Hey fellow investors! Welcome back to the channel.
Not long ago, we could park our cash in T-bills and Singapore Savings Bonds or SSBs, and earn solid returns — one-year T-bills and SSBs were yielding above 2 to 3%. Today? The picture has changed. The new SSB issues are giving about 2.11% a year, and the latest 6-month T-bill is only about 1.44% a year.
Beyond our gripes at the coffee shop, this means our cash is no longer giving us a good return, and definitely falling in value when inflation is taken into account. If you’re a saver, this is bad news. And even if you’re an investor, we will need to find somewhere to park your cash pile — your dry powder — what should you do? You don’t just want it idle, but you can’t lock it in for too long either.
That’s why I turned my eyes back to a savings account — and managed to get 5.55% per year on it, with full liquidity. And yes — I think this interest is something that most retail investors, who are already trading equities / REITs, should be able to get, with some care of course.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the exact steps I took — which bonus criteria I hit, which ones are not practical and I skipped, how I structured the trades, and all the risks you need to watch out for.
But before we dive in, let me remind you that this post is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Always do your own research and consult a licensed financial adviser before making any investment decisions. I put my money in the savings account discussed, but what works for me might not work for you.
Alright, let’s get started.
Why Bother With Savings Accounts When We’re Focused on Investing?
When it comes to cash, most investors in Singapore naturally think about the safe and liquid options — Singapore Savings Bonds and T-bills. And for a while, they were fantastic. We had one-year T-bills going above 3.7%, and SSBs giving more than 3% locked in.
But today, those yields have dropped. The latest 6-month T-bills are probably closer to 1.4%. Not too attractive anymore.
That’s why maximising your savings account rate has become important again. Because even if you’re focused on investments like me, having cash in a high-yield savings account is part of your investment strategy. This is your dry powder — the money you want to keep safe and liquid, ready to deploy when opportunities come up in a downturn.
And here’s why REITs or dividend stocks don’t serve that role. Sure, they can give you 4% to 5% in dividends. But they’re not liquid cash. Their prices swing with the market. If you put your dry powder there, you may find yourself stuck when the market sells off — exactly when you’d want to use that cash to buy more.
So this isn’t about choosing between REITs and savings accounts. It’s about recognising that both have a place. Your REITs and dividend stocks are for long-term compounding, but your cash needs a safe and liquid home. And that’s where this savings account comes in.
The Bonus Saver Game: Four Hoops to Clear, You Only Need Three
Before I dive in, let me be clear: I’m not here to introduce or promote this product. And you know this Uncle, I’m definitely not taking any sponsorship to talk about this product. What I want to do is share with everyone here the exact things I do to reach about 5.55% per year interest on my savings. So that you can make your cash work harder for you.
The savings account I want to talk about is the Bonus Saver account from Standard Chartered Bank. Now, how does the Bonus Saver actually work? Like many other savings accounts like UOB One, there are hoops to clear, but I think it is actually possible to clear sufficient hoops to get 5.55% a year.
The first hoop is salary credit. If you credit at least three thousand dollars of salary into the account, you unlock 1.5% per year bonus interest. Very doable if you’re working full-time.
The second hoop is card spending. Spend at least one thousand dollars a month on their Bonus Saver credit card, and that’s worth another 1.55% per year bonus interest. Again, for most households, between groceries, utilities and bills, this is achievable.
The third hoop is investment. This is the kicker, and something that I think is do-able. Just hear me out.
If you invest at least $20,000 in that month, you trigger an extra 2.5% per year bonus interest — and here’s the sweetener: it lasts for six months, not just the month you invested. And I’ll show you my strategy in a moment.
And finally, the fourth hoop is insurance. Buy a qualifying insurance plan, and you can add another 3% per year bonus interest.
Now, you know this Uncle. I don’t mix insurance and investing. To me, insurance is for protection, not for chasing yields. I prefer to buy pure insurance at the lowest cost, and invest the rest myself. Lower commissions, clearer purpose. So this fourth hoop? I personally skip it.
When you add them up, if you clear all four hoops, the bank advertises up to 8.05% per year on your first hundred thousand dollars. But in my case, by focusing only on the first three hoops — salary, card spend, and the investment trigger — I managed an effective yield of around 5.55% per year.
