Monday, February 11, 2008

Forever Stamps-Better Than A Savings Account?

When I got home from work and flipped on the TV the news anchor was talking about the latest postage stamp increase. Didn't it just go up? Do they add on a penny every year just for the fun of it? Do they think it is fun to watch us try to fit our gang of one cent stamps on to the overcrowded corner of an envelope? Ok, so many people use on-line or automatic bill pay and don't need to use stamps very often but there are still some times when stamps are necessary.

Let's see, I use stamps to pay my car insurance every 6 months. I don't even know if they offer an automatic payment option. I should look in to that. I use a stamp when I send in monthly tax forms for my business. The city is a little bit slow when it comes to technology. I still pay my credit card bill (which I pay off each month) by mail. I guess I just don't trust them with my bank account information. And of course, Christmas cards, birthday cards, etc... still get a stamp.

Lucky for us the post office sells Forever Stamps. Those are the stamps that automatically adjust to the higher postage rate which means we can still use them after the hike. I bought some of those stamps last year. They will be worth one cent more starting in May. The anchor woman joked that Forever Stamps bought before the rate hike will increase 2.4% in value. Wow! My bank's Money Market Savings account only has a 1.7% rate of return. Maybe I should be investing in stamps.

I do plan to buy more Forever Stamps before the rate increase. I'm not hoarding stamps, well, maybe just a little. I want to have enough around so that I won't be bothered by another rate hike for few years. Maybe by then I won't need stamps anymore. Now I just need to use up the rest of my 41 cent Christmas stamps before May!

1 comment:

Bitsy said...

It's my understanding that the price hike on Forever stamps will always stay with inflation. Thus, Forever stamps aren't really an investment, since technically they'll always cost "the same."