yeah, many nice chaps/gals here willingly give pointers... up to him to recognize, analyse and self-improved.
somemore many of us are either at peak and/or late in our careers or already in semi to full retirement mode.

I am super curious now... where did you pull the 5.4% inflation rate number from?

It would be weird if it comes from EPF... imagine EPF telling everyone that inflation is 5.4% when the country's official rate is like around 2%... pretty sure someone will be sounded by Madani gov.

why go bother with people who are comfortable with 2 to 3K pm salary?
let them be... who is the gov and EPF to tell them that their future is bleak when they are comfortable with their lifestyle?

you mentioned 7% is unrealistic... but to some people, it is too low. how so?

I give you a example based on made up backtesting:
lets say back in 2010 aged 25, one started working with pay of 2K rm at a bank as bank officer. now 2025 aged 40. what do you think said person's salary will be today?


If said person is comfortable and happy go lucky, now still most junior bank officer (imagine a 40 years old officer). pay is 5K rm.
that's 200rm increment every year. That's CAGR of 6.3%. close enough to 7% pa.


If said person goes through "normal" career progression, now becomes a supervisor or assistant manager. pay is 8K rm.
that's 400rm increment every year. That's CAGR of 9.6%.
(in reality, most years will be increment of 250 to 300rm type... and the 2 to 3 times got promotion, extra increment of 500 to 1K)


Now, if said person is hardworking, deliver results and pretty ambitious, now he becomes a VP or branch head or department head. Pay is 15K rm.
that's 860rm increment every year. CAGR of 14.4%
(in reality, most years will be increment like 400rm type... and the 5 to 7 times got promotion, extra increment of 1K to 2K)


Not everyone will make it, but thanks to EPF, many will make it... The issue is not EPF balance not enough, its basically the salary growth and career progression.

wah... i cannot imagine what 100K per day spending power be like....

cos i put the question to chatgpt (but only with 100K rm per month)... and this is the summary came out from gpt.
gpt actually stated: You’re financially untouchable in Malaysia.
lol


🏖️ What This Retirement Looks Like
Home: A hilltop bungalow with a pool, or a penthouse in Pavilion Damansara Heights

Routine: Daily spa, tennis, fitness, gourmet meals, cinema

Travel: 5-star cruises, Bali retreats, or Switzerland ski trips

Support: Maid, driver, gardener, and personal assistant

Legacy: Comfortable family support, charitable impact, estate planning

🧠 Final Thoughts
With RM 100K/month:

You’re financially untouchable in Malaysia

You can live like the top 0.1%, enjoying both comfort and significance

You can age gracefully with full private healthcare, time, and independence

You and I have very different concept on what the word realistic means. (no right or wrong, but I just want to explain why 7% is much better vs 3%)
To you, it means everyone (or majority) will be able to do it without any effort. Nay, just do min and be done with.
To me, it means many will be able to do it with a bit of effort. Ie someone who choose to do his job properly, should be able to achieve it statistically.


ok, so if use the following salary info, you will notice what is realistic or not realistic? bare in mind, this is basically starting pay in a particular industry...

1980 starting pay in a bank... 400 rm.
2025 starting pay in a bank... 2500 rm. (i wanted to use 3K, but don't want to be seen pushing the stats up)

that is already 4.2% cagr... purely no career advancement... just fresh fresh career. This is wage inflation of same job. Not salary inflation of a person working. EPF is not about majority just working min wage every year.

Realistic or not for majority/all of people to be working at same starting job entire life? ... in fact, lowest level job in a industry... for entire 45 years?

sorry, i don't know the stats for manufacturing industry, but I do know a few in some manufacturing... my old classmates from school... I am very sure none of them is earning 2500rm pm in 2025.

but if you can share say 1980 stats, 2000 stats and today's stats of manufacturing industry and do the math, that would be helpful in the comparison.

Actually, starting pay for a fresh grad back in 2008 thereabout of 2.5K is decent... banking also paying about the same back then, a bit lower for local banks.

Incidentally, if most tech guys peaking at around 7K today from 2.5K rm 18 years ago, that is around 6% cagr.
using this as sample and inputing into the epf spreadsheet with the following additional assumptions: 11% self, 12% company, zero bonus
at 2025, said person will have 380K rm thereabout today in EPF.
in fact, letting the numbers run till he reach 55 years old, without any salary increment at all and zero bonus, he would reach 1.05 million rm.
If he continue to endure till 60 with same static salary, he will have 1.5 million rm in EPF.



Now, I just plug in the earlier example of
1980 starting pay in a bank... 400 rm. (he started working at 20 years old)
2025 pay in a bank... 2500 rm. (so cagr is 4.2%)
This person would have the following in EPF:
a) at 55 years old, he has 230K rm
b) at 60 years old, he has 320K rm
c) at 65 years old, he has 470K rm.
This bank officer is super rare... and definitely a career officer...


So, like you said, EPF could have done a way better job in explaining things and using the right examples focusing on the B40. and M40 too.
And not throw big numbers to tell people how many millions one should have. That's the wrong focus.

haha... you are pedantic and very fixated on the particulars. a scary trait...

ok, lets do the ex-colleague of yours.
This is the info provided (do correct me if I get the numbers details off).
started work 30 years ago at 1.8K rm (so 1995 already gotten paid 1.8Krm. It is quite decent really for 1995). Pretend he was 25 back then.
Today pretend wage peaked at 7K rm. that is cagr of 4.6%

Your ex-colleague would have the following in EPF:
a) at 55 years old (2025 today), he has 690K rm
b) at 60 years old, he has 1 million rm
c) at 65 years old, he has 1.5 million rm.


