Monday, August 18, 2008

EPF to start ’em young on investments

This is under the EPF's new “Beyond Savings” scheme where members can withdraw a portion of their savings from their Account One that is in excess of a “basic savings,” which varies according to age.

This basic amount increases according to the age of the contributor and would ensure that he had at least RM120,000 by age 55, said EPF organisational development division head Hizwani Hassan.

Under the new scheme, contributors can withdraw at least RM1,000 and up to 20% of the excess amount once every three months.

For example, the basic savings amount for a contributor aged 25 is RM9,000 while a person aged 35 must have at least RM29,000 before he can make a withdrawal.

Currently, members can invest 20% of the excess of RM55,000 in Account 1. This scheme will be scrapped on Feb 1.

“The amount of savings put aside in Account 1 progressively at various pre-determined age levels is to enable members to accumulate the minimum savings that will enable them to reap RM500 a month for 20 years (after retirement),” said Hizwani.

For an employee to achieve the RM120,000 basic savings, it is estimated that an 18-year-old, at current contribution rates, will have to earn at least RM444 a month with a 3% yearly increment and at 4% annual EPF dividend, he said.

By Feb 1, 1.76 million contributors will be eligible to invest RM23bil from Account 1, compared to 850,000 people who are eligible to invest RM96bil currently.

Meanwhile, from Feb 1, about 150,000 employees aged between 55 and 75 will have to make mandatory EPF contributions.

EPF deputy CEO Ibrahim Taib said that the new ruling was introduced in view of Malaysians living longer and to encourage those above 55 to continue working.

Under the scheme, employees will contribute 5.5% and employers 6%, he said at the EPF headquarters here yesterday, adding that employees can also opt to contribute more.

Currently, contributions from those aged 55 and above are voluntary, and the amount is agreed upon between employers and employees.

Those who fail to contribute will be liable to three years' jail and can be fined up to RM10,000 or both under the EPF Act, Ibrahim said.

For non-citizens aged 55 to 75 who chose to contribute after Aug 1, 1998, the rate is 5.5%, while employers pay RM5 a month.

As of Dec 31 last year, there were 5.57 million EPF contributors and 144,467 were between 55 and 75 years old, said Ibrahim.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

KWSP Isytihar Dividen 5.8 Peratus Bagi 2007

KUALA LUMPUR, 22 Jan (Bernama) -- Menteri Kewangan Kedua Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop hari ini mengumumkan dividen 5.8 peratus bagi Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja (KWSP) bagi 2007, lebih tinggi daripada 5.1 peratus pada 2006.

Katanya, dividen lebih tinggi itu dibantu oleh pasaran saham yang lebih kukuh dan juga kecekapan KWSP dalam mengurus dananya yang berkembang.

"Ia adalah peningkatan yang besar. Pasaran saham baik dan KWSP berkesan dan cekap dalam mengurus dana yang besar dan berkembang," kata Nor Mohamed kepada pemberita selepas melawat ibu pejabat KWSP di sini.

"Kita mampu mengisytiharkan dividen yang semakin tinggi sepanjang beberapa tahun. Saya anggapnya sebagai pulangan yang menarik pada 5.8 peratus," katanya.

KWSP ialah dana keenam terbesar di Asia dengan jumlah peruntukan aset sebanyak RM312 bilion.

-- BERNAMA

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Jumlah Simpanan Asas Dalam Account 1 KWSP

***Klik pada jadual untuk gambaran lebih besar

Pada 17hb January 2008, KWSP telah mengeluarkan jadual terkini untuk pencarumnya mengeluarkan simpanan account 1 untuk tujuan pelaburan

