How much fuel cost can electric vehicle (EV) save compared with petrol car?

Electric vehicle (EV) has been steadily trending in the automotive talk-about nowadays.

The key selling points of EV cars being:

• Environmental friendly
• Fuel cost saving
• No need to periodically change engine oil

While the "environmental friendly" argument is widely debatable, as the generation of electricity at power plant, and the production as well as the disposal of rechargeable batteries, might not be as "clean" as you think, the statements of cost-saving in fuel and engine oil are no doubt for EV cars.

Let's do some calculations on how much driving an EV car can save compared with driving a petrol car.

City driving of a typical 1.5cc~1.6cc petrol car consumes 1 litre of petrol for a journey distance around 12km. That will be 8.33 litres per 100km.

With this assumption, we can come out with the petrol car's fuel expenses on both RON 95 and RON 97 respectively.

A typical EV car will use up 16~17 kWh of battery power per 100km. During charging, there will be around 10% of energy lost. Let's take 18 kWh/100km for our calculation.

The electricity cost in the calculation above is based on the current residential rate. If you charge your EV car with charging station or using commercial/industrial electricity, you will need to work out your own calculation.

As the TNB tariff is accumulative based on electricity consumption bands, and charging of EV car is considered as additional electricity consumption to the household, we take the TNB rate at the highest consumption band. For example, if your household electricity consumption including charging of EV car falls under the band of 301~600 kWh, your EV car charging cost will be 51.6 sen/kWh.

From the 2 tables above, we can further calculate the amount of fuel savings of EV car compared with car using RON 95 petrol and RON 97 petrol respectively:

From here, we can observe that the fuel cost savings of EV car to RON 95 is not much. You can probably save around RM10~20 for each 1000km.

If you compare with those cars that pump RON 97 petrol, the savings is a little bit more, at RM80~90 for each 1000km.

Anyhow, there are still additional savings from fewer maintenance needed, and no cost for engine oil replacement.

However, there are also additional considerations on:

• Depreciation and lost of second-hand value
• Battery replacement cost when the time has come

PTPTN finally announced 2022 dividend for SSPN-i and SSPN-i Plus

After a long waiting, the Malaysia National Higher Education Fund (Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional, PTPTN) has finally announced the dividend for year 2022 for the education savings schemes SSPN (Skim Simpanan Pendidikan Nasional, consists of Simpan SSPN Prime which formerly known as SSPN-i, and Simpan SSPN Plus which formerly known as SSPN-i Plus) on 5 April 2023.

The 2022 SSPN dividend payout rate is only 3.05%, amounting to RM266.17 million. This rate is just 0.05% higher than last year disappointing dividend of 3.00%.

This 3.05% dividend has already credited into our SSPN accounts respectively on 6 April 2022.

According to PTPTN, the number of SSPN accounts opened to date is 5.73 million.

Historical SSPN-i dividend payout rate is as below:

• 2022: 3.05%
• 2021: 3.00%
• 2020: 4.00%
• 2019: 4.00%
• 2018: 4.00%
• 2017: 4.00%
• 2016: 4.00%
• 2015: 4.00%
• 2014: 4.25%
• 2013: 4.25%
• 2012: 4.25%
• 2011: 3.75%
• 2010: 3.25%
• 2009: 2.50%
• 2008: 4.00%
• 2007: 4.00%
• 2006: 4.00%
• 2005: 4.00%
• 2004: 3.00%

You can proceed to the new MyPTPTN website to check the transactions and amount of savings in your kid's SSPN account.

Beside that, the Ganjaran Kesetiaan Simpan SSPN Prime 2023 campaign is now launched and active until 30 April 2022. You can enjoy a 1% return for new money exceeding RM500 that you put into your account during the period, provided that the SSPN account you opened for your kid's education saving is before year 2020, and no withdrawal of any money from your account from 5 April 2023 onwards until 30 September 2023. Maximum amount to be given under this campaign would be RM8,000 per account.

The best aircond temperature setting for different rooms in your house

It always has been a frequently asked question for most of us to find out the optimal temperature to set for our air-conditioner, particularly the inverter type which is good in maintaining the room temperature at the degree we want, to strike a balance between cost & energy saving and our comfort level.

