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SSB 3.4% p.a. and 6 months T-bill ladder.

Thursday, November 2, 2023

At the beginning of October, I had this to say:

"Although I am sticking to my strategy of growing the investment grade bond component of my investment portfolio, there might no longer be a hurry to lock in higher yields for the longer term now."

I said that because we could see yields staying higher for longer.

So, I have been nibbling at Singapore Savings Bonds in the past 2 months.

This month's offer by MAS is 3.4% p.a. in 10 year average yield which is a tad higher than 3.32% p.a. we saw last month.







I will be nibbling again.

How much is that exactly?

Only $5K.

That qualifies as a nibble for me.

Q4 and Q1 are going to be leaner for me in terms of passive income I receive from my investments.

So, I will have to be more careful with money.

As for T-bills, I will continue to maintain the ladder from the next auction.

I won't be strengthening the ladder for a while as I set aside some funds for the purchase of SSBs.




Someone actually suggested that I rejoin the workforce so that I wouldn't have to do such juggling act when it comes to money.

OMG!

PTSD!

If AK can juggle money, so can you!

References:

16 comments:

Yv said...

Hi AK

Maybe can buy some gold too :)

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/singapore-s-central-bank-is-the-world-s-third-largest-gold-buyer-from-jan-to-sept-2023

Rellangis said...

The whole purpose is for money to work for you... and not working for money...

Rejoining back into the workforce is akin to working for money again... where one will have to trade his time for money and time is a finite resource for everyone. Why trade time for money when one can use the time to pursue more enjoyable things in life?

Unless the work is something you enjoy doing and not treat as a job, then maybe can consider it. (i.e getting paid for playing NW or World of Warships !)

My two cents

AK71 said...

Hi Yv,

Oh, I believe in holding some precious metals.

I blogged about this before:
Why investors for income buy gold and silver?

AK71 said...

Hi Rellangis,

Definitely, I much prefer to have money work for me than for me to work for money.

Getting paid to play games would be a dream come true. :D

Yv said...

Hi AK

I had used my CPF OA to place a 8mth FD earlier this year which has since matured. I am thinking of recycling the mature funds into the 6mth TBill.

Just wondering if the timing does matter? Should I wait till next year before doing this so I might not lose out on the CPF interest given it's quite close to year end? Or doesn't matter? Can you pse talk to yourself on this? Thank you!

AK71 said...

Hi Yv,

CPF interest is calculated monthly but credited once a year.

For buying T-bills with CPF money, it is better to avoid those auctions happening towards the end of the month.

This is because there could be insufficient time to transfer money from CPF-IA back to CPF-OA when the T-bill matures leading to another month of CPF interest income lost.

So, timing does matter but not in the way you are worried about. :)

Yv said...

Thank you AK for talking to yourself :)

AK71 said...

Hi Yv,

AK needs to remind AK of things from time to time. ;p

Learner said...

Hi AK,

I've noticed that your largest investments do not include the so-called blue chip S-REITs (eg. Mapletree Logistics Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Ascendas REIT, Keppel DC REIT, etc). May I pls know whether it's because their dividend yields are not as high as your invested REITs such as iReit Global and Aims Apac REIT etc, or are there other reasons for you to omit them from your portfolio?

AK71 said...

Hi Learner,

The distribution yield was a big reason because I am primarily investing for income.

There was also greater upside potential and over the years, I have had many investments which were taken private.

I enjoyed capital gains of up to 150% in those investments.

Hyflux Water Trust, Saizen REIT, Croesus Retail Trust, Accordia Golf Trust and Religare Health Trust, for examples.

Then, there were those which I sold for large gains after enjoying years of high distribution yields like First REIT and Lippo Malls Trust (before their unit prices plunged.)

There were probably other examples that I cannot recall now.

Anyway, those were good times for REITs but it also gave birth to many bad players.

I had a lot less money in those days and I had to be very selective.

Learner said...

Thanks for your sharing, AK. :-)

AK71 said...

Hi Learner,

I blogged about all these before and if you are interested in the details, you can find the blog posts. :)

There will always be opportunities in the stock market but they will come at different times and in different entities.

If AK can do it, so can you! :)

AK47- Reliability under Fire said...

Hi AK, REITs are taking a beating because of the rise of interest rates since 2020, right? Would you say REITs would have their day in the sun again, once the US FED freezes rate increases and/or eventually decreases interest rates?

AK71 said...

Hi AK47,

Before I answer your question, your nickname got me curious.

Why is your reliability under fire, if you don't mind sharing?

To answer your question, fortunately, I produced a video not too long ago on the subject:
Will REITs ever RECOVER? What Warren Buffett said about purchase prices?"

OK, and maybe this one too:
YIELD EXPANSION! Time to invest in REITs? What is my PLAN?

AK47- Reliability under Fire said...

hi AK, thanks for the links.

Oh, for reliability under fire, it's referring to the rifle AK47. Apparently, it can work after stuck in mud, as compared to M16.

AK71 said...

Hi AK47,

Thanks for letting me know.

Learning stuff like this is interesting to me! :D


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