Treasury Bill Ladder: How to Build a T-Bill Ladder in 2026

These are the most recent Treasury bill auction yields. Your ladder rungs are built from these rates — each number below is a real yield you can lock in at TreasuryDirect or through any brokerage today.

Rates reflect the most recent auctions as of 2026-04-22. T-Bills are sold at a discount to face value; the "yield" above is the investment rate equivalent. See live rates on our Treasury rates page.

A Treasury bill ladder splits your cash across multiple T-Bills of different maturities. Instead of parking $20,000 in a single 26-week T-Bill, you might divide it into four $5,000 bills maturing at 4 weeks, 13 weeks, 26 weeks, and 52 weeks.

Each time a bill matures, you reinvest the proceeds into a new 52-week bill at the top of the ladder. After one year, every rung is a 52-week bill — but you still have a bill maturing roughly every quarter, giving you a rolling schedule of access to your money.

The structure is nearly identical to a CD ladder, but built from U.S. Treasury securities instead of bank CDs. The main practical differences: T-Bills are state-tax-free, can be sold on the secondary market, and carry no FDIC cap because the U.S. government is the direct guarantor.

Here is a 4-rung ladder built from the current Treasury auction rates. Each rung gets $5,000. Once the ladder is fully seasoned, one bill matures roughly every 3 months.

The average yield across this ladder is 3.68%. Because T-Bill interest is exempt from state and local income tax, a resident of California or New York effectively earns the equivalent of a CD paying roughly 0.4 to 0.6 percentage points more — without sacrificing federal safety.

1. 1.
   Decide where to hold your bills

   You have two main options: TreasuryDirect (free, direct from the U.S. Treasury, no secondary-market sales) or a brokerage like Fidelity, Vanguard, or Schwab (commissions usually $0-$1 per bill, full secondary-market access). If you may need to sell before maturity, use a broker.

2. 2.
   Choose your rung structure

   Pick terms and intervals that match your liquidity needs:

   • • Monthly ladder: 4-week bills bought every week (weekly access, close to HYSA liquidity)
   • • Quarterly ladder: 4-week, 13-week, 26-week, 52-week (a rung matures roughly each quarter)
   • • Long ladder: 52-week bills bought monthly for 12 months (one matures every month, all earning 1-year yields)
3. 3.
   Check the auction schedule

   The Treasury auctions 4-week, 8-week, and 17-week bills weekly (typically Tuesdays/Wednesdays), 13-week and 26-week bills weekly (typically Mondays), and 52-week bills every four weeks. If you use auto-reinvest at TreasuryDirect, maturing proceeds automatically enter the next scheduled auction.

4. 4.
   Place non-competitive bids

   Retail investors almost always use non-competitive bids, which guarantee you receive the bills at the auction-clearing yield. On TreasuryDirect, you select the term, enter the amount (minimum $100, increments of $100), and submit before the auction closes. The discount is applied at issue and you receive the face value at maturity.

5. 5.
   Roll maturing bills

   When a bill matures, reinvest the face value into a new bill at your ladder's longest term. TreasuryDirect's scheduled reinvestment handles this automatically for up to 2 years. In a brokerage, you either manually buy the next bill or use your broker's auto-roll feature if available.

6. 6.
   Hold excess cash in a HYSA

   Between rungs settling, park any idle cash in a high-yield savings account. The current top HYSA pays 4.50% (SoFi), which is often competitive with the shortest T-Bill yields when you factor in daily compounding and instant access.

The mechanics are identical — both strategies stagger maturities and reinvest at the long end. The differences come down to taxes, insurance caps, liquidity, and where you buy them.

For a deeper head-to-head, read our CDs vs Treasuries guide.

The headline T-Bill yield is not a fair comparison to a CD yield if you live in a state with income tax. Convert both to an after-tax basis before deciding.

Formula: T-Bill taxable-equivalent yield = T-Bill yield ÷ (1 - state tax rate)

At a 9.3% state tax rate, a T-Bill yielding 3.69% is the after-tax equivalent of a CD paying roughly 4.07%. Compare that to current best-in-market CD rates on our 12-month CD page before choosing.

• •You live in a high-tax state — California, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Hawaii, and others make Treasuries hard to beat on an after-tax basis.
• •You have more than $250,000 to park — FDIC insurance caps at $250K per bank; Treasuries avoid the need to spread cash across multiple accounts.
• •You want predictable maturities for a planned expense — a down payment, tuition payment, or tax bill 6-12 months out maps cleanly to a T-Bill with a matching term.
• •You expect rates to fall slowly — laddering locks in current yields across multiple maturities, smoothing out reinvestment risk as rates decline.

• •You live in a no-income-tax state — the state-tax benefit vanishes. Compare top CD rates on our CD comparison directly against T-Bill yields.
• •You need money on demand — a HYSA offers unlimited same-day access without the wait for a bill to mature.
• •You want to lock rates for 2+ years — Treasury bills top out at 52 weeks. For longer horizons, use Treasury notes or a CD ladder that runs 2-5 years.
• •Your balance is small — with under about $2,000, the marginal after-tax advantage over a HYSA is small enough that the added friction of managing a ladder may not be worth it.