According to Panasonic, the industry leader in aircond manufacturing, the best aircond temperature setting is as follows:

• Bedroom: 24-25 ℃ (most comfortable temperature range for sleeping)
• Living room: 25.5 ℃ (best temperature to achieve both comfort and saving)
• Dining room: 25.5 ℃ (best temperature to achieve both comfort and saving)
• Study room: 22 ℃ (optimal temperature for your brain to focus and think)

Click here for source of information.

How much can you save from loan early settlement?

Typically, there are 2 types of loans. One is fixed interest rate type, and another is variable interest rate type.

Some examples of fixed interest rate loan are: car loan, personal loan, credit card loan, study loan, business loan, etc.

Since the interest rate is fixed throughout the loan tenure, you can calculate its total interest using the simple interest formula of P x R% x T. The total loan repayment amount will then be principal plus total interest. The installment amount will be total repayment amount divided by no. of installments.

Variable interest rate loan has its interest calculated daily (daily rest), monthly (monthly rest), or other predetermined interval period. Property loan is normally of this type.

For this type of loan, since the interest rate in the future is unpredictable, the actual interest saved from early settlement is also unpredictable until the time has reached its original repayment end date. If we fix the last interest rate before the early settlement made for the rest of the original tenure, then the interest saved can be estimated using the simple interest formula above. Just substitute P with the early settlement amount will do.

The rest of this article will focus on how much we can save from early settlement of fixed interest rate loan.

The interest saved is usually called interest rebate, and is calculated according to the rule of 78. For Islamic loans, it is calculated according to the formula of Ibra'. Basically, both formulae are identical.

As an example, let's say a 7 years loan with principal 100k, 3% interest per annum, if we fully settle it 3 years after the borrowing, how much interest rebate can we get back?

Principal = 100k

Interest = 100k x 3% x 7 = 21k

7 years total repayment = 100k + 21k = 121k

Monthly installment = 121k/84 = 1440.476, rounded up to 1440.48

Since there is a round up of 0.004 for every installment, the last installment will then be 1440.16 only.

The sequential sum of all installment no. = 1+2+3+...+82+83+84 = (84)(84+1)/2 = 3570

According to rule of 78:

Interest for installment no. 1 = 21k x 84/3570

Interest for installment no. 2 = 21k x 83/3570

Interest for installment no. 3 = 21k x 82/3570

and so on...

Putting all the above information into an Excel worksheet, we can produce the following... 

and from the table above, we can produce the following graphs for better visualization of the interest portion:

We can observe that, for earlier installments the portion of interest is higher, and this will gradually reduce over time.

Back to our question, if we make an early settlement at the 36th installment, how much interest rebate can we get?

The interest rebate will be the sum of interest portion of the 37th installment until the last 84th installment.

There is a formula to quickly calculate this interest rebate:

Interest rebate = n(n+1)/N(N+1) x I

where:

N is the overall no. of installments

n is the no. of remaining installments

I is the overall interest amount = P x R% x T

Many financial institutions require an early notice period of at least 3 months, else a penalty will be imposed based on the interest amount of the notice shortcoming installments.

Some financial institutions also charge a fee, such as processing free, or early settlement fee, for early settlement.

By including these factors, our final formula will be:

Interest rebate = (n-t)(n-t+1)/N(N+1) x I - C

where:

t is the shortcoming of notice period

C is the related charge for early settlement

Last but not least, looking at our example above, we can observe that the interest is nearly fully paid off during the last 1.5 years of the loan tenure. As such, the interest rebate available in that time range is very minimal, and you can't save much for making early settlement at the final stage of the loan tenure.

Investing in Kenanga Digital Investing (KDI)

Kenanga Digital Investing (KDI) has been around for a few months since early 2022, and I have just joint on the bandwagon last week.

KDI is a robo-advisory investment platform under Kenanga Investment Bank. It can be accessed either using web browser to its website, or via its mobile app available for Android and iOS.

FYI, this is the same Kenanga Investment Bank which has another popular investment platform called Rakuten Trade for online stock investment.

