The new I bond rate for November 2026 is 5.51%, the best since 2022, and my group chat has already decided that means “move the emergency fund.” Please don’t. If there’s a decent chance you’ll need that money in about a year, the 5.51% you see on the screen turns into roughly 4.2% in your pocket, which is what a good savings account pays with no lockup at all. The number that justifies buying this month is much smaller and much less exciting: a 1.40% fixed rate that stays with your bond for up to 30 years.
Below is the math I ran on $10,000, plus the one date that matters this week (it’s November 25).
The I bond rate for November 2026 is two numbers, and only one of them sticks
Every I bond pays a composite rate built from two parts. The Treasury’s I bond rate page lists the current composite at 5.51% for bonds bought from November 1, 2026 through April 30, 2027. Underneath that sits an inflation piece of 4.08% (an annualized version of the 2.04% rise in consumer prices from spring to September) and a fixed rate of 1.40%.
The inflation piece resets every May and November for every I bond in existence. It’s a six-month teaser. The fixed rate is the part you lock in on the day you buy, and you keep it for the life of the bond. David Enna, who runs Tipswatch and has tracked these resets for years, points out that 1.40% is the highest fixed rate Treasury has set since November 2006.
For comparison, bonds bought between May and October of this year carry a 0.90% fixed rate. People who bought during the 2022 frenzy, when the composite hit 9.62%, mostly got a fixed rate of 0% or 0.40%. Treasury data reported by CNBC showed investors bought nearly $7 billion of I bonds in October 2022 alone, and $979 million on the final day of that window. Those buyers chased the headline. Today their bonds pay inflation plus nothing.
Cash out after one year and the I bond’s penalty eats a quarter of your interest
The rules are short. You can’t touch an I bond for 12 months. If you redeem before five years, you give up the last three months of interest. Nobody hides that rule, but almost nobody prices it in.
Take $10,000 bought this month. For the first six months it earns 5.51% a year, so half a year of that is $275.50. Now assume inflation holds steady and the rate stays at 5.51% for the next six months. You redeem at month 12, but the penalty wipes out months 10 through 12, so you only keep three more months of interest: $10,275.50 times 5.51%, times a quarter of a year, comes to about $141.50. Add it up and you walk away with roughly $417. That’s a 4.17% return on a bond that was advertised at 5.51%.
Now put the same $10,000 in a savings account at 4.40% APY, which TheStreet reported as the top savings rate in early November, citing The College Investor. After 12 months you’d have earned $440. I bond interest is exempt from state income tax and savings interest isn’t, so if you pay a 5% state rate, knock $22 off: $418. That’s a dead heat, and the savings account let you pull money out any day you wanted.
It gets worse if inflation cools. If the inflation piece drops to 2% a year next May, your second-half rate falls to about 3.41%, and the 12-month payout shrinks to roughly $363. The savings account would beat it by $55 after state tax.
So if you might need the cash at the one-year mark, the I bond is a wash at best and a loss at worst. Hold a few months longer and it starts pulling ahead, but only if inflation cooperates. Not exactly the pitch you’re hearing from your brother-in-law.
The 1.40% fixed rate is the real reason to buy I bonds before April 30
Where I bonds win is time. Hold one past five years and the penalty disappears, and that 1.40% fixed rate keeps getting added on top of whatever inflation does, every six months, for up to three decades.
In dollars: if you’d bought $10,000 in October at a 0.90% fixed rate, and someone else bought $10,000 in November at 1.40%, the November buyer earns an extra half a percent every year, forever. That’s about $50 a year on $10,000, and it compounds. Over five years, a 1.40% real return grows $10,000 to about $10,720 in current-dollar purchasing power. That’s $720 above inflation, guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury, with no stock market involved.
Your savings account makes no such promise. The 4.40% APY in that TheStreet comparison is a variable rate, and the bank can lower it with a notice in your inbox. Nobody can lower an I bond’s fixed rate once you own the bond. That guarantee is what you’re paying for with the one-year lockup, and the 5.51% is a six-month welcome bonus layered on top.
One sanity check from Tipswatch: 5-year TIPS were yielding about 2.31% above inflation in late October, which is higher than the I bond’s 1.40%. TIPS have no $10,000 cap and no lockup, though they can lose value if you sell before maturity. For money you’ll leave alone for five years or more, the I bond’s simplicity (no price swings, state tax exemption, federal tax deferred until you cash out) still makes it the easier buy for most people under $10,000.
Buy I bonds before November 25 and you get November’s interest free
This is the part you can do this week. I bonds earn interest from the first day of the month you buy them. A bond bought on November 25 is treated exactly like one bought on November 1. Enna’s suggested target date is November 25, which also gets your order through before the Thanksgiving holiday slows bank transfers.
That’s a free 24 days of interest, about $36 on $10,000 at 5.51%. Miss it and buy on December 2 instead, and your bond starts earning on December 1. Same fixed rate, one month less interest.
The limit is $10,000 per person per calendar year through TreasuryDirect, so a couple can buy $20,000 in November and another $20,000 in January using their 2027 allowance. Both purchases would lock the same 1.40% fixed rate, since it runs through April 30. Doctor of Credit notes the author’s own plan is to buy in November or December and then wait until April to see the next rate before spending the 2027 allotment, which is a reasonable approach if you’re unsure.
Old 0% I bonds are the money to move, not your emergency fund
If you bought I bonds in 2021 or 2022, you’re probably holding something with a 0% or 0.40% fixed rate. Once those bonds are past five years old, or if you’re willing to eat three months of interest on newer ones, cashing some out and buying new ones at 1.40% upgrades your money for the rest of its life. One timing tip from Tipswatch: redeem early in a month, since you don’t earn interest for the month you cash out. You’ll owe federal tax on the interest you’ve built up, so if you hold a lot, spread the swap over two tax years.
That’s the money that belongs in new I bonds. The cash you might need for a car repair or a layoff belongs somewhere you can reach tomorrow. If you want to lock a rate on that layer without a one-year wall, a CD ladder does the job, and as we showed earlier this fall, a CD’s early withdrawal penalty is often cheaper than you’d guess.
The move this week is simple. Pull up your account list and find the money you are sure you won’t touch until at least 2031. Put up to $10,000 of it into I bonds before November 25. The I bond rate for November 2026 headlines at 5.51%, but you’re really buying that 1.40% fixed rate, and it only pays off if you leave the bond alone.
