Educate me on T-bills

[Thrif-t]

My husband is the executor of his parents estate, they have given us all their financial info and the majority of their money is in t-bills, I'd of expected some IRA's but nope they have none except one little Roth. So tell me about these t-bills and how good of an investment are they? TIA

[disneysteve]

http://www.savingsbonds.gov/indiv/indiv.htm

That is the official Treasury website. You can learn all about Treasury securities and US savings bonds there.

[sweeps]

T-bills are free from state and local taxes, and as you probably know, are ultra-safe investments. That's why many retirees buy them.

[disneysteve]

Looking at results of recent auctions, I wonder if it would make more sense to keep short-term savings in T-bills instead of CDs. The 91-day bills sold this week yield 4.8%. That is better than a CD especially considering the favorable tax status.

[sweeps]

goodtosave made a good case for it a while back in this thread.

[Thrif-t]

Thanks sweepsplayer for the link to that other thread, but honestly it seems too complicated to me I did set up a Treasureydirect account because I was going to switch all my paper savings bonds to online, but I've never done it, maybe I'll re-read that other thread inside the one you gave me the link to and see if I can understand it all better. I guess I just don't get someone not being in the stock market at all, I mean c'mon just a little bit???

[VJW]

The new 6-month T-Bills with a 6/15/06 issue date are returning 5.19%.

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[JBinKC]

Whats the biggie you can obtain t bills on the treasury direct site. Just open up an account and provide them with your banking info ie checking account and routing numbers. Plug in what instrument you want and you are good to go. Mondays and Tuesdays are the auction dates and they can be purchased in low 1000 dollar denominations. (It used to be 10000) I have been rolling over 28 day bills for my money earmarked for expenditure later in the year.

BTW They are probably the best risk free short term investments IMO. In addition, the interest is exempt from state income taxes.