I just put in the minimum starting fund requirement of RM100 in KDI Save and RM250 in KDI Invest respectively for a trial to test its performance. I've used my friend's referral code during registration and got RM10 as a result. Therefore, my invested amount in KDI Invest has become RM250 + RM10 = RM260.

After invested for about a week, this is my portfolio performance so far. 

My KDI Save has gained RM0.08 (0.08%) from RM100, equivalent to 2.92% p.a over a period of 10 days.

My KDI Invest has gained RM2.03 (0.78%) from RM260, equivalent to 28.49% p.a. over a period of 8 days.

I would say, this investment result is pretty impressive. Hope that KDI can keep up this kind of performance for a long period of time.

Currently, KDI only has 2 investment products: KDI Save and KDI Invest.

KDI Save is similar to Opus Money Plus Fund (MPF), Touch n Go (TNG) GO+, StashAway Simple, and other money market fund (MMF). It is quite impossible to incur losses, and its return is expected to be just slightly higher than the bank's fixed deposit rate. This is a kind of investment of low risk low return.

KDI Save's return is daily calculated and daily credited into your account. Currently, for an investment amount of RM100, you can get RM0.01 per day. KDI does not incur any management fee, pretty similar to fixed deposit savings with bank.

KDI Invest is an A.I. operated ETF investment fund. It invests into ETF funds listed in the US market, which coverage is around the world.

The investment profit or loss of KDI Invest is daily updated in its returns value. Being an ETF fund, its fluctuation is pretty small.

You can decide your KDI Invest portfolio risk profile to be set as either Very Conservative, Conservative, Balanced, Growth or Aggressive Growth. That will determine the level of fluctuation of your daily profit or loss.

Invested amount of RM3,000 or less in KDI Invest is free from fund management fee. More than that, there will be a management fee of 0.3% to 0.7% per annum. On top of that, there is also an ETF transaction fee of 0.2% to 0.4%. per annum. This amount of fund charges is considered very minimal, compared with the charges of majority of the mutual funds in the market.

Both Malaysian and non-Malaysian who has bank account in Malaysia can invest with KDI. You can sign up your account in their website or via their mobile app.

If you want to get an additional RM10 in your KDI Invest account, you can sign up using this referral code: 114053

After signing up, before you can gain access to KDI and start investing, you need to wait for 1 or 2 days for the processing of your KYC verification. You will receive an email from KDI once your account application is approved.

Please remember that, in order to get your RM10 for using my referral code: 114053, you are required to transfer a minimum of RM250 from your bank account to KDI Invest within 30 days upon account creation. If your KDI Invest account is not activated with an initial investment after the expiry date, you will miss your opportunity of getting that RM10.

Which handphone can you buy with your monthly fixed income?

Handphone is a necessity nowadays.

Every now and then, new models of handphone are being introduced into the market, with price tag ranging from a few hundred ringgit to a few thousand ringgit.

From the perspective of personal finance management, one simple formula to evaluate your affordability for new handphone is that: the handphone price should not exceed your one week worth of net income for each year of usage.

Therefore:

• If you tend to change a new handphone every year, your handphone cost should not exceed 1/4 of your net income (equivalent to 1 week of net income).
• If you tend to change a new handphone every 2 years, your handphone cost should not exceed 1/2 of your net income (equivalent to 2 weeks of net income).
• If you tend to change a new handphone every 3 years, your handphone cost should not exceed 3/4 of your net income (equivalent to 3 weeks of net income).
• If you tend to change a new handphone every 4 years, your handphone cost should not exceed 1 month of your net income (equivalent to 4 weeks of net income).

If you are going to trade in your old handphone when buying a new handphone, your cost will then be the selling price of the new handphone deducted by the preloved selling price of your old handphone.

With this simple evaluation method in mind, the tables below show the maximum cost of handphone you can buy, relative to your monthly salary.

and the table below maps the handphone price range with some popular handphone models for your reference.

Assumptions and conditions:

• Net income = Salary - EPF contribution - SOCSO - EIS - income tax PCB
• Employee's portion of EPF contribution = 11%.

