I would want to save both, one for current and one for old age

See the above. Play with the number. You have to remember your capital is limited. You have very little money. So the only way to make it work is make your money work as hard and as efficiently as possible.
Both works for long term. Only difference is one will give you more money Vs the other.

You can always sell out everything and dump it into EPF to preserve the money.

Keep in mind by investing overseas
1. You protect yourself against the depreciation of ringgit. What this means is your hard earned money goes further Vs just holding ringgit. Ringgit depreciate at around 3%p.a Vs the SGD. So if you earned 5% in EPF, you are effectively only earning 2%p.a Vs if you put into something in SGD earning 5%p.a Yes such thing exist. That's why I use SGD as my EPF vs dumping into EPF.
By me opting for 5% p.a in Singapore, I am getting the true 5%
2. Your ringgit earns more. A 5% Vs 10%p.a double the returns. A 5% different matter over 20 years time period.

Yes returns not guaranteed but by picking EPF you are giving up opportunity cost (money grow faster and more efficiently than EPF) which means more money when you need it.

Do you need the money now Vs 20 years down the road. Ask yourself this question.

You can listen, you can ignore. I don't get anything either way. I was in your shoes before this. Focusing on just FD promos amanah saham cause scared to lose money. I realise early on I am losing more money by being safe.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Aug 23 2025, 12:45 AM

If I were to invest in SGD, how should I do it? I check online there will be conversion fee back and forth and need a work permit to open a SG bank account. My question may sound stupid as I dun hv knowledge in this area

Not really. If you know how. Yes there will be feess if around 3% as banks want your money what. But there are ways to minimise the fees.

But when you invest overseas, you do not touch the money for 20-30 years until you need to use the money. Treat your money as one way ticket. Never been seen again for next 20 years. Yes that is what I did and still doing. If you itchy hand put money this month then bring money back next month or few months down the road, guaranteed way of losing money due to forex movement and you are removing your money tree too soon. Once it is overseas leave it.

My advise collect RM50k in Malaysia first for safety reason before decide your next action..

If you are 55 years old next year, don't bother with tnf and nonsense. Use EPF s you can withdraw money anytime at 55 years old. If you are still far away then you need to decide if you want to lock up your moeny into EPF and cannot touch them for 10y+ (you mentioned you are 40+)

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Aug 23 2025, 11:42 AM

Im 42, will try to target 50k as you say first, try to save and earn after work and see how thing goes

Spend as little as possible.
Try to do overtime where necessary.
Invest your money so they work as efficiently and as hard as possible.

Now also looking for freelance do too

Well there are several ways to do this... if you are already more than 55

https://www.kwsp.gov.my/en/member/life-stag...5-60-withdrawal

Else if you are 50-54

https://www.kwsp.gov.my/en/member/life-stag...e-50-withdrawal

The easiest is via i-Akaun. Just register and activate by visiting your local EPF center to be save. It can be done at home but if you / your dad often visit the counter best do it at the center to clear out any questions on how much he can withdraw and the limit for each withdrawal.

Once registered and activated, you can do the withdrawal anytime anywhere via online or via the app on your phone. The money will be transferred into the bank account (with the same name as the EPF account) usually within 3 days.

You can actually try now by withdrawing a little from your Flexible Acc 3 just to test the water on how to do it.

I have the online acc for kwsp, not sure it's call i-akaun. Only view the amount currently available. Later I try to withdraw it Abit to test water. Your info is very useful. Thanks so much🙏

Not easy to summarise everything in a post. So I would say it’s really a mindset change.

Maximise your active income potential, then invest the extra money that you have after living expenses.

What kind of investment? You need to read some books first, then start to ask more specific questions.

Look into chainlink.

Ya, unker also thinking of increase my income too, tho it may be very tiring

Thanks for giving unker a direction to look into

Unker here as well. grind hard to try earn money but feel useless. Even when make extra RM500 per month also barely make a difference. See ppl recommend etf, qqq, voo, BTC, Eth, angmoh ppl say they buy every two weeks every month few thousand USD, EUR, then see exchange rate walao RM500 is barely USD100 cant even buy 1 share. Like playing a game on hidden hard mode difficulty where your earnings divided by 4.3x.

Sometimes lose hope like no point. Unless you are in stem field or earning first world currencies or got gov pension the most you can do is to slow down the inevitable by buying few hundred ETF every year. Othe than that the other way is to sell scam products for commission. Otherwise, everyone else is just doomed to gov handouts and charity to survive. Sometimes just hope for quick n early death no need to deal with old body and failing health when broke.

The feeling is mutual, many things need a lot of money to earn and there is always risk, I also hope can die early or hope euthanasia is legalize in future when unker around 70s. Forever alone like no need a long life

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This post has been edited by Bkboy: Aug 24 2025, 07:07 PM

You can always buy fractional shares — don’t underestimate how powerful this is over time.

My wife used to feel the same way as you: that RM500 or RM1,000 a month is “too little” compared to what others in the US or Europe can put in. But I encouraged her to stay consistent since the COVID days, investing RM1,000 every month without fail. Today, that amount has grown significantly, and she’s glad she didn’t give up.

The key isn’t how big you start, but that you start and stay consistent. Even small amounts, compounded over years, make a huge difference. It may feel like hard mode now, but your future self will thank you for not giving up. Stay the course — you’re planting seeds for tomorrow.

While others were joking around and flirting with women, what I did in my 20s was that I went mad into mastering industrial skillsets off working hours...

What people have it wrong is that they assumed they needed to be paid at work to attend training... what you should do is to go on your own and self-study outside to climb higher...

You need to be a know-how to be truly valuable anywhere... I paid the price of doing grime work at B40 in my younger days, staying under the radar until I was truly a master...

And in this current era, I probably possess one of the most rarest coding skillset that is common, but often under-utilized in the digital marketing, MarTech (Marketing Technology / data science) and frontend development world... This took me into the M40 group..

In the Australian MNC I work in currently, I am more skilled than any of the international peers I work with, and I am more technically-skilled than my own senior here, which she does find me very daunting and that I rendered her useless...

Life

Talking about life, as how things would have it for me, I do not come from a wealthy family and worked full-time while waiting for my high school graduation... But the total experience led me to set everything in proper order and I was more matured and self-aware than my own peers...

Investing

You need to stabilize your income and character first before going into investing...

Service

Once you possess any form of skillset that can truly set apart yourself from the market, you are ready to sell yourself out for a service... I have done this routinely until now...

There are 3 eras where you can make money.

The 90s property boom

The Y2K dotcom boom

The early Bitcoin bloom during the 2016.

If you missed it, please continue with your work or business

In the long run, its a nett loss.
Banker always wins.

very irresponsible advice.