Any Bonds Today?

You can learn a lot about history by studying it but to truly understand it, you had to have lived through it.   This holds true for the popularity of financial instruments as well.  This is a companion piece to Jonathan Clements’s recent post, “Seeking Uncertainty,” in reference to Savings Bonds.

Savings Bond mania was in full swing during World War II.  They were introduced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935, before I was born.  But I can remember, even at 5 years old, the tremendous push and popularity for buying savings bonds.  Artists made colorful, eye catching  posters encouraging Americans to save 10% of their wages to “buy their share of freedom”.  Movie stars went on bond rally tours to induce their purchase.   The movies had shorts exhorting patrons to buy “freedom”, liberty” and “war bonds”, as they were sometimes called, with a reminder that patrons could even buy them at the movie theatre.  Savings Bonds made you feel patriotic.  You were helping the war effort.

In 1941, Gene Autry, a popular singing cowboy actor made a recording of  catchy upbeat song entitled, “Any Bonds Today”.  Bing  Crosby and others recorded it too.  Irving Berlin wrote the words and music.  A repetitive phrase from the bouncy song is still remembered—“scrape up the most you can, here comes the freedom man, asking you to buy your share of freedom today”

Through June, 1970, You could get a savings stamp book from the post office where you could buy 10, 25, or 50 cent stamps you pasted in the book until you had $18.75–enough stamps to purchase a bond worth $25.00 face value. If you’re thinking 75 times 25 cents you are right.   

The popularity of savings bonds continued after the war, well into the introduction of “I” bonds in the late 1990s.   The benefits of savings bonds were indelibly ingrained in our psyche.   Gifts of savings bonds were given to us by grandparents, aunts and uncles for all occasions, even as wedding gifts.  They were easy to purchase and came with a nice gift folder. Best of all, they were a low risk, solid investment. But their popularity waned when Treasury Direct took over all functions of the Savings Bond Program.  Grandparents and others also gave up on the complexity of purchasing them.

I stopped buying savings bonds years ago.  The final maturity years of 30 years seemed so faraway at the time of purchase, I never gave a thought as to how much of a problem it would prove to be, keeping track of them.  I had a slew of them, and my husband inherited some from his father—some offering 6% interest.  But It was an ongoing chore to figure out the optimum time to cash them without triggering tax complications;  and they were onerous and time consuming to cash in.  Off putting as well, the rules kept constantly changing.

Time is not on my side and Savings Bonds have long since lost their luster for me.   I agree with Jonathan Clements’s wise assessment of them as being a hassle for investors and for those settling estates, but I get nostalgic when I think of the Andrews Sisters singing and jivin’ to “Any Bonds Today.”

Reminiscences of a bona fide,  but perspicacious, Lady Dinosaur.