Bond Ladder Builder
What it does
A bond ladder is a portfolio of bonds with staggered maturity dates. The Bond Ladder Builder takes your total investment amount and desired number of rungs, then allocates equal portions across bonds maturing at regular intervals. As each bond matures, you reinvest the proceeds into a new long-dated bond, keeping the ladder intact.
The builder shows your projected coupon income for the next 12 months and lets you save the ladder, request bonds that are not currently available, and track when each rung matures.
When to use it
- You want regular cash flow — a ladder guarantees coupon payments arriving from multiple bonds throughout the year.
- You want to reduce reinvestment risk — spreading maturities means you never have to reinvest everything at once at potentially lower rates.
- You want liquidity without selling — the shortest rung matures soon and provides cash without touching the secondary market.
KES 2M ladder with 4 rungs targeting annual coupon income
You invest KES 2,000,000 split equally across four bonds maturing in 2026, 2028, 2030, and 2032. Each rung is KES 500,000. You receive coupon income roughly every 6 months from each bond, giving you 8 coupon events per year across the portfolio.
Example output
| Rung | Bond | Face Value | Coupon Rate | Matures | Annual Coupon Income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FXD1/2026/2 | KES 500,000 | 16.00% | Feb 2026 | KES 80,000 |
| 2 | FXD1/2028/5 | KES 500,000 | 14.39% | Mar 2028 | KES 71,950 |
| 3 | FXD2/2030/10 | KES 500,000 | 13.49% | Jun 2030 | KES 67,450 |
| 4 | IFB1/2031/12 | KES 500,000 | 12.50% | Dec 2031 | KES 62,500 |
| Total annual coupon income | KES 281,900 | ||||
Column reference
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Rung | Position in the ladder — rung 1 matures soonest. |
| Face Value | Nominal amount allocated to this rung. |
| Annual Coupon Income | Gross coupon rate × face value. Paid in two semi-annual instalments. WHT applies to FXD bonds. |
Limitations
- The builder allocates to currently available bonds. If your desired maturity window has no active bond, the rung will show as unfilled — you can submit a bond request to the broker team.
- Equal-split allocation is the default. Custom weighting requires manual editing of each holding in the Portfolio Tracker.
- Does not model reinvestment of maturing proceeds automatically — you must build a new ladder when a rung matures.