You might probably be interested to also read about:

• Which models of car can you afford with your monthly fixed income?
• How much housing loan can you afford with your monthly fixed income?

How much housing loan can you afford with your monthly fixed income?

Recently, we talked about which models of car can you afford with your monthly fixed income?

Now, let's apply the same method to find out how much housing loan can you afford with your monthly fixed income, for your own residence (not for investment purpose)?

Certain residence types, such as single-storey linked house, double-storey linked house, town house, semi-D, bungalow, etc. do not need to pay monthly maintenance fee and sinking funds. Even some of the gated and guarded ones involve monthly security fee, the amount is minimal compared to those that require payment of maintenance fee and sinking funds, such as apartment, condominium, SOHO, etc.

As the maintenance fee and sinking funds is a form of monthly commitment to own the property, we need to consider these 2 commitments in our calculation.

The formula is pretty simple: your monthly house loan instalment should not exceed 1/3 (one-third) of your net monthly fixed income.

As such, for properties without maintenance fee and sinking funds, your affordability will be as follow:

and for properties with maintenance fee and sinking funds, your affordability will be as follow:

Assumptions and conditions:

• Net income = Salary - EPF contribution - SOCSO - EIS - income tax PCB
• Employee's portion of EPF contribution = 11%. Although currently the employee can opt to contribute only 9% monthly to EPF, we use the normal rate at 11% for this budgeting purpose.
• Housing loan instalment upper limit = 1/3 of net income, which is the same as your car loan instalment upper limit. If you are serving both housing loan and car loan at the same time, a maximum of 2/3 of your net income will be committed to these 2 loans.
• Maintenance fee and sinking funds: normally within the range of RM300-RM400. We take RM350 for calculation here. These 2 fees will cause a deduction of RM350 in your available fund allocation, and affect your residence affordability of about RM86.5k in selling price.
• Housing loan assumption: taking 90% loan, at interest rate of 3.5%, 30 years instalment plan. Although nowadays quite a number of financing institutions are still offering housing loan interest rate of 2.x%, and provide instalment period of up to 35 years, since we are foreseeing a hike in interest rate is happening now, it is reasonable for us to take interest rate at 3.5% for our calculation. 
• Price of residence = the price of residence that you are affordable to buy for your own stay, based on the assumptions and conditions above.

You might probably be interested to also read about:

• Which models of car can you afford with your monthly fixed income?
• Which handphone can you buy with your monthly fixed income?

Which models of car can you afford with your monthly fixed income?

Have you ever made a simple evaluation on which models of car can you afford with your monthly fixed income?

Or, in other words, if you already have a car model that you want to buy, how much salary do you need to earn so that you can pay for its monthly loan instalment without too much financial stress?

I recently shared a simple evaluation result in the Little Red Book (a.k.a. Xiao Hong Shu) and have received overwhelming likes and discussions on that article.

Now, I've decided to share the same piece of information here, in English, with my fellow readers on this blog.

The formula is pretty simple: your monthly car instalment should not exceed 1/3 (one-third) of your net monthly fixed income. 33.33% should be the maximum level you can go, which is also a level that you can most probably secure a hire purchase loan from the bank without much problem. Of course, if you can lower this proportion to 25%, 20%, 15%, 10%, or even 5%, you will be even more healthy in your monthly cash flow.

With that, with can then calculate the corresponding car price. From the car price, we will know which models of car can you afford.

Here is the result:

Assumptions and conditions:

• Net income = Salary - EPF contribution - SOCSO - EIS - income tax PCB
• Employee's portion of EPF contribution = 11%. Although currently the employee can opt to contribute only 9% monthly to EPF, we use the normal rate at 11% for this budgeting purpose.
• Car loan instalment upper limit = 1/3 of net income
• Car loan assumption: taking 90% loan, at interest rate of 3.5%, 7 years instalment plan.
• Car price (the 4th column in the table) is calculated based on the assumptions and conditions above.
• Car model is the lowest specs new car model with current market price near to the car price in the 4th column. In other words, you are affordable to buy the models in the same row and also those in all the rows above it.