Your ex-colleague didn't do so badly really. I would be very surprised if he only has 700K rm in Epf today if he never took anything out. no bonus at all the whole time?

Btw, the earlier 2 examples I provided are valid examples as well.. if you think through them... 2.5K rm 18 years ago starting pay and now at salary of 7K rm... this is a reasonable example too.

Now what is not reasonable to many is at age early 30s already gotten paid 50K rm.... remember that story on some social media? a lady from oil and gas?

don't you know some fear mongers love to use "what if" scenarios for excitement... but never ask what if tomorrow never wake up? lol....

back to today and to answer your 2 million ringgit question.... real answer... I just treat it as a very high risk free CASA account to earn interest... at least the withdrawal feature only... cos already pretty much used up this year's quota for self-contribution.

remember, EPF pays you div until the day you take out your funds... so if it is 10K and you took out in middle of the month, that means u earn extra 10K x 5.5% (agak agak) pa x 15 days = 22 rm... enuf to eat 3 plates of chicken rice???

next year, the threshold is 1.1 million...
2027 is 1.2 million
2028 is 1.3 million
2029... TBD by EPF in future date.

so, you have until Dec to decide if u want to keep 1.1 or take everything above 1.0 in Dec

i know some mentioned that EPF fixed the non-div on the full annual sum of the auto monthly withdrawal option, but best to double check if this is true...

else waste the div only...

you can go back and read comments by others... but it was a while back.

I never used auto withdrawals before, but long ago a old colleague shared the same info.

No harm to double check.

There limit is still there... on the akuan emas. not that I will ever worry about it, hence I dont even bother to mention.

but yeah, for most of us, after 55 is not an issue anymore. I tend to forget about this as still a way for me to reach that age.

what EPF giveth, EPF can taketh away rite?... gift...

This post has been edited by Wedchar2912: Jul 3 2025, 08:56 PM

being greedy at 70s is kinda illogical... especially those who already accumulated millions... willingly risk the millions or 100s of K to get high return...
at the age, the number of diamonds/years left is not that many... should be conservative and spend one's eggs wisely...

can understand if say poor and wanna gamble the few Ks...

How about almost 1 million now in EPF? This should allay your fear of inflation problem 35 years ago... cos this is being done now.

refer to my earlier examples... one of the example is based on another forumer's ex-colleague real life.



This post has been edited by Wedchar2912: Jul 4 2025, 12:31 PM

Don't you think such is life?

I always find it fascinating that some think retirement is a god's given right... it is really a hard earned benefit with plenty of luck.. especially for comfortable retirement.

And I also find it fascinating that some think EPF/Gov should do this and that in the name of ensuring the 1.3 million is there....
whilst the same gov has no power to force a super serious diabetic person or a super fat person at 50 years old to manage his medical condition... besides giving him kkm 1rm treatment and allowing the patient to eat as much sugary drinks as he like. and then lament that gov no money and health care is unsustainable.

lol

This post has been edited by Wedchar2912: Jul 4 2025, 12:40 PM

if you ask me, of cos not lar... 1 million is chicken feed... even just having 4 million in EPF is not enough for me to retire.
But that is me... So what do I do? I made sure I have way more than 4 million...

Hence, the following few fallacies (ie the counters)
fallacy 1: EPF is not the only retirement pot, and should not be.
fallacy 2: 1 million in EPF is not the min for retirement. it all depends on the person.
fallacy 3: the retirement notional can be used and depleted... as long as the pot outlast the person
fallacy 4: not everyone lives a long life after 60. sad but true.


psk.... my first paragraph is just a story to express a point.

What Epf should do is to offer, ie optional, every member the opportunity to convert some of their EPF balance into a special Lifetime Fixed rate annuity paying like 6% ot 7% guaranteed as long as the member is alive. After which, the principal is then disturbted to the beneficiaries.

now that would be nice. Almost like a perp, but with EPF credit strength.

lol.. you missed the part where I said "a story to express a point".

But in same token, why the surprise? so many here complain and said 1 million or 1.3 million is not enough to retire... so I just provide a large amount of 4 million as example.
I was actually expecting some to shout and scream that 4 million is too litle too. haha

But having said all these, I had mentioned before here that my monthly spending budget for the family is RM 20K... so, in actuality, 4 million may not be enough for me at current stage of my life.

Well, epf and gov also have to offer a fair and transparent option to EPF's members right? it is gov's responsibility to be fair...

if insist must have annuity like structures, must offer one that makes sense. a Lifetime Fixed rate annuity paying like 6% ot 7% would be attractive for members to voluntarily participates.
forcing members implies the offer is bad and subpar...

sustainable or not is EPF's problem... they have so many smart people in there. haha.

haha... looks like we jumped from 2 million to 4 million to 5 million being enough for retirement.....
to now needing 20 million for retirement. haha...



20% is quite low for most people I have to say.... i imagine a normal person would have like 50 to 80% of their retirement funds (ie excluding home) to be in EPF... especially true as one ages well past 70 years old.