Sunday, August 30, 2009

你會理性投資嗎?

存老本‧你犯了那些錯?

單身儲蓄多‧擬40歲退休

昔日養兒防老‧今日養老防兒

穩定“低”回酬‧不夠應付退休

Don’t Rely on Your EPF

Depending on the national pension scheme to finance your retirement is a huge mistake. Here’s why.

Many Malaysians believe their retirement can be funded by their Employee Provident Funds (EPF) savings. This is unrealistic. By relying solely on your EPF savings, you underestimate the amount needed to retire and overestimate how much you can withdraw once retired.

Malaysia’s pension scheme is meant to provide contributors with the basic necessities. Unless you plan to make drastic lifestyle changes after you retire, there is a big chance of exhausting all your funds in just a few years, with escalating living costs and increased longevity.

Living on a quarter of your income

The amount that we have in our respective EPF accounts depends on how much we make. For salaried employees, the mandatory contribution rate to the country’s pension fund is 23% of the employee’s monthly salary; 12% is contributed by the employer and the rest is deducted from the individual’s pay. At age 55, contributors can opt to take the sum along with annual EPF dividends declared to finance the rest of their life. Any withdrawals made before this age, such as to buy a property or pay for medical and educational expenses, will reduce the amount that you receive at retirement age.

All things being equal, with a monthly contribution of 23%, those relaying solely on EPF funds for their retirement will have to live on slightly less than a quarter of their current income every month. Is it possible to live frugally on this sum?

Even EPF officials have consistently highlighted the need for contributors to supplement their retirement funds with other sources of income. According to Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadiah, the average Malaysian will have approximately RM120,000 in their EPF account at the age of 55. This amount provides the retiree with RM500 a month to live on for 20 years. While it can be argued that this meagre sum can be stretched to provide for basic necessities (families earning this amount are classified “hardcore poor” and are eligible for government aid), it is not sufficient to provide for those that live beyond the age of 75.

Inflation Surpasses Returns

Inflation is another reason why you should not depend solely on your EPF funds for your retirement.

Inflation pushes up the cost of living. At the very core, inflation means we have to pay more for the same amount (and quality) of goods and services consumed. It eats away the value of your EPF funds. For example, a yearly 5% dividend declared by EPF translates to a real return of 1% if inflation for that particular year averages out at 4%.

As shown in Table 1, the EPF’s annual dividends have been just slightly more than the country’s inflation rate, which is measured by the consumer price index (CPI).

Table 1: EPF and CPI


2005

2006

2007

2008

EPF Annual Dividends

5.00%

5.15%

5.80%

n/a

CPI

3.1%

3.6%

2%

5.7%*

*Bank Negara’s estimate
Source: EPF and Bank Negara

However, one criticism of the CPI is that it does not reflect the actual consumption patterns of different regions and different income groups. This is could be due to controlled prices for a generic brand of several items in the CPI’s basket of goods and services, including cooking oil, white bread and rice. Controlled prices do not reflect actual market prices paid by the majority of Malaysians, especially those living in cities.

Revisions to the CPI basket are also infrequent - the last revision was in 2005. Recognising these shortcomings, the government reportedly reassessed the composition of the CPI and is considering publishing separate inflation rates for urban and rural areas.

CPI is also a poor reflection of inflation experienced by individuals. In June 2008, the CPI jumped to a 26-year high of 7.7%. However, in reality, most people experience a jump in prices which exceed 7.7%. It is more likely that the good and services purchased, especially in the urban areas, reflect the 40% increase in fuel prices and the 18% increase in electricity tariffs.

As more and more producers start passing down rising transportation cost to consumers, we believe inflation will continue at higher levels for some time. This will eat into the value your EPF savings, especially if annual returns declared for this year do not surpass 5.7%, the estimated inflation rate for 2008.

What Can Be Done?

The first step is to stop depending on the EPF. Take responsibility for your retirement and invest with a clear goal in mind. The objective is to invest in assets such as equities that have historically been able to provide inflation-beating returns.

To get started, here are some tips:

1. Invest now.
The sooner you start investing, the sooner you start building your wealth. Take a long-term view and invest small sums over a long period.

2. Take a look at how much you will need to retire.
This is, at best, a guesstimate of the expenses that you will incur when retired. Aim for a higher percentage of your current income, for example 65% to 80% of what you are earning now to sustain the same lifestyle once you stop earning.

3. Diversify.
This can be easily done with unit trust funds. It is possible to invest your EPF funds in approved local funds but your selected investments must make better returns than EPF’s annual dividends. However you still need to diversify your portfolio with different asset classes and geographical coverage.

4. No matter what happens – whether the market falls or climbs - always keep retirement as a financial goal and stay invested.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

5 Money Rules Every Woman Should Know

Here are some simple yet often overlooked rules that all women should know and put into practice, when it comes to the essential topic of money and finances.

Here’s the biggest myth of the financial world: Women make poor money managers. If anything, the argument has swung in favour of the fairer sex in the midst of this global financial crisis. Some critics have argued that the very lack of female money managers on Wall Street was one of the reasons why we are in this mess.

On the individual level, it should not take a major crisis in our lives to realise that we women have to be in charge of our own finances, to look after our own financial well-being, and take the well-trodden path of financial independence and freedom.

Here are some simple yet often overlooked rules that all women should know and put into practice when it comes to the essential topic of money and finances.

