Comments on: How to Invest in 4-Week T-Bills: The Complete Process http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/how-to-invest-in-4-week-t-bills-the-complete-process/ Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:42:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Sunhttp://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/how-to-invest-in-4-week-t-bills-the-complete-process/#comment-45200 Sun Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:36:27 +0000 http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/how-to-invest-in-4-week-t-bills-the-complete-process/#comment-45200 Lauren: I am not sure how to answer your question because I only bought 4-week T-bills before, not any other maturities, and I always held the bills to maturity (4 weeks). T-bills are themselves short-term investments with the longest maturity at 52 weeks. So they are supposed to be liquid. I have to look into it to see what happens if you sell the bills before maturity, but I would imagine there's some kind of penalty. Lauren: I am not sure how to answer your question because I only bought 4-week T-bills before, not any other maturities, and I always held the bills to maturity (4 weeks). T-bills are themselves short-term investments with the longest maturity at 52 weeks. So they are supposed to be liquid. I have to look into it to see what happens if you sell the bills before maturity, but I would imagine there’s some kind of penalty.

]]> By: Laurenhttp://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/how-to-invest-in-4-week-t-bills-the-complete-process/#comment-45116 Lauren Thu, 09 Oct 2008 04:08:38 +0000 http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/how-to-invest-in-4-week-t-bills-the-complete-process/#comment-45116 Sorry, I'm totally new to this...can't I sell T-bills before their expiration date? That way I'd have total liquidity. Sorry, I’m totally new to this…can’t I sell T-bills before their expiration date? That way I’d have total liquidity.

]]> By: Jameshttp://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/how-to-invest-in-4-week-t-bills-the-complete-process/#comment-36745 James Sun, 27 Jan 2008 21:09:55 +0000 http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/how-to-invest-in-4-week-t-bills-the-complete-process/#comment-36745 Is there a good book or investment quide available online or at retail book stores on buying and selling Government securities, especially those found on TD. Thanks Is there a good book or investment quide available online or at retail book stores on buying and selling Government securities, especially those found on TD. Thanks

]]> By: Sunhttp://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/how-to-invest-in-4-week-t-bills-the-complete-process/#comment-22394 Sun Wed, 12 Sep 2007 00:45:42 +0000 http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/how-to-invest-in-4-week-t-bills-the-complete-process/#comment-22394 Blackwood: The only problem I have Zero CoI is you have to manually transfer the money out of it otherwise you will lose interests. Actually, I have been using HSBC Direct (savings account) for both source and destination for T-bill investments and it works very well. Every Thursday, matured bills are transferred to the account before new purchases are made. Since what is deposited in the account is always larger than what will be pulled out (due to the discount), you don't have to worry that there's no money in the account once the ladder is established. And there's no loss of interest as the fund is always deposited on Thursday. Blackwood: The only problem I have Zero CoI is you have to manually transfer the money out of it otherwise you will lose interests. Actually, I have been using HSBC Direct (savings account) for both source and destination for T-bill investments and it works very well. Every Thursday, matured bills are transferred to the account before new purchases are made. Since what
is deposited in the account is always larger than what will be pulled out (due to the discount), you don’t have to worry that there’s no money in the account once the ladder is established. And there’s no loss of
interest as the fund is always deposited on Thursday.

]]> By: Blackwoodhttp://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/how-to-invest-in-4-week-t-bills-the-complete-process/#comment-19327 Blackwood Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:17:53 +0000 http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/how-to-invest-in-4-week-t-bills-the-complete-process/#comment-19327 A common mistake I keep seeing by people using Treasury Direct is not taking advantage of the same-week roll over feature of the zero-interest account they give you to not lose a day of interest.So for example this week I'm buying $22,000's worth of T-bills on in Tuesday August 21st 2007 with $22,000 from a different T-bill that isn't actually maturing until Thursday August 23rd 2007.And I'm not using a time machine to do it. ;-)The trick is to set the destination account of the maturing bills and the source of the bills being purchased both to "your zero percent interest account". As long as you do that, their computer understands and rolls it over for you without losing a day of interest.The reason why you have the zero percent interest account is to avoid wire delays and other bank delays in rolling over your cash. If you try to do a same-week roll-over using your own bank, account ...you quickly find out your bank is too slow and things bounce. :-(After you get a ladder running, you keep rolling over your bills with purchases set for the Tuesday of the same week they mature, and the interest made is left behind in your zero-percent-account each Thursday. So that Thursday you log in, and you "redeem zero percent account" to send the interest made back to yourself. (The money will still be there and transferable if you miss the Thursday deadline, but the transfer to your bank account doesn't happen until the next *business* day, so if you go in on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, it won't transfer until Monday, etc.)Pretty easy once you get into the swing of things, and then you roll up those interest payments into new $1000 purchases from your bank account. To do that, you just schedule the roll over from the zero-percent account in the Treasury Direct system as you have been, but then schedule *a second* purchase for the $1000 with a different source: Your bank account. The money will roll over as usual in Treasury Direct, AND you'll have the purchase from your bank done as well the same Thursday. Set the destination of the new $1000 to be the zero-percent account, and viola, you'll be able to roll it over with the rest of your cash without losing a day of interest same as the rest now. A common mistake I keep seeing by people using Treasury Direct is not taking advantage of the same-week roll over feature of the zero-interest account they give you to not lose a day of interest.

So for example this week I’m buying $22,000′s worth of T-bills on in Tuesday August 21st 2007 with $22,000 from a different T-bill that isn’t actually maturing until Thursday August 23rd 2007.

And I’m not using a time machine to do it. ;-)

The trick is to set the destination account of the maturing bills and the source of the bills being purchased both to “your zero percent interest account”. As long as you do that, their computer understands and rolls it over for you without losing a day of interest.

The reason why you have the zero percent interest account is to avoid wire delays and other bank delays in rolling over your cash. If you try to do a same-week roll-over using your own bank, account …you quickly find out your bank is too slow and things bounce. :-(

After you get a ladder running, you keep rolling over your bills with purchases set for the Tuesday of the same week they mature, and the interest made is left behind in your zero-percent-account each Thursday. So that Thursday you log in, and you “redeem zero percent account” to send the interest made back to yourself. (The money will still be there and transferable if you miss the Thursday deadline, but the transfer to your bank account doesn’t happen until the next *business* day, so if you go in on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, it won’t transfer until Monday, etc.)

Pretty easy once you get into the swing of things, and then you roll up those interest payments into new $1000 purchases from your bank account. To do that, you just schedule the roll over from the zero-percent account in the Treasury Direct system as you have been, but then schedule *a second* purchase for the $1000 with a different source: Your bank account. The money will roll over as usual in Treasury Direct, AND you’ll have the purchase from your bank done as well the same Thursday. Set the destination of the new $1000 to be the zero-percent account, and viola, you’ll be able to roll it over with the rest of your cash without losing a day of interest same as the rest now.

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