I'll take a mid-position - 5.75%.

That's right ! That's what they said last year, ie upon 55. They also said that if we withdraw all, then we will be out of the scheme. However, they did not say anything about withdrawing partially, I would assume that withdrawing partially remains status quo, incl. withdrawing just the dividend.

Well,... between holding the PNB Fixed-price Funds and holding to EPF Funds, I will choose the EPF. For diversification into MYR holdings, yes, I would agree that the EPF is more transparent and better-governed, till now,.... But don't know how will things pan out in future....

Anyway, we have no choice, right ? Since we are atill many years away from the EPF, we can't withdraw from the EPF anyway, unless we give up our citizenship.

It has to go in tandem with the drops in other financial instruments in Msia. I am confident that EPF will NOT give something same as last year. It will be deemed as 'spoiling the market'.

Can,...but there are rules that must be adhered to. I heard a contributor cannot put more than RM60K per year, or something like that. Must refer to the KWSP website.

The higher the dividend percentage, the more we can accumulate for our retirement years. It's just that....

Hmm,... why do I feel that making guesses like this without proper data backup and analyses is really a waste of time ??? But perhaps for recreational purposes and resting of the mind,... okay !

Hi aeiou,.. tq,.. read and saw the postings. Heard something about this too, but not too much because I was in Sgp earlier. .. Can continue to watch the show then, for recreational purposes,...

BUT ; the systemic risk is too high for investors to bear,...

My statement for the last few weeks : When times are good, everybody parties. When bad times come, all this pain sets upon us.

Another statement : When the tide goes out, we can see who is swimming naked. The second statement was from Marc Faber many years ago, the Doctor of Doom. He is now staying in Chiangmai, enjoying himself in the cold with three pretty housekeepers.

My friend,...why the close pursuit,...just let the EPF do their job,..

Quite an encouraging way of looking at things,...

An extract from the article in hour note : EPF held nearly RM2 billion bonds in 1MDB as at March 2015 while Tabung Haji bought a parcel of land from 1MDB’s Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) project for RM188.5 million. - See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysi...h.4TZfRIls.dpuf

Has 1MDB been servicing the coupon payments for EPF ? That's part of our retirement sum too.

Look at the following words from the Sin Chew article :-

EPF deputy chief executive officer (investment) Datuk Mohamad Nasir Ab Latif said earlier the 2015 dividend rate would be declared after the Chinese New Year holidays, and that the rate was expected to be good.

EPF dividend rates for the past six years:
2009: 5.65%
2010: 5.8%
2011: 6.0%
2012: 6.15%
2013: 6.35%
2014: 6.75%

- See more at: http://www.mysinchew.com/node/113124/tid=1...h.u8HWmmZf.dpuf

If the Deputy CEO dares to comment that it's going to be good, then I would really like to see what the EPF terms as good. .... We must define 'good' here, and from this definition, we can predict for future divvies.

That's the point,....they have not promised anything for the divvy yet, they just said 'good',... so,..what is good ? I would like to see their definition of 'good', since the word has been uttered.

Not too low please,... please don't influence them with 5% being good,...

I don't know if we have a 'KWAP' thread,.. but a news below that is worth looking at :-

February 16, 2016:

Malaysian civil service pension fund Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) (KWAP), or Retirement Fund Board, is believed to have achieved a lower gross return on investment (ROI) of 5.5 per cent to 5.7 per cent last year, CEO Wan Kamaruzaman Wan Ahmad told a local weekly.

The Edge Malaysia Weekly reported that while the full 2015 financial results of the fund have yet to be released, Ahmad said the performance is expected to dip from its previous years as the fund’s investments were not spared from the volatility seen in the equity market last year.

Malaysia’s equity market saw negative return for the second consecutive year, which could likely sway KWAP from achieving its ROI target of 6 per cent.

“The Malaysian equity market was in negative territory last year by about 3.9 per cent. After two consecutive years (of negative performance), the overall performance was quite poor. I think last year, we did not achieve the above 6 per cent (target). We probably reached around 5.5 per cent to 5.6 per cent, or slightly higher than that,” he said of the gross ROI target.

In its 2014 annual report, KWAP recorded an average gross ROI of 6.68 per cent between 2010 and 2014.

KWAP’s fund size stood at MYR109.43 billion in 2014, and Ahmad expects it to grow to MYR120 billion this year.

The FBM KLCI fell 3.44 per cent in Malaysian Ringgit terms last year but plunged 20.96 per cent in US dollar terms. The broader FTSE Bursa Malaysia EMAS Index slid by 19.8 per cent last year, tracking the benchmark index.

The poorer performance of KWAP’s investments is a concern. The retirement fund needs to grow its investments in order to shoulder at least half of the civil services’ pension liabilities, given that the federal government’s contribution to the fund isn’t much, The Edge reported.

The government is supposed to transfer an amount equivalent to 5 per cent of the yearly emoluments budget to KWAP. Its contribution to the fund from 2011 to 2014 has stagnated at MYR1.5 billion.

Last year, the federal government’s emoluments budget was MYR69.1 billion. Based on this, KWAP should have received MYR3.5 billion from the government. Instead, the fund was given about the same amount as in 2014, Ahmad said.

Noteworthy is that growth in the annual pension payments far outstrips KWAP’s investment performance.

Based on the pension fund’s 2014 annual report, 9.35 per cent of its assets was invested overseas while the rest was placed locally.

The government has given KWAP its approval to almost double its international investments to 19 per cent of its portfolio by the end of next year, from the current level of about 10 per cent.

However, with the Ringgit’s depreciation against the US dollar, KWAP may only achieve the 19 per cent target after 2017. Recently, the government has also called for government-linked funds to limit investments abroad.

KWAP and KWSP need to be synchronised in their returns. ...

Edited : IT's hard to pronounce the 'KWAP' in short,... 'Quack' ??? Doesn't seem nice,....

This post has been edited by Hansel: Feb 17 2016, 07:06 PM

'Kuap' and KWSP are supposed to help out in old age requirements, ie for retirement. They have the same objective, ultimately. Hence, under a good governance environment, if the Gov't can introduce 'Kuap', shouldn't these two initiatives provide equal returns, EVEN if they compete under normal conditions ? Why should one give more than the other ?

It's something like the Syariah-compliant KWSP scheme coming next year, and the non-Syariah one,...what if one gives more than the other ?

In a good governance environment, the methodology to adjust the returns in the right way, eg by rebalancing their investment portfolios should be executed correctly to provide fair and equitable returns to contributirs. Both instruments are for retirement-planning.