Money Rule #1: Manage Your Own Finances

It’s really odd. Women are generally competent at multi-tasking. And I know of numerous women who juggle their careers, families and personal lives quite well. But when it comes to money matters, I know of more than a few women who either prefer to take a backseat (read: leave the money matters to their Significant Other) or who simply shy away from managing their own finances (read: clueless as to what to do with their money).

If it’s financial independence that you long for, taking a passive approach to managing your finances would never get you there. Take charge of your finances today – work out monthly budgets with the help of a personal budget planner (different versions are available for download on the Internet for free) to have a clearer idea of what you’re spending your money on, which are the areas of spending that you should be cutting down on (read: frivolous spending!) and how much you can afford to save each month, net of all other expenses.

As a rule of thumb, we should be saving 10% of our income each month. But I would say go for 15% to 20% if you can. It never hurts to save more money! Ideally, we should have at least 6 months’ worth of our current drawn salary in emergency savings (and that should be for your personal savings account, and not in a joint account with your spouse!)

Money Rule #2: Make Your Money Work for You 24/7

Which brings us to our next point – it’s not enough to only be a ‘saver’. Women are savers and of course, spenders (Shopaholics Anonymous anyone?), so it’s not good enough to be leaving our money in savings accounts or fixed deposits, which earns us measly interest rates. Malaysia'’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) was at 4.4% in 2008 – this means that to keep pace with, or ideally, outpace inflation, we have to earn at least 4.4% per annum on our money! And we most certainly cannot achieve that with only savings accounts or fixed deposits.

So the only logical thing to do would be to invest. With the multitude of financial products and investment options available today, the only worry we should have is where to invest our money!

But before diving headlong into making any form of investments, there are three key things we need to ascertain – risk appetite (i.e. the losses you can bear to stomach on your investment portfolio in the event of a market downturn. But bear in mind that low risk instruments typically provides low returns, while high risk instruments typically provide high returns), investment horizon and objective (i.e. investing the money for 5 years to buy a house, or for 10 years and beyond for retirement etc.). Some of the more common investment options include Stocks and Unit trusts (click on the links to find out more about their characteristics).

The current global economic crisis has made the investment climate all that more daunting, especially for novice investors. But with crisis comes opportunities. Investment opportunities abound – take some time off to read up on the markets (the Internet is a rich source of information), get some advice from friends in the know, and when the market recovery happens, it would have been well worth the effort. Of course, market volatility is an everyday occurrence in the investing world. But in the longer term, the rewards would have more than compensated for the interim volatility of your investments.

Money Rule #3: Be Adequately Insured, Not Underinsured

By and large, many of us are generally underinsured, or there are ‘gaps’ in our insurance portfolio that we need to address, but which we have been putting off. If you think that you’re adequately covered just by having one whole-life insurance policy or an endowment policy, think again.

Rising medical costs are a global concern, not least in a developed economy such as Malaysia, which prides herself on having world-class healthcare facilities. Though the government provides patients of public hospitals with subsidies, in the unfortunate event that you are stricken with cancer or other serious illnesses, the medical bills could potentially wipe out a lifetime’s worth of savings, or at least a significant chunk of those savings. Women need to have sufficient insurance coverage, especially Critical Illness (CI) coverage, which is usually included as a rider (add-on) to whole-life insurance plans or term plans.

Other insurance required include Hospital & Surgical (H&S) plans, and possibly even Long-Term Care Insurance, due to the longer life expectancy for females. Consult a qualified financial adviser and have him or her work out a comprehensive insurance portfolio for you. Proper and adequate insurance coverage is crucial; should the need ever arise, you would be thankful that you had gotten that insurance coverage in the first place.

Money Rule #4: Plan for a Longer Retirement

Women in general live longer than our male counterparts. In Malaysia, the 2008 average life expectancy for males is 71.8 years, while that for females is 76.3 years. To be able to lead fulfilling lives after we retire, we need to plan for our retirement way in advance. And not only do we need to plan early, we need to plan for a good 20 years’ worth of living expenses after we retire (assuming we retire at the age of 55). And not forgetting the holiday plans in between, potential medical bills and other miscellaneous expenses. The main factors for consideration when working out how much you need to retire with is:

  • Projected monthly/yearly expenses at retirement
  • Number of years till retirement
  • Number of years after retirement
  • Projected annual inflation

The factors listed above serve as a rough guide to the factors that need to be considered when working out a retirement plan. It would be advisable to speak to a qualified financial planner and have him or her work out a comprehensive retirement plan for you.

Money Rule #5: Embrace the concept of “Delayed Gratification”

We practise ‘delayed gratification’ almost on a daily basis, most times without us knowing. We stop ourselves from eating that heavenly-looking, decadent piece of double chocolate fudge cake when we’re trying to lose some weight. We put in the extra hours at work so that we can go for a well-deserved getaway, without having to worry about the office when we’re on holiday.

So why can’t we do the same when it comes to achieving our longer-term financial goals? Instead of buying another fancy and crazily expensive Louis Vuitton or Prada bag, or buying yet another pair of Jimmy Choos or Mahnolo Blahniks (I exaggerate here, but you get the point!), the money could be channelled to our retirement fund, or for other long-term goals such as buying an apartment.

It would be impossible to do away with retail therapy for us women (think about how the economy would suffer as a result!), so it all boils down to budgeting and proper financial planning.

Keep these 5 rules in mind and you’ll be on the path to financial freedom!