Singletary: Here's how to get the hottest investment of 2022

The government's inflation-protection savings bond right now is like a Birkin bag — highly coveted.

With the stock market crashing and inflation rising, people are desperately looking for a place to park their extra cash.

Paying 9.62%, the relatively unknown inflation-proof Series I savings bond has become a hit with $17.5 billion sold in the six months ending in May, according to the Treasury Department.

That's compared with $364 million in I bond sales in all of 2020.

If you've got money sitting around earning a little more than 1%, if that much, I bonds are an attractive deal.

There are a couple of things you should know before buying an I bond.

Now, here's a step-by-step guide to purchasing I bonds, which starts with setting up an account at TreasuryDirect.gov.

And in May, so many people rushed to TreasuryDirect to purchase the government savings bond that the website crashed.

2. Go to TreasuryDirect.gov. Under "Account Login" click the link to open an account. If you're not sure about how to navigate the process, take the guided tour. I also recommend you watch the video on how to set up an account. Lots of readers have said they've had issues with setting up their account and now are having trouble reaching a live person to help them figure out what went wrong.

3. To set up an account, you'll need a taxpayer identification number, such as your Social Security number. You also have to have an address in the United States. You need an email address. You are required to provide at least one telephone number.

4. There's a section to add your bank information, which will be the account you will use to buy the bonds. It has to be a checking or savings account. Triple-check this part before you hit submit. Get this wrong and you are transported back a few decades to a system that can't handle an online change. (More about this later).

5. You'll go through several additional steps to set up your account, including creating a password, choosing a personalized image, and selecting some security questions. Be sure to choose a strong password and security questions that can't be obtained from searching your social media accounts. If you post a lot about your fish Goldie or your beloved dog Champ, don't pick that as an answer to a security question: What was your first pet's name?

7. If you successfully set up an account, you can electronically buy bonds by transferring money from a checking or savings account.

My husband mistakenly put in the checking account number when we wanted the funds to come from a savings account. You can't correct the account information online. You have to print out a bank change form to edit an existing bank in your TreasuryDirect account.

If that weren't frustrating enough, you have to sign the paper form in the "presence of an authorized certifying official available at a bank, trust company, or credit union and mail it to us for processing." Ugh!

I triple-checked all my information, yet I was not able to set up a TreasuryDirect account. Instead, I received an email that said in part: "We are having difficulty verifying the information you provided when opening your account. We are not provided with any information related to issues with the account verification."

Now I have to go through some byzantine process to finish setting up my account. Treasury says for my protection, I have to complete an account authorization form, get it signed at a bank "in the presence of a certifying officer" and snail mail it to a Treasury P.O. box in Minneapolis.

"We are working on changes that would allow notarization — instead of certification or guarantee — of an applicant's signature on the TreasuryDirect Account Authorization Form (FS Form 5444)," a Treasury spokesperson emailed.