Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in his Budget 2012 speech, announced the rate increase is a move to help those with insufficient savings to bear the cost of living upon retirement.

The revised employers’ statutory contribution rate of 13% to the Employees Provident Fund for workers earning less than RM5,000 a month will take effect next month.

EPF public relations general manager Nik Affendi Jaafar said the 1% increase from the current 12% will benefit about 5.3 million working Malaysians, who make up 92% of EPF’s active members.

“The employees’ contribution rate remains at 11%,” said Nik Affendi in a press statement yesterday.

Employees who are 55 years and above and earning wages not exceeding RM5,000 will also benefit from the revised rates, as employers are now required to contribute at 6.5% – an additional 0.5% from the current 6%.

While most employees will welcome the boost in their retirement savings, employers fear that the increase will be a burden to them.

Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Shamsuddin Bardanhad said most employers may find it difficult to absorb the additional cost and that they might reduce their manpower

Most of the public only know that they can invest their Account 1 EPF to unit trust . In fact, on November 2006, the Employer Provident Fund (EPF) launched the EPF INVESTMENT SAVING SCHEME where you are eligible to withdraw funds under this scheme and invest through appointed Fund Management Institution (FMI) as an alternative to EPF.

This scheme is very suitable for those who wanted to getting more and also have a total control of their fund. Normally, Fund Management Institue (FMI) offers 2 types of service :-

Discretionary Mandate

This service will be suitable if you wish to have an investment portfolio tailored to meet your individual investment objectives, risk profile, time horizon and actively managed to reflect changing market conditions.

Advisory Mandate

You will have full control over the decision to buy and sell quality companies listed in Bursa Malaysia with the advice of your personal Fund Manager and investment tools available by the FMI and also their investment platform.

Below are the historical dividend rates (table & chart) since 1952. The ball is in your court. You can either invested in a stock market which have a potential of higher return or keep your fund in EPF.

Please bare in mind that when it comes to investment, there’s always risk involved. You may speak to your Fund Manager on how to minimize the risk while still enjoying higher returns.

The minimum amount to invest is RM 30,000. However, EPF members may build up the amount over a number of investment with the conditions that the first investment is at least RM10,000 but not more than 20% of the amount exceeding Basic Saving in Account 1 at the intervals of three months.

How much is required for my Basic Saving Account 1?

Example to be qualified

For those who interested to know more about this scheme may do so by fill up the form.

Tenancy agreement between the owner and the tenant is normally borne by the tenant. Hence, the tenant has the rights to do it by himself/herself. If you use a service from property agent on finding your house, they might ask you to use their lawyer for the agreement. The professional fees from the lawyer may burn a hole in your pocket since it also depends on the rental value. The higher the rental value, the higher the professional  fees are. There is no law requires a tenancy agreement MUST be drafted by a lawyer. However, it is always advisable to engage a lawyer to draft a tenancy agreement for the one party and on another hand, the other party should engage a lawyer to advise him/her on the agreement drafted by the other party. The reason is obvious as lawyers are legally trained, they are able to advise clients on the legal implication of certain terms (e.g. issue of sub-letting of a premises) and sometimes if necessary the lawyers may advise thier clients to conduct some preliminary search on the counter party, e.g. company search, bankruptcy search and even land search

How to prepare the tenancy agreement?
You can always download from the internet or from your friends and just change it accordingly.

How much is the cost for stamping the tenancy agreement ?

-The lease or tenancy instrument which secures annual rent not exceeding RM2,400 is EXEMPTED from duty and presentation of these instruments at a stamping office or centre is not necessary.

-The prescribed rate of duty on the instrument which secures annual rent exceeding RM2,400 is as follows:

(For every RM 250 or part thereof in excess of RM2, 400)
When the lease is for a period Duty Rate
Not exceeding one year RM1.00
Exceeding one but not exceeding three years RM2.00
Exceeding three years or for any indefinite period RM4.00

(For every RM250 or part thereof in excess of RM2,400

Example : Let say you rent a condo with a monthly rental of RM 1,200.

Total rental = RM 1,200 x 12month = 14,400 a year

Stamp Duty applies to amount exceeding 2,400, so taxable amount = RM 14,400 – RM2,400 = RM 12,000

The duty is RM 1 for every RM 250, so the stamp duty on the original copy of the agreement is RM 48 (Rm 12,000/ 250 x RM 1= RM 48). Always rounded to the nearest ringgit.

The stamp duty on the copy is RM 10, so total of RM 58.

Where should I do the stamping?
You can do the stamping at any LHDN offices.

What are the documents that I should bring?

1. Original tenancy agreement
2. Copies of tenancy agreement ( each copy is RM10)
3. PDS 1 form ( Download here )

There you go. Hopefully this will help.

Height and weight

Insurance companies always look at your height and weight to access your risk. This is by looking at your Body Mass Index (BMI). Some insurance company we know would normally declined the application if the person weight more than 100kg, others will ask you to go for the medical checkup to determine your health risk.

