The Malaysian Armed Forces Fund, better known as Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) members will receive a 16 percent dividend and bonus for financial year end 31st December 2012.
The 16 percent dividend comprised of 7 percent dividend, 1 percent bonus and 8 per cent special bonus in the form of unit trusts.
LTAT manages to maintain its “stellar” record for its dividend rate. The lowest dividend rate since 1991 was 10 percent. The highest was 18.25 percent, which recorded in 1996.
Kindly browse Historical Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) Dividend Rate for previous year dividends since establishment in 1973.
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A recent YouGov poll, commissioned by Aon Hewitt, revealed that only one in five members of the British public have any idea auto-enrolment to company pension schemes is to be introduced widely in 2013. The lowest level of awareness (16%) was, worryingly, amongst campaign’s target demographic: those not already enrolled in a workplace pension scheme.
The YouGov research was followed by a later report by Scottish Widows which found 52% of its workers were also unaware of the changes to their pension plan. The figure amounts to 9.9 million people in the UK and seemingly bucks data suggesting an upwards trend in the average number of people wanting to save for retirement.
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The government has been concerned about the inadequacy of EPF savings for the retirees. The statistics show that 50% of contributors exhaust all of their EPF savings within five years of retirement and only 18% of active members aged 54 have adequate savings of at least RM173,000. To overcome this problem, Private Retirement Scheme (Scheme) was introduced in the 2012 budget in October 2011.
PRS is being administer by Private Pension Administrator (PPA). After more than a year, the government has approved 8 funds & they will be ready to accept fund soon.
The main features of PRS, is a voluntary long-term investment scheme designed to help individuals accumulate savings for retirement. It complements the mandatory contributions made to EPF and contributor will be entitled for tax relief up to RM3,000 per annum until 2021.
Below are the full description of PRS.
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International Living Magazine, which is based in Baltimore, USA recently published Living’s 2012 Retirement Index. The index ranked top 19 countries for the best retirement havens. This index is published annually.
The index is calculated based on a vast range of data points, from the average humidity to the cost of a taxi. The index is also emphasise on living cost such as the prices for real estate, rentals, and utilities like water, electricity, and cable TV. The cost of groceries, eating out, even specific medical procedures are considered too. Finally, International Living also took into account what kind of discounts retirees can get on travel, taxes and entertainment.
In 2012 index, Malaysia score really well at rank number 4 behind Ecuador, Panama & Mexico. The table below is the top 19 country according to Living’s 2012 Retirement Index.
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Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also Finance Minister, unveiled 2012 budgets at the Dewan Rakyat on Friday 7th October 2011.
The RM232.8 Billion budgets are allocated to implement all government development plans, focusing on the well-being of the rakyat. RM181.6 Billion is for operating expenditure and the remaining RM51.2 Billion is for development expenditure.
The Government’s budget deficit estimated to improve to 4.7% next year compared with the current 5.4%. On top of that, the economic growth was projected to be between 5% and 6% for 2012, with this year’s growth expected at 5% to 5.5%.
The following are Budget 2011 highlights for Personal Finance and Investment.
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