All Savers Certificate

Rev up your 1980s nostalgia: flying DeLoreans, proton packs, time-traveling cyborgs, neon pink aerobics outfits, synthesizer music and all savers certificates. You might not remember that last one, but it was a special tax-free deposit instrument put into place in 1981. It was meant to stimulate the housing industry by providing an untaxed method for thrift institutions to build capital for home lending.

However, like the McRib, it was only around for a brief time. Much like the heyday of Men at Work, the all savers certificate lasted from October 1981 through the end of 1982. The life of all savers was somewhat disappointing, with a little more than $50 billion being sold at peak holdings, instead of the $200 billion some expected at the time, according to a contemporary New York Times report. Just put them in the same category as Burt Reynolds career: big hopes in 1982; nostalgia in 2018.