I started to try out TreasuryDirect today. TreasuryDirect is a government-owned web site that helps individual investors to participate in US Saving Bonds easily. As promised, the site operates like a breeze: it just take me 10 minutes to set up an account and start to buy saving bonds.
Today I purchased $25 EE-series bonds and $25 I-series bonds, both the minimal amount required for a single order. I'm not going to commit a large amount of money to bond unless I spend more time to understand the market and formulate my strategy. In the intermediate term, I will keep buying a very small of saving bonds every month to get oriented of the market and build a small laddered portfolio (saving bonds cannot be redeemed in 12 months). With some monetary stakes I have more reasons (and incentives) to learn it now!