Originally posted on Facebook - Scenario Planning 2018-06-03-001 - US Treasury Bills

Over the last year or so, with the introduction of FATCA ( Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) and the passing of Acts of Parliament in Trinidad and Tobago and other instruments in countries around the world, I visited the US Treasury website to get an idea of just what was disclosed on the website. There were several reasons for my visit to the site, one of which was the idea that if persons are to accept legislation and begin to comply then they may need to know a fair amount about that law and process the concepts involved. During the visit to the website, I discovered information on US Treasury Bills, Bonds and Notes and I was in a daze for awhile as I processed and read and read and explored pages and links. With my recent visit to the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago's site and my posting of information on Trinidad and Tobago's Treasury Bills which are denominated in TT$, I went back to the US site to explore again. So here is a link to one of the pages and some of what I discovered: 1 There appears to be a new page with the Bureau of Fiscal Service which manages the information on Treasury Bills which are issued by the US Government, however the information appears to be the same as that on the old page. 2 Minimum Investment - It is possible to buy Treasury Bills in multiples of US$100 with $100 being the minimum amount which can be purchased. 3 Treasury Bills are issued for any of the following periods: 4 weeks, 13 weeks, 26 weeks and 52 weeks. The 13 and 26 week bills may be similar to ours ( T&T) in terms of timing in that we have 90 or 91 day and 182 day Treasury Bills. Notes and bonds on the other hand appear to be issued for longer periods, some of which may be for 30 years. 4) The prices are stated per hundred dollars ( $100) while ours are stated per thousand dollars ( $1,000). I am assuming that any note which is stated with a value under $100 is being issued with the interest to be "earned" over time. For those Bonds which are issued at a value over $100 is seen as being issued at a premium. Given the term of bonds and the interest which can be earned on Bonds, during certain times, persons may be attracted to Bonds which they may not normally bid for as they may sense a change in interest rates coming or they may have plans and may wish to tie up their funds. One of the good things about investing in Bonds, Bills and Notes is that you can juggle your purchases until you get to a timing of flows of income which may suit you. For example, some persons may wish to not collect interest in December due to the fact that taxes tend to be due and they may wish to not have funds readily available at that time as the payment of (additional) taxes becomes something which they may not want to undertake at that time of the year, so most of their interest may be scheduled to come in at other times in the year with December being the "last resort" month for investing for them. Then there are those who are at an age where they may be experimenting with changes in their lives and they may wish to have their funds do the work for them and pay little attention to them.. Be that as it may, feel free to have a look at the upcoming auctions, form an opinion and ask questions... Pay someone to assist if you need assistance, until you get the hang of what you are doing... Click on the link which deals with Institutional investors and see if those Bills are available for individuals. Institutional - Home treasurydirect.gov