I also find it hard to believe so many ppl invest so much in Malaysia and Ringgit denominated assets.

Like man, do you guys have contingencies for when MYR plummets?

I am not surprised. Lots of people are super conservative in sg and Malaysia. When FD rates drop, all crying.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Oct 11 2022, 01:02 PM

FD is just my CASA for emergency fund LOL. And got ppl here compare FD to EPF which has lots of equities + real estate exposure.

do you have contingencies if ringgit goes up ?

or Taxman eyeing your oversea remittance?

Some guy told me unless you are planning to live or migrate oversea, parking money in oversea account isn't worth the risk of currency fluctuation, conversion commission, taxation scrutiny - you are better off with finding ringgit returns that beat inflation rate - which is what EPF is doing , no?

This guy doesn't understand the concept of hedging.

Not diversifyingn currency means you are solely at the mercy of Malaysia BNM monetary policy and Putrajaya's fiscal policy.

By investing abroad, I am not betting if Malaysia will outperform or underperform, or if Malaysia currency will moon or doom, I am hedging against MYR to ensure total ruin does not happen to me personally.

EPF is denominated in MYR and unlike PRS, your portfolio doesn't fluctuate along with market condition. If MYR hyperinflates, your EPF and FD are done for.

Do you want to end up like people in Venezuela, Argentina, Zimbwabwe, Brazil, Weimar Republic, Colombia etc?

I believe majority of average malaysian doesnt have the luxury to diversify their portfolio to overseas, or even have extra funds to perform currency hedging.....

What are the average Malaysia financial position? will have car loan, housing loan for own stay, maybe 1 more properties for investment...with the accrued loan and interest ongoing, normal average malaysian will priortising of settling their loan 1st before even think of investing/hedging abroad.....

And ya, i'm just another average malaysian.....

Yep

I know of a person who have MILLIONS in his account , of course he is buying property in Singapore.

I would do the same !!

Look, this thread's title is "EPF - Self contribution".

If one can put extra into EPF, they have extra funds. I am actually suggesting AGAINST putting extra into EPF because it's a risky move.

The self-contrib portion could have gone to robo-advisors low-mid risk portfolios and that's a good hedge against MYR. Most robos take deposits as low as RM 1~100.

Seriously if you can sendiri top up extra to EPF, you owe it to yourself to at least put a bit of $ in other places and not all in EPF.

It all depends on your financial position and portfolios. I will say robo advisor are much higher risk than EPF. EPF has proven to be safe and decent returns for decades. If you are like me, near retirement age. Putting in Max to EPF yearly is a good move. I can withdraw all in a few years time.Of course, again this depend on how much you have...usually people here who max in EPF are pretty much cash rich and it's better than FDs and no need headache to search here and there for best FDs deal.

If you are 21 years old and have 100k only. Of course it is not good idea to dump everything into EPF. It all depends on your own situation.

Risky in what way?... care to share?...

EPF contribution is for retirement, therefore any excess self contribution portion should be treated as part of your retirement funds, not investment/hedging portfolios. and i think the self contribution function is good for those not salaried employees, such as enterprise owner, commissioner earner, freelancer/youtuber/tiktoker etc etc, whereby their base salary are low or none.

And i'm agreed with you that if you're high salary earner with extra saving, self contribute to EPF might not a wise move UNLESS you're approaching RM 1 mil threshold.....you may perform whatever investment/hedging you prefer.

The top T0 has over RM10 mil in EPF...you think they high salary earner or not? Surely these are not dumb people...we ikan bilis look see look see and follow only lah....lol.

lol if 1 can have RM 10 mil in EPF, i think they wont look at EPF at all lah...only us ikan bilis that are conservative will look at EPF average 5% return as sufficient lol.

Actually it's all about choice. If you have extra money, do you want to put into EPF or overseas? For me no brainer to put them overseas.
I am Kuli earning only 5k/month and dump all my money overseas. What do I do with my leftover money after paying for all the bills? For me I collect until rm10k then send all of them overseas.

So being average does not give you the excuse not to diversify oversea. It come down to choice and willpower.

Actually lots of rich people are super conversative. 5% is easily RM500k/year. Do they need to take in extra risk to get RM500K a year? No they don't need. Why do you think all the uncle and aunties all grab EPF, FD and amanah saham? For the reasons mentioned above. EPF, FD. amanah saham give them cukup makan.

Do they need to park their money overseas. Depends on them. If they want to protect or send children overseas than yes.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Oct 12 2022, 12:35 PM

So when u have RM 10k u send abroad, how about your emergency funds? did you convert it back frequently or most of the time they just stay abroad and not coming back?

And able to consistently sending funds abroad, this kind of willpower is not average edi lol.

I have rm2k of emergency fund. More than enough. You can go say RM10k if you feel RM2K is not enough. Whatever floats your boat and how comfortable are you.

Once the money goes overseas, it will never come back to Malaysia unless really really needed. Cause as someone once told me, why the hell you want to hold/invest in a currency that depreciate yearly against almost all currency? The simple act of just putting your money overseas already protect your future buying power in Malaysia.

2md thing he said, don't keep cash overseas. Put the currency to work so that it can generate more foreign currency for you.

It's all about consistency. Like clockwork I send money every 3-4 months overseas once they reach RM10k. The only stuff I have in RM are my EPF. PRS, emergency fund.

too late for me to top up epf...

but seriously if i were to restart again... i would top up epf... and also move money overseas for stocks/etf, heck i may even dca...

no need to be mutually exclusive... do both...

Even if I got money, I won't bother with extra contribution into EPF. Cause long term dividend growth investing can outpace anything EPF give me.

Chief among them is over-concentration of portfolio in MYR-denominated assets. About 3/4 of EPF assets are in MY.

And also concentration issues on asset allocation too. About 1/4 of EPF assets are in federal government debt.

And then you have macro factor like currency matters, e.g. MYR's performance, low current account surplus, insufficient savings rate etc. Just to name a few.

I said it again and will say it again. Putting money into EPF = you have trust in Malaysia and ringgit for next 20-30 years.

Now if I give you a time machine to go back 20 years, will you top-up EPF or move your money overseas?

So now imagine a new time machine have come from the future. You get to decide your future and your family future right here, right now. What will you? Only you know the answer.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Oct 12 2022, 03:11 PM