Month: June 2021

Back in December 2019, the Covid-19 outbreak was triggered in Wuhan, a city located in the Hubei province of China.

The virus continued to spread and eventually escalated into a global pandemic which devastated every single corner of the world, causing radical changes in the way we live as well as social, economic, technological, and political policies.

Amidst the economic doldrum in China, there have been interruptions in exports and imports, while global supply chains have been disrupted significantly.

With a strongly connected and integrated worldwide trading relationship, the contraction in the global supply chain led to a big drop in global economic activities.

Furthermore, governments around the world have been forced to implement harsh restrictions on human activity to curb the spread of the virus.

These travel restrictions further burdened the financial markets and led to dramatic falls in global economies.

It’s been a similar situation in Malaysia, with the implementation of various Movement Control Orders (MCO) costing millions of people their jobs across varied industries, leaving many Malaysians suffering from salary reduction, furlough, or unemployment and retrenchment.

This impact has become apparent since the outbreak and many of them have turned to alternative jobs like driving Grab cars, venturing into the food and beverage industry, online vocations, or direct selling to make ends meet.

In December 2020, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) launched a new scheme which allowed members to prematurely withdraw their EPF savings in order to aid their cash flow during the difficult economic times posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

What are i-Sinar withdrawals?

The EPF i-Sinar initiative enables EPF members to make a partial withdrawal from their savings in EPF Account 1.

This initiative was launched by the EPF for the purpose of easing the financial burden of members who’ve been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, helping them sustain their livelihood. The withdrawal amount will vary, depending on each member’s needs and of course their available balance.

Unfortunately, Malaysians are taking advantage of this opportunity to maximise their withdrawals and spending it on non-necessities.

In fact, without realising it, they’re withdrawing and spending their retirement savings nested in the provident fund!

According to a survey conducted by UCSI, among 809 people in Malaysia who have withdrawn from or planned to participate in the i-Sinar scheme, 47.2% of the respondents realised that the withdrawal will affect their retirement funds, 22.6% of the respondents were uncertain, while the remaining 30.2% of respondents didn’t realise the huge impact it would have on their retirement funds!

Returning to fundamentals, EPF serves as a social security organisation that primarily provides retirement benefits for the private sector and pensionable employees in Malaysia. Since 1951, it has proven to be a responsible and efficient custodian of its members’ retirement savings.

With the introduction of i-Sinar, this can potentially lead to a significant reduction in our retirement savings. The reason for this is that it leads to fewer dividends earned, missing out on the compounding interest in future.

If our savings are insufficient to sustain our retirement years, we may be compelled to delay our retirement further and continue to work, or may even be forced to downgrade our retirement lifestyle to one that is humbler or minimalist.

For individuals who’ve withdrawn their i-Sinar, what else they can do to manage the money beside spending it?

Well, upon fulfilling current needs, you’re highly encouraged to utilise the balance for better purposes such as investing. This is one of the instruments that’s able to grow our wealth through capital gain and appreciation in the value of an asset over time.

As with any savings fund, the benefit of putting money in EPF is the dividends and the compounding interest that you could accumulate over the years.

However, many EPF members have also opted to withdraw their i-Sinar and invest it into different investment vehicles which could offer potentially higher returns compared to EPF dividends.

Let’s use an example to illustrate this: Ms. Maria, aged 35 has withdrawn RM10,000 via the i-Sinar withdrawal facility and invested this into an investment vehicle that has the potential to generate 15% returns annually.

The table above explains how her i-Sinar withdrawal may grow from RM10,000 in the subsequent 25 years to RM329,190 thanks to higher returns and compound interest. If she doesn’t withdraw her i-Sinar and let it nest in EPF, she will only receive RM33,864 in the 25^th year!

According to the aforementioned survey conducted by the UCSI Poll Research Centre, it shows that almost half (47.7%) of T20 income group earners who were polled said they used or would use their i-Sinar withdrawal for investment purposes.

Although the hardship faced during Covid-19 pandemic didn’t affect the T20 respondents as much as the others, they still saw this as an opportunity to invest and plan better for their retirement funds!

In a nutshell, the i-Sinar withdrawal is a good initiative to ease the financial burden of Malaysians who have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, helping them sustain their livelihood.

Despite part of the population not being affected much by the pandemic, they still continue to think about withdrawing their i-Sinar for investment purposes so that it can potentially generate better returns for their retirement funds. So instead of spending it on unnecessary items, invest it if possible!

Click here to learn more about i-Sinar.

About the author

Edmond Tang Zhen Han is a certified financial planner that is passionate about helping people achieve financial literacy in order for them to reach financial freedom. He can be contacted at edmondtangzh@genexus.com.my