Employees Provident Fund (EPF) gave an average dividend of 6.02% for the periods of 2008 – 2017. These rates are definitely very healthy but this cannot be expected to last forever. In fact, it has always been highlighted that EPF statistics show that 70 percent of its contributos who withdraw funds at 55 often use up their savings within less than 10 years after retiring. 14.5 million Malaysians are working out of about 32 million total population. 48 percent of these working Malaysians have an EPF account while 10 percent who work for the government is eligible for pension.
A year ago, for the full year of 2018, EPF announced a dividend of 6.15% for its conventional portfolio. This is a very good number even if it’s now lower than some years back. It’s actually 50% higher than even fixed deposit rates which is considered the safest investment of all. For the full year of 2019, EPF is expected to announce a lower divided. Some experts say that it will be between 5.5% to 6.15% and this is mainly due to the poor performance of the local stock market.
Article in themalaysianreserve.com For the whole of 2019, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped more than 6 percent. Many foreign funds sold their holdings and the total dumped was over RM10 billion. EPF derives about 55% of its income from investment in equities.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd VP of research Vincent Lau said the estimated dividend rate ranges between 5.5% and 5.9%.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid is more optimistic with a forecast matching last year’s rate.
The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs research manager in economics and business, Lau Zheng Zhou, described a 6% dividend distribution as “healthy”, taking into consideration the challenges last year. Please do read the full Article in themalaysianreserve.com
My thoughts about all the predictions? EPF is still going to declare a dividend which is way about what the fixed deposit will be giving us. The lowest percentage as per forecasted above is 5.5 percent. Current fixed deposit rates? Alarmingly low versus the past few years yeah. Article in loanstreet.com.my shows latest FD rates. Except for some promotional ones, the typical rates ranged from 3.55 percent onwards to below 4 percent. So, be happy yeah. Plus EPF is still the owner of PLUS too. All the drivers using the PLUS experessways are going to pay toll and that toll will be coming to indirectly via the EPF too.
Just be prepared that our EPF savings may not be enough when we retire to maintain our lifestyle yeah. This is why it’s important to have a ‘cheaper’ lifestyle and to start investing instead of relying on just the EPF. We are living longer and that’s going to stretch what we have longer too. Happy anticipating and keep working hard yeah.
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