Calculator
Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB) Calculator
Calculate step-up interest returns, yield profiles, and comparative earnings for Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB).
Try it nowGuide & How-To
S$10,000 in the August 2026 SSB issue (SBAUG26) earns about S$2,088 over ten years, and you can walk away in any month with every cent earned and zero penalty. That exit right is the whole product. Set your amount and holding period; the calculator applies the issue's step-up schedule and shows exactly what staying, or leaving early, pays.
What you are actually buying
A Singapore Savings Bond is a 10-year, capital-guaranteed bond issued monthly by MAS and backed directly by the Singapore Government. The coupon steps up each year on a schedule fixed before the issue opens, so your return for any holding period is known on day one, no market pricing, no rate guessing.
Where it beats T-bills and fixed deposits
Six-month T-bills and promotional fixed deposits sometimes pay more upfront, but both lock your money in, and both leave you exposed when they mature into a lower-rate world. The SSB inverts that: redeem any month at par plus accrued interest (S$2 fee), or stay and let the ladder climb. That makes it the natural home for emergency funds and any cash whose timeline you cannot predict.
What the numbers actually mean for you
The step-up ladder: why year 10 pays more than year 1
The schedule is deliberately back-loaded. MAS shapes each issue so that stopping in year n gives you roughly what an n-year government security paid that month: stay one year, earn about the 1-year rate; stay ten, earn about the 10-year rate.
That design removes the classic bond dilemma. You never have to guess your holding period in advance, because the ladder retroactively pays you the fair rate for however long you actually stayed.
The escape hatch is the product
Every other 10-year instrument makes you pay to leave: fixed deposits claw back interest, market bonds expose you to price risk. An SSB redeems in any month at par plus accrued interest, cash back by the second business day of the following month, minus only a S$2 transaction fee.
That is why the comparison that matters is not SSB vs stocks but SSB vs your fixed deposit. If rates jump next year, the fixed depositor is trapped or penalised; the SSB holder redeems, waits a month, and buys the newer, higher-paying issue.
The fine print that actually matters
Three constraints trip people up. Holdings are capped at S$200,000 per person across all issues. Popular issues get oversubscribed and allotted by ballot in S$500 blocks, so a S$50,000 application may only be partially filled. And you need a CDP account linked to a local bank plus Singpass to apply at all.
One thing there is no fine print on: interest is completely tax-exempt for individuals, and the bonds are direct obligations of the Singapore Government, one of the few AAA sovereigns left. For the cash you refuse to gamble with, that combination is the entire pitch.
Applying without fumbling the calendar
Each issue opens at the start of the month and closes a few business days before month-end; apply through DBS, OCBC, or UOB internet banking or ATMs with your CDP number handy, or through your SRS operator if you are using Supplementary Retirement Scheme funds. Allotment results land after the ballot, and the bonds start earning from the first business day of the following month.
Redemptions run on the same monthly rhythm: submit in any month, and cash plus accrued interest arrives by the second business day of the next month. Practical consequence: SSB money is roughly four to six weeks from a decision, so keep one month of expenses in an instant-access account and let the SSB hold everything behind it. Applying early in the window costs nothing either, since every successful applicant in an issue starts earning from the same first business day of the following month.
The ladder trick: twelve issues instead of one
Instead of dropping S$60,000 into a single issue, spreading S$5,000 a month across twelve consecutive issues buys you two things. Your average rate tracks the whole year instead of one month's print, so a single weak issue like a low-coupon month cannot define your decade.
More usefully, each rung redeems independently. Need S$10,000 in an emergency? Redeem the two lowest-coupon rungs and leave the rest compounding. A single large holding forces an all-or-something decision; a ladder gives you a dial. The S$2 fee per transaction makes even a twelve-rung ladder cost S$24 to build, which is noise.
When redeem-and-switch beats holding
Because exit is free, an SSB is never a trap. If a new issue prints a materially better schedule than what your remaining years pay, the move is mechanical: redeem the old bond, apply for the new issue the same month, and accept roughly one month out of the market as the switching cost.
The discipline is to compare like with like: weigh the new issue's early years against the REMAINING years of your current bond, not against its year-1 rate you have already outgrown. Three years into a ladder, your old bond may be paying its year-4 rate, and beating that takes more than a flashy new headline number.
How the step-up interest math works
A Singapore Savings Bond pays a different rate each year you hold it: the schedule is printed the day the issue opens, and the rate steps up annually across the 10-year term. Total interest is just your principal multiplied by each year's scheduled rate, summed over however long you actually stay.
That last part is the whole trick of the product. You get the long-bond average yield only if you stay ten years, but you can leave in any month with every cent of accrued interest and zero penalty. The calculator sums the schedule for your exact holding period so you can see what leaving early actually costs.
Calculation Steps:
- Enter your principal (minimum S$500, in S$500 multiples).
- The calculator applies the issue's step-up schedule: the August 2026 issue (SBAUG26) starts at 1.46% in year 1 and climbs to 2.72% by year 10, averaging 2.08% held to maturity.
- Each year's interest = principal x that year's scheduled rate, paid in two half-yearly instalments.
- Sum across your holding period for total interest, then divide back to see your average annualised return for stopping in that year.
Worked example
Wei Lin parks S$10,000 in the SBAUG26 issue, whose schedule runs from 1.46% in year 1 to 2.72% in year 10, averaging 2.08% if held to maturity.
Year 1 pays about S$146. Year 10 pays about S$272. Held the full ten years, total interest comes to roughly S$2,088 on top of her returned principal.
If she redeems after year 3 instead, she keeps everything earned to that point, roughly S$458, and gets her S$10,000 back by the second business day of the following month. No penalty, no market price risk.
Compare that with a 10-year SGS bond sold early on the open market: if rates rose since purchase, the sale price sits below par. The SSB's redeem-at-par guarantee is exactly the risk she is not taking.
Input definitions
Review the glossary of terms used in the calculation model below. Click on highlighted links to read more in-depth definitions in our financial glossary:
| Parameter | Definition & Context |
|---|---|
| Investment Amount | Cash allocated to the bond, in S$500 multiples. Your total SSB holdings across all issues are capped at S$200,000. |
| Holding Period (Years) | How long you plan to stay, up to 10 years. The step-up schedule means every extra year raises your average annualised return. |
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