Learn How You Can Quickly Increase Your Wealth With Unit Trust

Now that you have found this blog. You will begin to learn a few secrets of how to make your money work harder for you. Unit trust is just one of the favourite tools for investors to quickly increase and grow their wealth. Some call it Mutual Trust. It's the same thing, same flavour. Investing in Unit Trust is simple, easy and safe. You just need to learn more about the fundamentals before taking the next step.Here in this investment tips in Unit Trust CIMB blog, you will begin to learn the basics of Unit Trust.
What it is all about. Different types of Unit Trust. Which one is suitable for you. How much and when to invest in it. And much more.Imagine once you have learned the fundamentals of Unit Trust, you will be thinking to yourself, 'My! Why didn't I start this earlier?' That's what you will be saying a lot right after you read from this site how we can all make some money from Unit Trust.
Make your money work harder for you, not you for the money.You surely have always been interested in making your money work harder than just keeping it in Fixed Deposit (FD). That's the reason you are here.Do you want to continue earning 3.7% from FD? Or slightly above 5% from your EPF contribution? How about picturing this, 10-50% per annum from Unit Trust! It is absolutely possible! I am sure you would want to get more than 3% return from your investment. 5%, 10% and even up to 50% per annum. You will see how to continue to push your money to work harder.
You can start with Unit Trust investment to see those kind of returns every year.You may have been reading up a lot on investment and are still continuing to read, study and learn about investment. It's a bit complicating if you are just starting out. You may want to go into other things like stocks, properties, gold or others. It's okay if you really know what you are doing. But, if you are a beginner and don't quite know how to invest your hard earned money, let me share with you about this wonderful tool, Unit Trust, on Investment tips in Unit Trust CIMB. Of course, you will also learn about other types of investment here to compare with Unit Trust investment

Learn The Secrets Of Wealth

You will quickly learn from this investment tips in Unit Trust CIMB Blog the things that I have shared with many of my friends and relatives. Secrets to making your money working harder and of course to make you wealthier.You have seen many who are in debts and of course many others that are very wealthy. You may have been thinking, they must be doing something right with their money. That's why they are rich! Now, you too can learn the secrets. You too can benefit from their secrets to become wealthy.

DALI 1

CIMB Islamic DALI Equity Growth Fund2 (formerly SBB Dana Al-Ihsan)

Inflation Is Eating Up Our Income. What Can We Do?

With the inflation rate creeping up higher and higher after the rise of fuel prices in the country, what is the government going to do about it?A bowl of my favourite noodle near my house was RM4.00 before the fuel price increased to RM2.70. Now, the same bowl of noodle is sold at RM4.30. I am sure elsewhere, your favourite hawker food is also sold at a higher price now.Hmm, looks good to be a hawker nowadays. You can just raise your price by 30 sen (7.5%) whenever there is any increase of fuel price. Does your employer give you a raise of 7.5% to your salary?
I bet not.So, how are we going to survive this kind of price increase? This is inflation in the ugliest way. Your RM4.00 can't buy you the same thing again. Expenses keep going up higher while our income (those who work for a fixed salary) remains the same.Is the government asking us to eat less now when they say to be more prudent in our spending? How do we eat less? A bowl of noodle is a bowl of noodle. You have to buy a bowl, you can't buy less than a bowl.Interest rate hike likely in Q3.The Sun paper reported today that interest rate will go up soon and will happen in Q3. How much will it go up to?What good does the interest rate do to us? You can say that the interest rate for Fixed Deposit account will be higher. But will it be higher that the current inflation rate? Bank Negara says June's inflation rate is at 6%. Will we see the interest rate in Fixed Deposit jumps from 3.5% now to over 6%? Definitely not.And even if interest rate jumps up that high, I don't think I have much money to be put away as saving anyway. Look at all the money going to the increasing expenses due to inflation. Where do we have money left for savings?And if interest rates go up, your house mortgage payment will also go up.
That is, if your mortgage is the conventional type that rides with the Base Lending Rate (BLR). Be prepared to face an increased in your monthly payment! This will eat up more of your income. Be ready to discuss with your banker for them to work out something for you. Get them to reduce your interest rate or extend your loan tenure.Time is surely going to be tough now! Everything is going up. But the market is going down. The good news is market is cyclical. Put whatever savings you have into the market. The market will eventually go up again. If you are consistent, over the long term, you will gain. Investment after all is a long term thing.Think about it.

What Can You Invest In During Inflation Times?

