Yes, EPF returns will definitely be higher than most FDs in 2020 because EPF has a guaranteed return of 2.5%. The reason is because the interest rate is at its lowest as long as I could remember… Read here for that earlier article.
I realised that the Fixed Deposit rates these days are no longer anywhere near 4%. (okay… it’s not even near 3%) It’s low, right? Then again, it’s just following this: Lower mortgage rates and even lower fixed deposit rates By the way, do we know that some provident funds have a guaranteed return rate? What is the guaranteed return rate of our Employees Provident Fund (EPF). Our EPF has a GUARANTEED return rate of 2.5%?
Yeap, this is so that the money we have in EPF will continue to grow. It also meant that EPF will have a super huge portion of their funds in stable return investments with higher than 2.5% returns so that they could continue to ensure the returns are higher than 2.5%. Perhaps a small portion will be in high risk but high return type of investments and this is where the potential upsides in annual returns would come from. What’s the latest?
Article in thestar.com.my The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has declared a dividend of 5.45% for Conventional Savings in 2019 and 5% for Syariah Savings 2019. This is the lowest dividend rate for the Conventional Savings declared by the pension fund since 2008. The dividends last year was 6.15% for Conventional Savings 2018, and 5.9% for Syariah Savings 2018.
EPF said that its overall investment assets grew to RM924.75 billion and it has a 2.8% increase in membership. Registered employers totalled 522,300. Chief executive officer Alizakri Alias shared some of the current unresolved issues which has affected EPF’s returns such as the three rate cuts made by the US Federal Reserve, the US-China trade spat escalated and continues to be unresolved, and there were surrounding the Brexit negotiations. He said, “In addition, the domestic markets did not support the income-generating capabilities of the EPF as 70% of the fund’s assets are in Malaysia, with a major part of our assets in domestic equities.” Please do read the full Article in thestar.com.my
Now that we know that EPF has a guaranteed return of 2.5%, do we feel safer? Actually it’s not a lot but below would be a calculation of what happened in 2019.
If we have RM100,000 in the conventional EPF account, it will now grow to RM105,450. Last year, it would have been RM106,150 which is an extra RM700 per year. I think there’s already a long debate about whether this 5.45% is low or sufficient or even everyone must look at the prevailing situation. Truth is, the same was said the year before and even years before. So, when will it ever be high enough then? How about also looking at ourselves too?
What is our salary increment this year? Salary increments. Higher or lower than everyone else? Was it higher than the year before? What has also happened to our secondary income stream, if we feel that money is not enough from our main stream? Or we forgotten to do something about it? Truth is, EPF savings will ONLY be for our retirement. What about today? What about next year? We need to ensure we have enough funds too, right? Happy doing something about it yeah. Oh yeah, blogging could help too! Blogging can earn you millions, really
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