Turn the terms of one real issue into a dated table of every payment you would receive.
Bond terms are usually split between a web page and a PDF full of legal wording. To see what you would actually be paid, turn them into a table you can read in ten seconds. Give it one row for each payment, showing when the payment arrives, how much of it is interest and how much is your own money coming back. Doing this for one issue takes about 20 minutes. You need a spreadsheet or a sheet of paper, and the official page for one bond, Singapore Savings Bond (SSB), T-bill or fixed deposit.
Hui Min has narrowed down her choices. She wants to hold one real Singapore bond, and before she spends anything she wants to understand every dollar it will pay her. She finds the terms online, split between a web page and a legal PDF.
Always start with the source that owns the facts. For Singapore Government Securities (SGS) bonds, T-bills and SSBs, that is the MAS website. MAS publishes the issue code, key dates and rate for each issue, but there is no single list in one section. The details are spread over separate pages: the auctions and issuance calendar, the SGS statistics, the MAS Bills statistics and the Savings Bonds statistics. For a retail corporate bond, use the issuer's own page and the product highlights sheet, and also check the SGX listing if the bond trades there. For a fixed deposit, use the bank's rate page and its terms and conditions.
Avoid forum posts and screenshots. They are often out of date, and you are going to rely on this table.
Before you build anything, write down seven terms. The issuer is who owes you the money. Face value is the amount repaid at maturity, per unit you hold. The coupon is the yearly interest rate on face value. Payment frequency is how often interest is paid: once or twice a year, or at maturity only. The issue date is when the loan starts, and the maturity date is when the face value comes back. The seventh term is the call date or special features, meaning anything that lets the timetable change.
If a field doesn't apply, write "none" rather than leaving it blank, because a blank could mean you forgot to look.
The table has one row per payment date and three columns: coupon, principal and total.
Hui Min practises first on an invented bond from a made-up company. It pays a coupon of 3.2% a year, half-yearly. It was issued on 15 March 2025, matures on 15 March 2028 and has no call date. She holds S$1,000. The yearly coupon is 3.2% of S$1,000 = S$32, so the half-yearly payment is S$32 / 2 = S$16 every six months. Payment dates fall on 15 March and 15 September, which gives these rows:
15 September 2025: S$16 coupon, no principal, S$16 total 15 March 2026: S$16 coupon, no principal, S$16 total 15 September 2026: S$16 total 15 March 2027: S$16 total 15 September 2027: S$16 total 15 March 2028: S$16 coupon plus S$1,000 principal, S$1,016 total
That is six rows in total. The total column sums to S$1,096, which is S$96 of interest over three years plus S$1,000 back.
The most common mistake is counting years instead of payment dates, which gives too few rows. For this bond, counting years would give three rows instead of six. If your total looks wrong, check the row count first.
A payment date that falls on a weekend or public holiday is usually paid on the next business day. The terms state which convention applies, so copy what they say.
The same method works for the other products this course covers, with a few changes.
An SSB pays interest every six months, but the rate differs each year, so the coupon column changes every two rows. Use the schedule MAS publishes for that issue. As an illustration, S$1,000 held for ten years gives twenty rows, with the coupon changing every two rows. Lesson 3.1, "How SSB step-up interest works", shows you how to read these rate schedules properly.
A T-bill has no coupon. You pay less than face value at the start and get face value back at maturity. The table has two rows: the amount you paid on the issue date, entered as a negative figure, and face value on the maturity date, for example S$1,000. Lesson 4.1 explains the T-bill discount.
A fixed deposit often pays interest only at maturity, so the table may have a single row with principal and interest together. Work out the interest from the rate and term in the bank's terms.
The table assumes everything happens as written. Before you call it finished, check the terms for features that could change the timetable.
A call option lets the issuer repay early on set dates, so later rows may never happen. If the issuer could call Hui Min's example bond in March 2027, the last two rows might never happen (this call date is invented, like the bond). A step-up feature changes the coupon at a set point, often if the bond is not called. A perpetual bond has no maturity date, so its table has no last row until the issuer chooses one. An SSB holder can redeem in any month, which shortens the table at the holder's choice rather than the issuer's.
Write one line under the table naming any such feature, or "none found" if you checked and found none. This note matters as much as the numbers because it shows how firm the timetable is.
Hui Min ends with a table and a one-line note under it. Together they are a plain record of what she would be lending, to whom, and when each dollar comes back.
Now do it with real terms for the issue you chose.
Fill in the bond terms template for one real issue. Submit the payment table with a note on any feature that could change it.
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