CollegeSure CD

Categories: Finance,

CollegeSure CDs are certificates of deposit designed to let you prepay future college costs at today's rates, plus a premium based on the child's age and the amount you invest.The CDs, which are issued by the College savings bank of Princeton (NJ), pay annual interest rates linked to increases in an index of average college costs and are available with terms from one to twenty-two years.While these CDs are insured by the federal deposit insurance corporation (FDIC), the interest they pay is taxable, unless you own them within a coverdell education savings account (ESA), participating state 529 plan, or roth ira. With the roth ira option, the account must be open for at least five years and you must be at least 59 1/2 to qualify for tax-free withdrawals. CollegeSure CDs are sold in whole or partial units. At maturity, each whole unit is guaranteed to pay the average cost of one year of tuition, fees, and room and board at a four-year private college. If you decide to purchase only a partial unit, it will be worth only that portion of the average yearly college cost at maturity. If the intended beneficiary decides not to go to college, you can get the entire principal and interest calculated at the guaranteed rate back when the CD matures and use it for any purpose.However, if you choose to cash in the CD before its maturity date, you'll owe a penalty of 10% of the principal during the first three years of its term. The penalty drops to 5% for the remaining years of the CD's term, except for the last year, which carries a 1% penalty.

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Definition / Meaning of

U.S. Treasury Securities

Categories: Bonds and Treasuries,

Negotiable U.S. Government debt obligations, backed by its full faith and credit. Exempt from state and local taxes. U.S. treasury securities are issued by the U.S. government in order to pay for government projects. The money paid out for a treasury bond is essentially a loan to the government. As with any loan, repayment of principal is accompanied by a specified interest rate. These bonds are guaranteed by the "full faith and credit" of the U.S. government, meaning that they are extremely low risk (since the government can simply print money to pay back the loan). Additionally, interest earned on U.S. treasury securities is exempt from state and local taxes. Federal taxes, however, are still due on the earned interest. The government sells U.S. treasury securities by auction in the primary market, but they are marketable securities and therefore can be purchased through a broker in the very active secondary market. A broker will charge a fee for such a transaction, but the government charges no fee to participate in auctions. Prices on the secondary market and at auction are determined by interest rates. U.S. treasury securities issued today are not callable, so they will continue to accrue interest until the maturity date. One possible downside to U.S. treasury securities is that if interest rates increase during the term of the bond, the money invested will be earning less interest than it could earn elsewhere. Accordingly, the resale value of the bond will decrease as well. Because there is almost no risk of default by the government, the return on treasury bonds is relatively low, and a high inflation rate can erase most of the gains by reducing the value of the principal and interest payments. There are three types of securities issued by the u.s. treasury (bonds, bills, and notes), which are distinguished by the amount of time from the initial sale of the bond to maturity. also called Treasuries.

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CollegeSure CD

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U.S. Treasury Securities

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