I have a question. So I sold a lot of my close end bond funds, due to higher rates coming this way, and I will be replacing them with 3 month treasury bills. I tried to sign up with Treasury direct, and I did not get a confirmation email. It was on Friday night, so maybe they are closed for the weekend. I am can 3 month treasures through the fixed income desk at Fidelity, but I don’t know if that costs more. I can also get the ETF Sgov which buys 0 – 3 month treasuries.
Any thoughts?
Yes, this sounds like unnecessary pain.
Why not just buy SHV or BIL?
Thanks.
It seems like bil and sgov are almost the same.
I don’t do a lot of bond stuff but I think except for I-bonds, you can buy most treasury bonds and treasury bills at most brokerages w/o any fees during auctions. Most people (I think) buy these things from the auctions so it should be fee-free.
On the secondary market there can be fees, I think Fidelity charges $1 per bond.
Also most people tend to dislike Treasury Direct for a variety of reasons. I’ve had an account with them for a long time because at one time, 20+ years ago I bought a handful of bonds (literally under $1K total) and just left the account active and the bonds in the account. I did recently use it to buy $10K of I-bonds.
Also most people tend to dislike Treasury Direct for a variety of reasons. I’ve had an account with them for a long time because at one time, 20+ years ago I bought a handful of bonds (literally under $1K total) and just left the account active and the bonds in the account. I did recently use it to buy $10K of I-bonds.
Can you tell me why people don’t like Treasury direct? I have a few options. Buying from Fidelity, buying sgov, or bil, or using treasury direct.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Mark,
DW and I opened accounts at Treasury Direct last year so that we could take advantage of i-Bond investments last year and this year.
I find the Treasury Direct website pretty cumbersome. Links are difficult to find (I spent 10 minutes the other day searching for how to change my password - never found a link).
It’s difficult to locate which bond has accumulated interest and which ones have not (yet). The navigation is not really intuitive nor user friendly.
But that’s Government for ya!!
'38Packard
I am a long term lurker on this board but just wanted to chime in and say that I just buy my bonds through my broker which is Schwab. Their website is clear and easy. And if you have any questions they are very helpful on the phone.
Can you tell me why people don’t like Treasury direct? I have a few options. Buying from Fidelity, buying sgov, or bil, or using treasury direct.
You may want to pose this to Wendy on the METaR board. She’s very familiar with the TD site, has glowing things to say about I-Bonds, and (I believe) may buy other long-term bonds there as well. If anyone would know the ins and outs about TD, it would be her.
Pete
Any thoughts?
Yes, try logging on again.
Navigation…use the tabs along the top, that gets you to everything. Like any website it takes a while to know where everything is at. The design is certainly old, but I don’t find it particularly more cumbersome than the less well designed brokers’ websites I’m familiar with (Fidelty/Schwab/IB).