My Sweet Retirement

The effective interest rate for January 2022 Singapore Savings Bonds (SBJan22 GX22010S) is 1.78% if you held it for 10 years. The minimum amount you can purchase is S$500. If you decide to hold and sell the current issue (SBJAN22 GX22010S) after 1 year, the effective interest rate is 0.45%.

As you can see from the chart above, the interest rate is recovering. Despite the low interest rate, Singapore Savings Bonds complement your other savings and investments as a safe way to save for the long term. It is basically near to zero risks.

Singapore Savings Bonds Alternatives

For low risk and higher returns, you can consider Dash EasyEarn or Dash PET.

When Dash EasyEarn was launched, it offered 2.00% p.a. for the first year. Recently, it has announced the reduction of its return from 2.00% p.a. to 1.20% p.a.. This will be effective from 30th July 2021 onwards.

Similarly, Dash PET had reduced its rate of return from 1.70% p.a. to 1.3% p.a. for the first S$10,000.

Both plans still beat Singapore Savings Bonds 1 year return of 0.45% p.a.

Higher Returns But Higher Risk

If you are a risk taker, you can try purchasing Crypto and depositing with Hodlnaut to earn higher interest.

Cryto is definitely not for the faint hearted. If you are looking for safe haven, stick to Singapore Savings Bonds.

Is Singapore Savings Bonds still Useful?

Most of the financial products out there require you to invest using cold hard cash. This is where the Singapore Savings Bonds outshine them. You can purchase the Singapore Savings Bonds using your Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) funds.

The interest rate for Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) fund is only 0.05% per annum. You can top up your SRS account to offset your annual taxes and then use the funds from your SRS account to purchase Singapore Savings Bonds to earn a higher interest rate.

Tracking Singapore Savings Bonds via Stocks Café

My favourite website, Stocks Café has allows adding of Singapore Savings Bonds into your portfolio. If you didn’t know, I signed up as a Friend of Stocks Café as my most favourite feature of Stocks Café is the automated tracking of dividends payout.

This is the third year that I continue to use Stocks Café to track my dividends.

Tracking Singapore Savings Bonds via My Savings Bonds Portal

MAS has launched My Savings Bonds Portal where you can track your Singapore Savings Bonds purchases separately from your stock purchases. I have done up a simple guide here. (Read more: Guide to My Savings Bonds Portal)

Above is the progress of me reaching my targeted financial goals for November 2021. The total value of my financial assets have increased from 61.40% to 62.07%. The growth is 0.67%.

What does my financial assets comprise of? The total value of my financial assets comprised of the following:

Insurance savings (NTUC RevoSave, Singlife, Dash EasyEarn, Dash PET)
Savings accounts (POSB, OCBC, CIMB)
Singapore Savings Bonds
Current value of my stocks
Auto Investing (Syfe)
Forex
Supplementary Retirement Scheme

Insurance Savings

Singlife, DashEasyEarn and Dash PET. I believe you already heard of these accounts whereby they are alternative to traditional savings accounts.

Since the launch of these accounts, I have not seen new player with similar concept. You just deposit money and watch them grow effortlessly.

I have reached the maximum allowed amount of S$20,000 in Dash EasyEarn which is giving me a return of 1.2% per annum.

Dash PET is also giving me 1.70% p.a. for the first S$10,000. The crediting rate for any amount above S$10,000 is 1.20%.

Singlife return is lower at 1% p.a. for the first S$10,000.

Singapore Savings Bonds

There is no Wow factor with Singapore Savings Bonds as I collect my monthly “kopi” money.

In November , I have collected the following interest payout from the Singapore Savings Bonds that I have bought every month over the years.

November 2019 (GX19110F)
May 2019 (GX19050A)
November 2018 (GX18110Z)
May 2018 (GX18050E)

The effective interest rate of this month’s issue of Singapore Savings Bond (SBDEC21) is giving 1.71% per annum. Readers who wanted safe haven or place for emergency funds should consider.

My Stock Portfolio

I use Stocks Café to keep track of the total value worth of my stocks. I did not make any buy or sell transactions.

Taking opportunity of the weakness in share price, I increased my position with Delfi Limited and US Manulife REIT. With the purchase, Delfi Limited and US Manulife REIT makes up 2.17% and 5.98% of my stock portfolio.

Auto Investing with Syfe

In May 2021, I started the Core Growth portfolio with Syfe. As of today, Syfe has provided me a time weighted return of 4.92%.

Dividends

This month, I received the dividend payout from SPH REIT.

Forex

In November, the Return On Investment (“ROI”) was 31.81%.

Summary of Financial Goals Progress November 2021

At the point of writing, you may have heard of the new COVID-19 variant called “Omicron”. It is unknown yet whether Singapore will take a few steps back towards relaxing the COVID-19 measures. Such sudden news often disturb the stock market and you can keep a look out for opportunities if you are looking for specific stock to buy into at a good price.

To tackle the Delta variant, many strict measures such as limiting the dinning to two persons have hit many food and beverages restaurants hard. In fact, many could not weather the storm and had to close.

Last week, I visited Orchard Road. Malls are not congested with shoppers as before the COVID-19 pandemic. I guess the DPU for Retail REITs will continue to be depressed.

As travel resumes and Singapore Malaysia border reopens, this can give the travel industry and over local economy some light. Let us hope the “Omicron” variant does not cause us to fall backwards.