Last Call! Savings Bonds go digital beginning January 1, 2012

Last minute gift ideas - and last chance to support your local bank.

I grew up in a time when many friends and relatives went down to their local banks and purchased US Savings bonds.

The times keep changing. An now another icon for Baby Boomers and Generation X-ers goes bye, bye at the end of this year.

Read the article posted on CNN Money: Click here: Get a paper savings bonds before they go digital - Dec. 16, 2011

This holiday season is your last chance to stop by the bank and buy a paper savings bond, either for yourself or your loved ones.

Starting Jan. 1, you'll no longer be able to purchase paper savings bonds at banks or other financial institutions. Instead, the savings bonds, which have been around since 1935, will be replaced by electronic bonds that can only be purchased online. 

New rules also go into effect that will make purchasing bonds more difficult, as reported in this same article: 

If you want to buy a savings bond in 2012, you'll need to have an online account with the Treasury Department. To give a bond to another person, they will also need an account so you can transmit the bond electronically to them. And if you're giving a bond to anyone under the age of 18, a parent or guardian must open the account.

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The last year paper savings bond could be a nice last minute gift as well as supplying a bit nostalgia over your purchase of another milestone at an end.  This last bond could even be a collector's item!  But seriously, did anyone one of you ever think of a day when paper savings bonds would go the way of the dinosaur?