Saving for retirement

Yesterday, I attended a briefing on PRS (Private Retirement Scheme). Basically, it is unit trust investment for your retirement to supplement your EPF savings. It is new in Malaysia as it was just launched very recently and CIMB Principal is one of the eight providers available. In terms of risk return reward, it behaves more like a trust fund where your principal is not protected. But it is quite like EPF, where you can't withdraw from your account 1 (70% of your invesment) before retirement. You can withdraw from your account 2 but you will have to pay 8% tax penalty since you get RM3K tax relief from your annual contribution. That was not what I wanted to write about though so for more info, feel free to visit their website yourself http://www.cimb-principal.com.my/prs/

What I wanted to write actually was about saving for retirement in general. During the briefing introduction yesterday, the lady made a simple calculation of savings you need before you retire. Say you need RM3K per month after retirement for 25 years, assuming you live 25 years after retiring, you will need RM3K x 12 months x 25 years = RM 900K. Let's round it up to RM 1 mio. Sounds quite a lot. It sounds impossible to achieve but actually you can do that using ASB loan alone. Assuming you take a 200K loan, pay it consistently on a monthly basis, WITHOUT taking out the dividend and principal, receive on average of 8% annual return, you will get around 1.4mio after 25 years.

I am not working in PNB, I don't have a KPI to sell ASB loan or get commission from posting this. This is purely for sharing. So for bumiputera out there who hasn't taken advantage of this privilege, you better do so. The sooner the better. Money is never enough but having more money is always better, right. Whether I would invest in PRS? Maybe I will. I think it's time for me to start diversifying my savings.

Hari Raya Haji 2012 family trip

This is one belated post. Last raya haji, my parents-in-law suggested we go back to Penang since Friday was a public holiday. My mom was thinking of going back to Perlis so I combined these two plans together and brought my mom along to Penang and dropped her off in Perlis before we came back to KL.

That raya morning, hubby and I didn't wake up for raya prayers. When we woke up, everyone was downstairs having breakfast. After salam raya with the family, we quickly packed and made our move. The rest went straight to Penang. Hubby and I stopped by Bangi and then KL to pick mummy up. We only started our journey from KL nearly 3pm because Tricia vomitted just before we reached my mom's place. We arrived at Gurney Resort Hotel and Residence around 6.30pm and I would say I like it. The room and the bathroom in the master bedroom were really spacious. We freshen up for awhile and then we walked the long stretch to the other end of Gurney Drive to the hawkers area. Had pasembor and sotong bakar. Feeling very "Penang". Haha.

The next morning, after breakfast, we hang out at the swimming pool. I could see the whole family having so much fun. Even the fathers went on the kids slide again and again on the pretense of carrying a child, to the extend of "borrowing" a child! LOL. I bought a new muslimah swimwear, aprroved by hubby and went swimming a few laps. It felt really REALLY refreshing and GoOoOoOoddddd. I missed swimming.

 

Around 3pm, we went back to kampung Penang and had more food. Stayed for a few hours, went for a motorbike ride (Tricia's first!), talked to relatives and neighbours and then went for steamboat dinner before going back to the hotel. Hubby, Tricia and I went back out to Hard Rock Hotel. After buying a T-shirt from Hard Rock Cafe, hubby had to take us back because both of Tricia and I were sleeping already. Haha. Pity him.

The next morning, after breakfast, I had some alone time (with Tricia) in the bathtub and then, we started our journey back to Perlis. Hubby, kempunan sgt pulut Danok, went to the border, without passport and bought RM98 worth of puluts! We rested for a bit in Perlis and started our journey back around 7.30pm. We reached Penang around 10.00pm and because of the public holiday jam, hubby and abg mi decided to wait hoping that the traffic would ease. We started our journey again around 12am and reached KL around 6am! I slept all the way, thanks to my superhero hubby for driving, reached Nilai around 6.30am and straight away went to work after a quick shower. Did I regret not taking leave that Monday? Well, not really. It was such an adventure. I only pity my husband, who had no choice but to brave through the traffic so that I got home on time for work. All-in-all, it was such good family holiday... much needed quality family time.

Waiting for me

Last night, hubby wanted to go back to Bangi to do some work. I wanted to go back to Bangi to do some cleaning. Since hubby didn't mind sending Tricia back to Nilai in the morning, we decided that I would go straight back and hubby would pick up Tricia from Nilai. When hubby was ready to move with Tricia, she kept asking "mama? mama?". Hubby told her that we will see mama in Bangi but I guess he wasn't convincing enough because the further he drove, the louder she cried calling out for me. "Mamamamamama". She must have thought that hubby left me and I wouldn't be able to find her later. Sweet sgt okay.... Terharu!!!