Declining SG T-Bill Yields and the Best Miles Cards for Dining

💳 Card Hack of the Week

For card geeks, what are some of the best options – in terms of air miles – for dining out. Thankfully, in Singapore we have a plethora of options.

My own top three include some Singapore favourites and UOB is one of the go-to banks for dining cards.

Indeed, anyone who has the ability to get the UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card (4 miles per dollar), UOB Visa Signature (4mpd), and UOB KrisFlyer Mastercard (3mpd) can enjoy some pretty sick rates when dining out.

Remember, there are different methods to the (miles) madness when dining out with these cards so make sure you understand how to spend on them.

For a more detailed breakdown of the best air miles credit cards for dining in Singapore, check out my TikTok post here.

🎯 Personal Finance Quick Action

Cash management tools are always useful. That’s because the cash we have for our short-term needs should – ideally – be earning us a yield (i.e. working for us).

One of the ways we can make it work is by investing into Singapore government Treasury bills, also known simply as T-bills.

These are short-term in nature and, primarily, in 6-month and 1-year tenors. But for investors, there was some bad news earlier this week as the cut-off yield for the latest 1-year T-bill offering hit a miserly 2.29%.

That was down from the 2.95% (or 66 basis points) that investors could have received if they had applied for the last 1-year T-bill back in January 2025.

So, what’s happening? Well, basically the tariff mayhem has increased expectations that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will have to cut interest rates more than expected in 2025.

Given Singapore’s open and trade-dependent economy is impacted by tariff policy, capital flows into and out of the city-state are very much determined by US rates.

The upshot is that investors can expect to receive less of a yield from T-bills going forward (yields have actually been heading down since hitting a peak of 3.87% in January 2023). It doesn’t look like they’ll be heading higher any time soon.

What can investors do? For short-term cash needs, there aren’t that many attractive options – Singapore Savings Bonds (SSBs) could provide a bit more yield – but for money we don’t need in the next 3-5 years, we should be trying to invest for the long term anyway.

This fall in T-bill yields could be exactly what many of us need to start putting more of our long-term capital to work.

For a detailed breakdown on the latest T-bill offering, check out my TikTok post here.

📈 Market Money Moves

China’s first-quarter GDP growth exceeded expectations as the first three months of 2025 saw the Chinese economy expand by 5.4% year-on-year.

Of course, that period didn’t take into account President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs (announced on 2 April) on China and the rest of the world.

Tim’s Take: China’s economy beat most economists’ expectations for Q1 2025, which had put the average expectations at 5.1% growth.

But the growth figure is almost meaningless given what has happened since the end of March. That’s because there’s no doubt China’s economy will be impacted by the punitive tariffs that President Trump has placed on it.

Adding to its prior 20% tariffs, now that the US government has announced an additional 125% tariff on all Chinese imports, the total tariff on Chinese goods entering the US now stands at a whopping 145%. Meanwhile, US goods entering China now face a 125% levy.

It’s become almost a joke – as the Chinese government opined – given the Trump administration said earlier this week that tariffs on Chinese goods could reach 245% after an updated trade fact sheet was released on Monday (14 April).

Regardless, the tit-for-tat tariffs between the US and China will damage both economies. However, China – already facing an economic slowdown and anaemic consumer spending – could be hit harder given the amount it exports to the US.

Many investors are hoping for a major stimulus from the Chinese government, to help prop up spending in the domestic economy, amid this tariff barrage. Indeed, all of Asia’s economies will be negatively impacted the longer this US-China trade spat drags on.

We saw that in play as the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MIT) in Singapore downgraded its growth expectations for the Singapore economy at the beginning of the week – citing the uncertainty imposed by President Trump’s tariff war.

For investors, it pays – more than ever – to have a global perspective when investing and not concentrating on just one country (be it the US or China) when allocating their retirement funds.

For a more detailed breakdown of how Trump’s tariffs impacted markets, check out my TikTok on 3 big moves from the tariff mayhem here.

👋 How I Can Help

Introducing Miles Consulting from Tim Talks Money

I’m excited to announce the launch of my Miles Consulting service! Through this service, you’ll get:

• ✨ Exclusive 60-minute one-on-one consultation

• 📊 Comprehensive credit card spend audit

• 📝 Personalised miles report

• 💳 Maximise sign-up bonuses

• 🚫 Avoid the pitfalls

• ✈️ Expert Singapore Airlines insights

• 💡 Optimise for couples/families