Occupation Class

Your occupation also play an important role when assessing your risk. Certain Occupation class will be rejected such as an Army which falls under Occupation class 4. Some insurer will imposed exclusion or loading to certain class.

Pre-existing Illness

A pre-existing condition is a health problem that existed or was treated before you applied for coverage under a new individual of family health insurance plan. Certain serious conditions, including cancer, heart-disease or insulin-dependent diabetes, may result in an automatic decline by the insurance company. However, there are a number of other common medical conditions that may not necessarily prevent applicants from obtaining individual or family coverage. If you are unsure about qualifying for health insurance because of a pre-existing condition, you should contact one of our consultants and ask. Underwriting rules differ across insurers.

For some issues, the health insurance carrier may want a certain amount of time away from a give situation before offering coverage.  A general rule of thumb is 6 months to one year for a more simple situation (simple broken bone, infection, etc).  Some issues are deemed un-insurable for which they will not offer coverage ever.  You can take a quick look at various situations below:

This is only a guide for you and please seek advice from our consultant first if you are unsure.

Najib starts saving of RM 5,000 at the age of 28 years old whereas Siti starts at 30. Assuming they both make 7% returns on their savings, at age 58 ( retirement age for Malaysian) below is the amount of money they have :-

Najib :  RM 472,303.93
Siti : RM 403,488.45

As you can see, Siti has shaved off RM 15% of returns simply because she starts her saving 2 years later than Najib. At Financiallyhappy.com, we always encourage our clients to start saving for their retirement as early as possible.

To start planning your retirement saving, please fill up the form below. Our consultant will contact you shortly to share what are the options in retirement planning. Our consultation is FREE.

As from December 2010, Malaysians will be able to start checking online to see if they, or their family or business(es), have funds to be reclaimed from the Accountant General

Now, you can actually perform an online index search to see if you have any money with the Registrar of Unclaimed Moneys . This is thanks to Unclaimed Moneys Act 1965.

The Act requires businesses, banks and other entities to check their accounts at the end of each year to identify any dormant accounts or other “unclaimed moneys” (as defined by the Act)

In due course, these funds are passed to the Accountant General’s Department (Registrar of Unclaimed Moneys) at Menara Maybank in Kuala Lumpur.

The government then safeguards the money, until such time as the rightful owner comes forward to claim. After a specific period of time, surplus funds in the government’s Federal Consolidated Fund are used for the benefit of the Malaysian public.

The Registrar of Unclaimed Moneys has more than RM 1.5 billion if unclaimed money accumulated over the years, and millions are added every year.

So people, do check at Umaca.my to find out if there is money due to you !

Stay tuned for more article sharing from us!

Every parent wants the best for their kids. In healthcare, there’s only one Medical Card that can provide this.  It’s called Medical Care Gold Plan from AXA Affin Life Insurance Berhad.

A monthly premium as low as RM 61.72 (son) or RM 55.10 (daughter), your child will enjoy the below benefits :-

1. Annual Limit of RM 200,000
2. No Lifetime Limit *
3. Room & Board of RM 300 a day
4. Affordable Premium
5. Cashless Admission to more than 88 panel hospitals
6. No Co-Insurance
7. Additional RM 5,000 Death & TPD Benefit
8. Guaranteed Renewal until age 80 years old

This medical card will ensure that your kids have the best treatment while being hospitalized. A Room & Board of RM 300 a day will definitely get your child in a single bedded room. A higher annual limit of RM 200,000 a year also will definitely ensure you peace of mind knowing that the amount is sufficient to cover all the medical cost.

With this kind of premium and higher coverage been offer, it is hard to think that parents won’t sign up this medical card for their kids. So parents, if you want the best, this is the BEST!!

If you are interested in getting this medical card, please fill up the form below. Our consultant will contact you as soon as possible.

I answered him “Saving for your retirement”. The reason is simple.  Your retirement plan is more important than your children’s education fund. It won’t make you a bad parents.  Trust me, your children can get to university or college somehow, and you will probably find a way to help them. Remember, your children can get student loan or even scholarship, but there’s no such thing as retirement loan.

After a brief explanation of financial planning and how to make best use of his money, the client then agreed to sign up on one of our “Retirement Saving Plan that I suggested”. The retirement that this client signed up also guaranteed huge sum of money for his kids even in the event that he’s no longer in this world.

To find out how you can start planning for your retirement, please do so by filling up our “contact us” form on the menu bar. Our FinanciallyHappy.Com’s consultant will get back to you as soon as possible.

Suppose you called your business tomorrow morning and said, “Hi I’ve got a really amazing opportunity that has just come up and it will take me out of the country for six months. It’s going to be difficult to keep in touch during that time. So, keep up the good work and I’ll see you when I get back.

Could you leave your business in the care of your team for six months and know it will be performing at least as well, if not better as it now?

If your answer is “no way!…the company would be bankrupt when I get back,” then you really don’t have a business….you have a job.

The definition of ActionCoach of a business is ” a commercial profitable enterprise that works without you.”

So..do you have a business or a job?