Meeting the Hardest Rule (That’s Actually Not So Hard)
Now let’s talk about the rule that usually makes people give up — the investment criteria. On the bank’s website, the wording is:
“Trade a minimum of S$20,000 in cumulative buy trades for eligible Online Equities via SC Online Trading within a calendar month.”
At first glance, that sounds scary. $20,000 in one month? That’s a big amount, and many people think, “No way I can or want to do that.”
But here’s the key: the bank only cares that you buy at least twenty thousand worth of eligible equities in that month. It doesn’t mean you have to hold them forever. It doesn’t even mean you can’t sell some of it later. You just need to get the trades done.
So how did I do it? I looked at shares I already wanted to own, but I bought more than my intended long-term position. In my case, I used CapitaLand Ascendas REIT or CLAR. I picked it up before the ex-dividend date in June, which meant I got the additional dividend, and after that I trimmed back the excess units and kept only what I really wanted to hold.
That way, I met the $20,000 requirement, triggered the extra 2% bonus interest for six months, and even pocketed some dividend income on top.
So while the wording of the criteria looks tough, in practice it’s manageable if you approach it strategically.
At this point, some of you might start scolding this Uncle that I was just lucky with the market timing. I want to say upfront that what I did definitely involves risk. Let me explain further in the next section.
What You Need to Watch Out For
Now, before you all rush to try this, let me slow down and highlight the risks.
The most important one is this: when you buy shares to meet the $20,000 investment rule, you are exposed to market risk. The bank doesn’t care what happens after you make the trades, but your portfolio does. If the market drops right after you buy, you could be sitting on paper losses.
That’s why I emphasized earlier — don’t buy something random just to tick the box. Only buy shares or REITs that you already want to own, where you’re comfortable holding for the long term. Because if the price moves against you and you can’t sell off the excess units right away, you need to be ready to sit tight until the market recovers.
And for me, this is the important part: if the share price had moved against me, I was prepared to hold those extra units longer. Because for me, CLAR is something I’m comfortable owning for years.
In other words, don’t treat this like a quick in-and-out trade. Treat it like adding to positions you’re already confident in — the extra bonus interest for the next 6 months is then a sweetener on top, not the only reason for the buy.
Of course, there are other things to watch too. Brokerage fees and bid-ask spreads will eat into your gains, so you need to size your trades sensibly. The bonus interest only lasts for six months, so you’ll have to decide if it’s worth triggering again later. And finally, banks can and do change their terms — so what works now may not be the same in a year’s time.
But that first point is the big one. If you’re not prepared to hold the shares you buy, this strategy can backfire.
Before we move on, if you’ve found the post useful so far, please do this Uncle a favor and give me a ‘like’! It’s free of charge, but I really appreciate your kind gesture of appreciation. Alright, back to the post.
The Dividend Uncle’s Take
For me, the Bonus Saver strategy worked beautifully. I managed to engineer a 5.55% yield on cash that would otherwise be earning close to nothing. I used a stable REIT to trigger the criteria, picked up dividends on top of it, and enjoyed six months of higher interest.
But here’s the bigger point: this isn’t about replacing REITs or dividend stocks. Those are still the backbone of my long-term income portfolio. What we’re talking about here is the cash side of the strategy. Your dry powder. The money you want safe, liquid, and ready to use when the market gives you bargains.
Other savings accounts like OCBC 360, UOB One and DBS Multiplier cannot catch up with the Bonus Saver, unless you go out of your way to invest or insure with them. In the past, SSBs and T-bills played that role very well because their yields were high. But with rates falling, the Bonus Saver looks more attractive, where you can still squeeze more out of your cash while keeping it liquid.
Alright, that’s all for today folks. I hope this post helped to inform you of another way of maximising your cash savings. In short: investments grow your wealth, but managing your cash smartly keeps you prepared. This strategy is just one way to bridge the two.
Remember that this Uncle is just sharing my way of increasing the returns of my cash savings, and definitely not recommending the product as financial advice. Until next time, may your cash savings earn you plentiful while retaining liquidity for the next investment opportunity!
The Dividend Uncle 
Leave a comment