Singapore Savings Bond (SSB) – What Are They All About And How To Purchase Them (2019 Review)
In the year 2015, the Singaporean government launched SSB (Singapore Savings Bonds). Compared to other forms of investment, the investment was initially considered very conservative, giving returns that were very low. With time, however, it has become a decent investment with returns that have been termed surprisingly good, considering that it is a very low risk investment. The bond has gained momentum and was actually oversubscribed early in the year in 2018. In order to keep up with the demand, the bond supply has been raised by S$100 million from S$200 million, bringing it to a whopping S$300 million. Singapore Savings Bonds: What Are They? By purchasing a bond, what one does is really lend money to the issuer to be returned at a particular interest rate. The issuer is usually the government or a company. In this case, the Singaporean government is the issuer and investors are in essence lending money to the government. This particular bond has gained a lot of popularity for two main reasons: The risk of losing the money invested is practically zero The returns are good By lending the government their money, investors can expect to receive interest on it every six months without fail. Since bonds vary in length, one can either lend money to the government for short periods of time, or for up to 10 years. This is actually the longest bond term and gives the highest returns. Should one choose to withdraw their money before the term is up, there is no penalty whatsoever. The 2019 Rate Of Returns And What One Can Hope To Earn The government has given information on the interest to be earned on their website. The numbers provided are the average return and the interest rate per year. The interest rate tends to get higher year by year. Should one choose to invest S$10,000, the numbers would look as follows (the numbers are based on the rates in June 2019): 10 years: The Average interest each year would be 2.48% and the total interest earned would be S$2,361. 9 years: Average interest would be 2.41%