Malaysia's Consumer Price Index for June 2008 rose to 7.7%! Certainly it's not a rosy situation, is it?
Prices keep going up because of the recent fuel price increase. Internationally, oil price is measured based on US Dollars. When the US dollars become weakened due to their country's economy situation, oil producing countries begin to raise the oil price. They want to get back the same value for a barrel of oil.
Now you know why the price of oil go up even when we have enough supply.In this case, oil price went up. And since the modern economy mostly depended on oil to move and produce, it is natural for other goods prices to go up as well. The vicious cycle.
The domino cycle, whatever you call it.Thus, we have inflation. And in this inflation times, what can you do? Currencies will lose value as our currencies are all linked globally. When the US dollars drop in value and worth less, that means our Ringgit will be worth less too.Hey, you may argue that the Ringgit is strengthening against the US dollars. But is it?Let's look at it this way, Ringgit is strengthening. So are the rest of the currencies like Euro, Yen, Renminbi etc. Your German and Japanese cars are going to be more expensive. Your shirt and computer from China are going to cost more. You are not gaining anything.
The only thing you gain is your Ringgit can now buy more US dollars. But people are dumping US Dollars and moving to other currencies or other investment such as precious metals.Even governments around the world are going to move their trillions of dollars to gold and other investment around the world.With that large amount of money moving into precious metals such as gold, you will soon see a rise in the price of gold.
Gold has been a tool to hedge against inflation historically. Gold value goes up when US Dollars weakened and when oil price goes up.And, smart investors will now move their money out of the US stocks too into developing countries. We should now be investing our money in developing countries. You can buy the stocks from those countries or unit trust that invests in those countries. China is definitely one of these developing countries. That's why you see CIMB Wealth Advisors introducing some Emerging market lately.

How To Invest In An Inflationary Period Like Now

Same questions are asked again and again whenever I talk to people about investing. You might be asking the same question too."Is it a good time to invest during such inflationary period? In such bad economic times?"Well, investing is like buying groceries at the market. Think of investing as the act of buying investment products. When you are in the market to buy something, don't you always look for the best deal?
Don't you always eye for the product that offers the best value for your money?Don't you want to buy products that are of good quality yet at a low price? Don't you like to go to the Ikea sale when things are cheap and you get to take home those nice furniture?Now, have you got the point? You buy when the investment products are being offered at a low, cheap price. It's the same act as going shopping at the mall.Right now, the market is at a steal.
The KLCI is at 1,100 points down from the peak of 1,300. In another words, it is now cheap. And there is potential for the market to return to 1,300.Gold price is at US$817 now, down from the US$1,000 peak in February/March this year.Investment products are now at a steal. It's time to buy. If you don't buy now, when? When the KLCI reaches 1,300 again? When the gold price climbs to US$1,000 again?Invest for long term.
And remember, focus on the long term. Don't lose that focus. Remember that investment is for the long term. Don't get weak in the knees just because of some short term price swings. After these small waves of ups and downs, the market will ride high again. Market behaves in a cyclical way just like nature. After the night, there is the day.

CIMB Group of Funds CONVENTIONAL / SHARIAH FUNDS

Equity

Local
CIMB Islamic DALI Equity Growth Fund2 (formerly SBB Dana Al-Ihsan)

CIMB Islamic DALI Equity Theme Fund2

CIMB Islamic Enhanced Index Fund2 (formerly SBB Dana Al-Hikmah)

CIMB Islamic Equity Aggressive Fund2 (formerly Lifetime Dana Mubarak)

CIMB Islamic Small Cap Fund2 (formerly SBB Dana Al-Azam)

CIMB-Principal Equity Aggressive Fund 11 (formerly SBB Strategic Equity Fund)

CIMB-Principal Equity Aggressive Fund 31 (formerly Future Goals Fund)

CIMB-Principal Equity Fund1 (formerly SBB Premium Capital Fund)

CIMB-Principal Equity Fund 21 (formerly SBB High Growth Fund)

CIMB-Principal Equity Fund 41 (formerly SBB HGF Sequel Fund)

CIMB-Principal Equity Income Fund1 (formerly SBB Equity Income Fund)

CIMB-Principal KLCI-Linked Fund3 (formerly SBB Index-Linked Fund)

