<prompt> Human: I want to start by saying that my Grandmother is the best and I am very thankful that she was so forward thinking in 1983 to invest in bonds for her grandchildren my two cousins and I. She is still alive and wanted to see us use the money to enhance our lives. In total I received 5 series EE bonds from 1983 originally valued at 1000.00 US, and 1 series EE bond from 1995 originally valued at 10,000 dollars US. According to my grandmother these are 30 year bonds, so the ones from 1983 are done accumulating value and the one from 1995 has another 8 years or so. I would like to use these to pay for a second bachelors degree in biochemistry and take one 5 day trip to Europe with two of my friends. Aside from that I just have a few questions. 1 is there anything I need to know before cashing these bonds, I know the interest is taxed but is there anything else I should be aware of before utilizing these.2 Would I be better off investing this money to try to make more or would I be better off paying off my schooling and not having debt3 How would I go about declaring these on my 2017 tax forms so that I dont end up getting audited?I probably have more questions but I am not very good with financesmoney and I really dont want to squander a great gift. Thank you all in advance.  <response>: Find out the interest on the 1995 one. The rate might be way higher than any fixed income you can get today 