The latest SSB April 2024 offering is released: first-year rate of 2.95% and 10-year average of 3.04%. Wow, that’s a pretty good offering, and we are back above the 3% threshold. Yay! This month’s offering is also better than last month’s. Should we consider this month’s SSB?
SSB April 2024 Details
This month’s SSB offers much better rates than last month’s. The first-year rate is 2.95%, and the 10-year average is 3.04%. Both rates are much better than the previous month’s 2.74% and 2.88%, respectively. We are officially back again to above 3%. Hooray!
With the market expecting interest rates to start reversing this year, it is a relief that we can still get an increase in the SSB rates this month. This could be your opportunity if you have not locked in these higher rates 🙂
If you want to apply for this SSB April 2024, please do so before 25 March 2024. Take note of the following application timeline:
How Competitive Is It?
This SSB April 2024 offers better rates than some of the previous offerings. How competitive is the current SSB offering if we compare it historically? Let’s find out:
There are two things we can observe from the historical chart above:
- The current offering is a significant jump over the previous two offerings.
- The current offering is also around the same range we have seen since late 2022. It is also among the highest in recent years. It is much higher than what we saw in 2021 and early 2022.
We think this SSB April 2024 offering is pretty competitive and can be a good opportunity for those looking to lock in the higher interest rates for longer. With interest rates expected to reverse this year, this could be your last few chances to get these higher rates.
Where Are Interest Rates Heading?
The consensus suggests interest rates may have peaked and will start to reverse soon this year.
The Fed projected up to three rate cuts this year, with the first likely in the second half of the year.
The market is even more aggressive, expecting up to four rate cuts this year, with the first cut expected to be around mid-year.
What do you think? Do you agree with the Fed and the market? If so, you may have only a few more chances to lock in higher rates before rates start to reverse, and this SSB April 2024 could be your opportunity.
Recycle / Swap Older SSBs
So far, none of this year’s SSB offerings have a quantity ceiling. It is also likely that this month will not see any quantity offering. With lower demand, this month is an excellent opportunity to recycle your older SSBs. If your older SSBs yield much less than this month’s offering, you may consider swapping them for this month’s to enjoy higher rates.
What Would We Do?
We utilize SSBs to park our short-term cash. Because we have optimized our SSB holdings above the 3% threshold, SSB April 2024 doesn’t offer more competitive rates than we already have. Therefore, we likely won’t be participating this month.
SSB can be an excellent option for investors seeking capital preservation. It offers long-term investment returns while allowing monthly redemptions without penalty and earning accrued interest. With this flexibility, investors looking to park short-term cash may also consider SSB.
Indeed, we have migrated some of our short-term cash from T-bills to SSB because of this liquidity feature while still locking in higher rates for the next ten years.
Will you be applying for this month’s SSB? If so, you may follow our step-by-step guide on how to buy SSB.
