A savings bond calculator is very useful when some of your investments are in US savings bonds. The savings bond calculator is an online calculator put out by the US Treasury Department to help investors manage their savings bond portfolios. You can find the value of your US savings bonds using this savings bond calculator.

The first thing you need in order to use the savings bond calculator is the initial investment amount. This is the amount you plan to start buying savings bonds with. You can invest as little as $25 or as much as $5,000 depending on the type of US savings bonds you are investing in.

The interest rate is an important part in using the savings bond calculator. The savings bond calculator has a drop down menu which you can choose the expected interest rate for your savings bonds. You can choose from 1% up to to 8%.

Some people do not invest a large sum of money all at once but prefer to invest a little at a time. The savings bond calculator will take into account periodic investment that you plan to make. The values available that are built into the savings bond calculator range from $0 to $10,000. You must make sure that the savings bonds you in will allow you to invest the amount you choose. The amount chosen in the savings bond calculator must be valid.

The next field of the savings bond calculator is how often you want to invest the periodic investment amount you chose in the previous field. You have a choice of investing weekly, bi-weekly or less often. Some people invest monthly whereas some only invest semi-annually or just once a year. Choose from the drop down menu of the savings bond calculator.

The number of years you plan to invest your money in US savings bonds is important in calculating the value of your investment using the savings bond calculator. The longer the number of years, the more your investment will grow. Bear in mind, though, that most US savings bonds pay interests for 30 years. After 30 years, your money will no longer grow and you should think about moving your investment elsewhere.

The last thing the savings bond calculator will ask you to input is the tax rate. This field in the savings bond calculator is the federal tax rate which you expect your earnings to be taxed by the IRS.

Once you have input all the information required by the savings bond calculator above, you can click ‘calculate,’ which is a button below the information you just entered. The savings bond calculator will then use the information you entered to calculate the value of your savings bond. The savings bond calculator is flexible, smart, and does a great job of helping you manage your savings bond portfolios.