Let's face it: saving money is hard. It's deciding a million times that you won't have something — beer, a sweater, new music — then remembering to move the money from your checking account to your savings account, then not moving it back when you're running low. We're human: these steps don't sound that difficult, until you try to do them consistently.

What if you didn't have to? What if a lump of money — say, part of your tax refund — magically appeared in a savings account with your name on it? And what if that savings account paid interest at a rate more than double most accounts on the market? That's what the IRS is offering this tax season, with a new program that allows taxpayers to receive their refund in U.S. savings bonds, inflation-protected Series I bonds that are paying 3.36 percent interest. And while the savings scale of awesome isn't a wildly popular metric, believe me: this is chair-dance worthy.

For context, consider that the best savings accounts in the country pay about 1.5 percent these days, and you pay state and federal taxes on the interest every year. On an I-bond, there are no state taxes, and you don't pay federal taxes until you cash it in. It's a sweet deal, says Tom Orecchio, a financial planner in Westwood, New Jersey. "I would take this all day long."

There are rules, but they're pretty simple. You have to hold an I-bond for a year before you can redeem it, and if you cash it in within five years, you pay a small penalty (three months of interest). So if you think you'll need the money in the next 12 months, this isn't for you. Nor is it for people with high-interest rate debt, Orecchio says: better to pay that off first.

Truly, the worst part of this whole program is filling out your tax forms. To get all or part of your refund as a savings bond, you must fill out Form 8888 when you prepare your return. That's the form that allows you to split your refund into two different accounts, like checking and savings. In this case, though, if you want bonds, use routing number 043736881, and BONDS as the account number. (I know, it sounds like a joke. It's not one.) Fill in the dollar value of the bonds you want — they come in increments of $50 — and whatever portion of your refund you don't want in bonds must go to another account via direct deposit.

That's it. You'll get your bonds in the mail. You'll hold them for a year. You'll earn interest. And look at you: saving!

(To the people out there who would point out that bonds are a loan, and in this case, you are loaning your money to the U.S. Government, which is not technically a risk-free endeavor, I say: While theoretically true, that is ridiculous. If the U.S. Government defaults on its debt, your $2,000 I-bond will be the least of your problems.)

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