Panellists at the recent The Edge Retirement Reimagined Forum 2023 give their views on how to solve Malaysians retirement conundrum, namely low wages and savings rates.
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00:00 [Music]
00:11 I'm encouraged by the fact that the government has been talking about
00:14 pushing very, very hard on minimum wage and progressive wage, right?
00:19 So to allow the wage in the country to go up to a much more acceptable level.
00:25 But with this, I think a number of key things need to occur.
00:29 Not just that wages must go up, but productivity in the country must also go up
00:33 to facilitate the payment in that form.
00:36 So EPF is quite a strong supporter of that.
00:39 But the second, as I mentioned earlier in my presentation,
00:42 is things that we can control with an EPF.
00:44 And things that we can control with an EPF is actually the evolution of our scheme
00:48 to facilitate the expansion of the scheme to cover the informal sector.
00:53 And bringing them on board is actually very fundamental
00:56 so that we get better social protection umbrella within Malaysia.
01:00 And I'm grateful for the fact that the government is actually providing incentives
01:04 to encourage those people in the informal sector to also do their fair share.
01:08 Because ultimately, as I mentioned at the end,
01:11 I think the key about retirement is the challenge belongs to us.
01:16 We have to take ownership of this challenge and also contribute to it,
01:20 which is part of the issue that EPF actually does
01:22 by stepping up the availability of our people to facilitate that,
01:27 the improvements of our technology to facilitate people to do that,
01:30 the creation of products that make it easier for you to do top-ups,
01:33 so that you can also facilitate building that.
01:37 As an old record player, you should always start saving
01:40 instead of always start investing when you're young.
01:42 But doing that is always a challenge.
01:44 If you look at the disposable income, as we say,
01:48 and Minda Dato Sri also mentioned does now,
01:50 the issue is also on wages, how much one wants to earn,
01:54 and what is the disposable income that they have for them to save for retirement.
02:01 So, having said that, financial literacy is very important.
02:06 Now, financial literacy, you'll hear often people talking about
02:09 financial literacy should start even in primary school,
02:13 even when you're at school.
02:16 It's not just beyond financials,
02:18 it's also being able to understand how you act,
02:22 you behave, and how you treat finances.
02:25 So, saving is one, and also secondly,
02:30 how you manage your lifestyle.
02:32 So, definitely to your question,
02:34 definitely the power of compounding is necessary.
02:39 You've got to save, you've got to start doing something young.
02:43 Now, that's not only on money,
02:45 you also need to look at the other part of the ecosystem.
02:48 You also need to look at buying an insurance when you're young.
02:52 Don't wait until when you're 30 to 40 to start to look at an insurance plan.
02:56 It gets more and more expensive at that time.
02:58 Now, why is that important?
03:00 We talk about healthcare.
03:01 So, do you have enough post-retirement for healthcare?
03:03 So, all this has to start from a really early stage.
03:06 (upbeat music)
03:09 (upbeat music)