CIMB-Principal KLCI-Linked Fund 21 (formerly SBB Composite Index Fund)

CIMB-Principal Small Cap Fund1 (formerly Hidden Treasures Fund)

CIMB-Principal Small Cap Fund 21 (formerly SBB Emerging Companies Growth Fund)


Regional
Islamic Asia Pacific Equity Fund2 (formerly Asia Pacific ADIL Fund)

CIMB-Principal ASEAN Equity Fund1

CIMB-Principal Asia Infrastructure Equity Fund1

CIMB-Principal Asian Equity Fund1 (formerly SBB Asian Equity Fund)

CIMB-Principal Emerging Asia Fund1 (formerly Emerging Asia Fund)

CIMB-Principal Greater China Equity Fund1

CIMB-Principal MENA Equity Fund1

Global

CIMB Islamic Global Emerging Markets Equity Fund2

CIMB Islamic Global Equity Fund2

CIMB-Principal Climate Change Equity Fund1

CIMB-Principal Global Growth Fund1 (formerly SBB Global Growth Fund)

CIMB-Principal Global Titans Fund1 (formerly Global Titans Fund)

Hybrid
CIMB Islamic DALI Equity Fund2 (formerly SBB Dana Al-Ihsan 2)

CIMB Islamic Equity Fund2 (formerly SBB Dana Al-Ikhlas)

CIMB-Principal Equity Growth Fund1 (formerly SBB Crystal Equity Fund)

CIMB-Principal Equity Growth & Income Fund1 (formerly SBB Double Growth Fund)

Fixed Income

Local
CIMB Islamic Enhanced Sukuk Fund2 (formerly Lifetime Dana Wafiq)

CIMB Islamic Short Term Sukuk Fund2 (formerly Lifetime Dana Fayyad)

CIMB Islamic Sukuk Fund2 (formerly SBB Dana Al-Hafiz)

CIMB-Principal Bond Fund1 (formerly Lifetime Bond Fund)

CIMB-Principal Bond Fund 21 (formerly SBB Bond Fund)

CIMB-Principal Strategic Bond Fund1 (formerly Strategic Bond Fund)

CIMB-Principal Xcess Income Fund1 (formerly Xcess Income Fund)

Money Market
CIMB Islamic Money Market Fund2

CIMB-Principal Money Market Fund1 (formerly SBB Money Market Fund)

CIMB-Principal Xcess Cash Fund1 (formerly Xcess Cash Fund)

Mixed Asset

Local
CIMB Islamic Balanced Growth Fund2 (formerly Lifetime Dana Barakah)

CIMB Islamic Balanced Income Fund2 (formerly SBB Dana Al-I'tidal)

CIMB-Principal Balanced Fund1 (formerly Balanced Returns Fund)

CIMB-Principal Balanced Income Fund1 (formerly SBB Savings Fund)

CIMB-Principal Income Plus Balanced Fund1 (formerly Income Plus Fund)

Global
CIMB-Principal Global Asset Spectra Fund1 (formerly Global Asset Spectra Fund)

CIMB-Principal Global Balanced Fund1 (formerly SBB Global Balanced Fund)

Hybrid
CIMB Islamic Balanced Fund2 (formerly SBB Dana Al-Mizan)

CIMB-Principal Balanced Growth Fund1 (formerly SBB Retirement Balanced Fund)

Target-Date
CIMB Islamic Kausar Lifecycle Fund 20172

CIMB Islamic Kausar Lifecycle Fund 20222

CIMB Islamic Kausar Lifecycle Fund 20272

CIMB-Principal Lifecycle Fund 20171

CIMB-Principal Lifecycle Fund 20221

CIMB-Principal Lifecycle Fund 20271

Structured Products
CIMB Islamic Commodities Structured Fund 12

CIMB Islamic Commodities Structured Fund 22

CIMB Islamic Structured Growth Fund2

CIMB-Principal Global Income Fund1

Funds managed by:
1 - CIMB-Principal Asset Management Berhad
2 - CIMB-Principal Islamic Asset Management Sdn Bhd
3 - CIMB Wealth Advisors Berhad