Title: Hey all<p>My name is Adam, and I’m a co-founder at Yotta (YC S20), an app that uses behavioral psychology to help people save money by making saving exciting.<p>We built a feature on Yotta where you can earn 9.62% APY via US Treasury I Bonds. (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.withyotta.com&#x2F;i-bonds)<p>This is an absurd yield for a security that is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government - the strongest guarantee you can get. For comparison, most high-yield savings accounts with FDIC coverage are paying ~2%.<p>The backstory:<p>I Bonds were established by the US Treasury in 1998 to provide returns linked to inflation to protect consumer purchasing power. The rate on I Bonds is determined from the last six months of CPI data and is adjusted twice per year. Inflation is typically around 2% per year, so I Bonds have never been relevant since the rate was never that attractive.<p>Inflation spiked in 2022 driving I Bonds reached a record high yield of 9.62% APY. If you buy them by October 31st, you lock in this rate for six months from the purchase date. In the last 12 months, around $27B has been deposited as a result of the insanely high yield. This compares to $348m in 2020. Note that you have to hold I Bonds for at least a year and you forgo 3 the last three months of earned interest if you redeem before five years. You can deposit a max of $10k into I Bonds per calendar year.<p>So if you can get 9.62% APY on a government backed security when savings accounts are yielding 2%, why doesn’t everyone have I Bonds?<p>A few reasons.<p>1. Most people have never heard of them.<p>2. People don’t want to tie up cash for a year in a CD-like product.<p>3. The only way to buy I Bonds has been on the world’s worst website, Treasury Direct. You have to fill out long forms, click on a virtual keyboard to type your password, can’t use the back button, and make one mistake and you get locked out of your account. The whole thing is a colossal pain in the ass.<p>To solve 1) and 3), we wrapped an easy-to-use UI to buy I Bonds within Yotta. Users opt into Yotta creating a Treasury Direct account on their behalf, and we automate the painful part - interacting with Treasury Direct on the backend. This enables us to provide a great customer experience, making it easy for people to get the 9.62%. If anyone wants to control their Treasury Direct directly without Yotta, they can request it, and we will transfer over their account to no longer be managed by Yotta.<p>Hope you guys check it out and can take advantage of the 9.62% rate before 10&#x2F;31! Note that if you already have a Treasury Direct account, we are unable to support you for I Bonds unfortunately.<p>Happy to answer any questions and looking forward to any feedback.<p>P.S. We were featured in Bloomberg for the launch last week if you want to check that out https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2022-09-28&#x2F;buying-i-bonds-there-s-an-easier-way-to-earn-9-62-interest
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