I believe most of you know that we are eligible to withdraw EPF or KWSP money from account II for the purpose on buying new house or reducing loan amount or monthly loan repayment. I believe this is great facility offered by EPF.
However, I am shock when I come across an article where someone claim that EPF scam us if we withdraw money from Account II for monthly housing loan repayment.
Unit trust or mutual fund is a financial vehicle through which individuals may invest their money. The idea behind unit trust is better returns through collective investing. In other words, it means pooling the investments of many investors, individuals and institutions.
Unit trust is getting popular nowdays due to potentially higher return when compare to fixed deposit or EPF saving. Furthermore, EPF is providing an option to withdraw some or your EPF saving for the purpose of investing in unit trust.
If you still wondering whether to invest in unit trust or not, you should see the reason why you should.
Recently, we looked at the possibility to withdraw part of EPF money for personal investment. EPF makes it clear that we can only invest through external fund managers appointed by the Ministry of Finance and we are not allowed to invest the money directly in Stock Market.
However, recently I received an email from my stock broker, Jupiter Securities in partneship with Amara, offering me to directly invest in stock market with EPF money. A quick check, I find out that Amara is one of the approved external fund manager. I am not sure this is legal or otherwise.
Employees Provident Fund (EPF) allows qualified members to make their own investment using a portion of their EPF savings for potentially higher returns. However, bear in mind that the risks for such investments are higher. Members are to bear these risks and EPF is not going to compensate if members suffer losses from the investment made.
Before you make any decision in investing your EPF money, please remember that EPF is oblige to give 2.5% return per annum. Make a comparison on the fund choosen past performance against EPF dividend prior to investing. View “Historical EPF Dividend Rates” for comparison purpose.
If you already made up you mind to invest then you have to follow the following guidelines,
Starting from 3rd January 2010, Employees Provident Fund (EPF) will launch 1Malaysia Retirement Saving Scheme to help self-employed financially during their retirement age. This scheme was announced last October by the Prime Minister during the tabling of the 2010 Budget.
This Retirement Saving Scheme is designed to provide individuals without a fixed monthly income with a degree of financial security in their old age. The retirement scheme will be open to self-employed individuals such as farmers, fishermen and taxi drivers to petty traders and business owners.