash to the bond account from your checking account, it shows a negative balance. If you are creating this bond holding "out of thin air" (e.g. not going back in time to enter where the cash came from for the bond purchase), then use an Add Share transaction instead of a Buy. Add Shares creates holdings in a security without using any cash.  
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993

Answers

  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Answer ✓
    Options
    Here's what I do for my I-Bonds. I'm sure there are many other approaches.

    I create a bond security with the name containing the initial amount and purchase date. It looks like this:



    The coupon interest is the I-Bond base interest without the inflation "bonus". I put a Buy or Add Shares entry in a separate brokerage account (Type: Other) to hold these. I never need to enter transactions into that account other than the initial acquisition. 

    Then once each quarter, I update the price to reflect the current total value based on the the info from the treasury website. That looks like this:



    If we own more than one of these (eg. my wife and I each have our own), I still only have to update the security once to cover them all. This gets the value reflected for all positions. Quarterly updates are plenty good for my purposes, although you could certainly use a shorter or longer timeframe that suits you.
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • pstarfam
    pstarfam Member ✭✭
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    Thanks for your help. I created the security and added a buy in an "other" investment account,- buy $10,000. Now it shows a -$10,000 value for the other account?
  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Answer ✓
    Options
    @pstarfam A Buy transaction in any Quicken investment account uses cash in that account for the purchase. So unless you transferred cash to the bond account from your checking account, it shows a negative balance. If you are creating this bond holding "out of thin air" (e.g. not going back in time to enter where the cash came from for the bond purchase), then use an Add Share transaction instead of a Buy. Add Shares creates holdings in a security without using any cash.  
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
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