First post here gents so please be gentle with me. I am married to a Malaysian and we (or, rather, she) is invested in ASM2 and ASM3. We were looking to live in retirement off the interest but not sure that will be possible now. Has anyone a decent idea of what the dividends are likely to be in September and October please?

Thanks and best wishes to all.

Matt.

Any more educated guesses for ASM2 and ASM3 dividends in September and October please? We have a little (very little) amount of money to invest and are unsure if we should try to get ASM2 ASM3 funds or try something completely different.

Really enjoying this thread. I have been following for quite a while as a guest before signing up.

Thank you.

I can certainly see the sound logic in your argument. I have my own investments in some Russell Global and Fidelity International funds and your are correct about the stock markets in March. Myfunds lost 20% in one month but have subsequently recovered. I am hoping the same is true for ASM2 and ASM3 dividends.

Hopefully ASM2 ASM3 will recover in a similar way.

Yes, that is what a lot of people are predicting. I really have no idea. Anything 4.xx% will be ok for me but anything less and I think we may look to invest elsewhere.

We will find out soon enough I suppose.

I am getting nervous now. I have been made redundant from my job in Dubai and we will be returning to Malaysia in September and will have to live off the dividends for a while.

At the moment yes, still need to quarantine 14 days. That could change 31/8/20 but I am expecting the MCO to be extended.

We won't be touching the capital sum. Provided we get 4% we can live off the interest.

I am 58, British, just been made redundant and married to a Malaysian. We also have a 4 year old Malaysian daughter. EPF not really an option for me. Possibly my wife though. By far our biggest expenses will be education and private health insurance. Thankfully, we have cleared the mortgage on our condo.

I had a decent career to age 58 so, yes, we were able to put quite a bit into my wife's ASB/ASM accounts. When the returns were 6+% we were very happy but now they look to be around 4% we can live off the interest but no provision for a hedge against inflation. My UK State Pension does not pay out until I am 67 and may be delayed further. It is not a huge amount either and, because I will be living outside UK, will not get annual inflationary increases like it would if I was in UK.

In short, if returns don't recover to around 5% in the next couple of years I am going to have to get another job and that will have to be outside Malaysia as it is a condition of my MM2H visa that I do not work in Malaysia. I could transfer to a LTSVP visa if necessary of course.

Until we have got ourselves established in Malaysia we will not really know exactly how much we need to live. We obviously have an idea but we will only know how accurate it is in a few months. We are quite happy to sit on the balcony with a coffee and watch the sun go down. We don't need the flashy cars etc but we obviously want to provide a good upbringing for our daughter.

At least life isn't boring!

Sorry, don't understand.

Thank you for the explanation.

Your maths is pretty good.

If we could count on 6% pa life would be great. If we could count on 5% pa life would be comfortable. If we get to 4% then it starts to affect lifestyle.

But we know that we are still in a better position than many and still count ourselves very fortunate.

She is but we have already maxed out her allocation of ASB ASB2 and ASB3.

4.5% would be fantastic in the present economic climate. 4% we can accept.

We have got to know our ASB agent at Maybank quite well and his predictions have been very reliable in the past. This year he says he finds it difficult to call but, if pressed, would go for 4 to 5%.

Sorry, yes, you are quite right. We maxed out ASB & ASB2.

Very true. I am being incredibly nice to her.

My expectation is slightly higher than 3.5% purely because the markets have recovered strongly since the Feb/March crash which will have impacted the disappointing 4.25% return. I expect 3.9% to 4.1%. Anything over 4.1% will be very good news.

Beginners luck!

Where would you invest that can consistently produce better returns without extra risk?

Maybe, but would that not give you liquidity issues if you wanted to extract your money?

It may even be a tiny bit better this year as it will have had an extra month of recovery, post Covid-19 crash.

If ASM3 gives around 4% in a month I will leave our investments in ASB ASM. Five per cent would make a huge difference to our lifestyle but I wouldn't want to increase the risk levels so we will manage with 4%. I think we could get back towards 5% in a year or two anyway.