It is quite impossible to list out all the car models, so the more popular models are listed here. Base on the information in the tables above, you should be able to easily match with those non-listed car models as well.

Note that most financial institutions in Malaysia have a policy to only approve car loan with monthly instalment of RM500 and above. You are unlikely to get a car loan with monthly instalment that is less than RM500.

As such, it is very difficult for those with salary below RM2,000 to buy a car without a loan guarantor.

Also note that, if you are targeting the car model listed in the same row with your salary range, you are pushing your monthly cash flow to a limit. You might be more financially comfortable to target for car model that is 2 to 3 rows above your salary range in the tables above.

You might probably be interested to also read about:

• How much housing loan can you afford with your monthly fixed income?
• Which handphone can you buy with your monthly fixed income?

PERSOLKELLY Salary & Employment Outlook 2022 (Malaysia edition & Singapore edition)

Unlike the Jobstreet salary report 2022 (Malaysia Edition & Singapore Edition), which provides the insight of the current median salary figure in various popular industries, and also from the perspective of career specialization, the PERSOL Salary & Employment Outlook 2021/2022 (Malaysia edition & Singapore edition) provides a similar salary market value insight from a different angle.

PERSOLKELLY is a joint venture established in 2016 between PERSOL HOLDINGS (previously Temp Holdings) and Kelly Services. They are a prominent workforce solutions provider in the APAC region.

The PERSOL Salary & Employment Outlook report has listed down the market value range of salary by their minimum and maximum, according to the job title and job grade, coupled with the no. of years of experience.

Sample pages of the report are as follow:

Malaysia edition of the report has coverage of the following industries:

• Banking & Financial Services
• Engineering
• Finance & Accounting
• Human Resources & Administrative
• Information Technology
• Property & Construction
• Sales & Marketing
• Supply Chain & Logistics

Meanwhile, Singapore edition of the report has coverage of the following functions and industries:

• Accounting
• Customer Service
• Human Resources
• Office Support
• Procurement, Supply chain & Logistics
• Sales & Marketing
• Banking & Finance
• Engineering & Technical
• FMCG & Retail
• Healthcare & Life Sciences
• Information Technology
• Japan Desk

You can:

• Click here to download the full 42 pages PERSOLKELLY Malaysia Salary & Employment Outlook 2021/2022 report
• Click here to download the full 66 pages PERSOLKELLY Singapore Salary & Employment Outlook 2021/2022 report

Jobstreet salary report 2022 (Malaysia Edition & Singapore Edition)

Recently, Jobstreet has just released their salary report of Malaysia’s job landscape, and also of Singapore's, respectively. 

The reports aimed to provide insight of the current post-pendemic regional job market, as a reference guide for the hiring managers, HR, job seekers. as well as students planning for their tertiary education field of studies.

The information and statistics in the reports are analysed from Jobstreet own job advertising database, to come out with the median salary from various perspectives, and presented in multiple ranking by industry, by specialization, by position level, by location, etc.

From the reports, we can find out the current top 10 salaries by industry in Malaysia (figures in MYR):

and also the same in Singapore (figures in SGD):

In another perspective, we can also see the top 10 salaries by career specialization in Malaysia (figures in MYR):

and also the same in Singapore (figures in SGD):

There is also a section comparing the salary difference between SME and corporate, so that we can know how much is the salary gap between them.

The reports are pretty comprehensive and is a valuable tool for evaluating oneself whether he/she is well-paid, underpaid, or overpaid, comparing with the median salary of the peers in the job market at the same location.

You can:

• Click here to download the full 54 pages Jobstreet Salary Report 2022 (Malaysia Edition)
• Click here to download the full 56 pages Jobstreet Salary Report 2022 (Singapore Edition)

EPF declared 6.10% (conventional) / 5.65% (shariah) dividend for 2021

After an even longer waiting time than last year, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF, a.k.a. KWSP) has finally declared the dividend rate for financial year 2021.

For year 2021, the dividend declared for conventional account is 6.10% while for Shariah account is 5.65%. The dividend will be credited into members' account soon, and you can check for it by login into your EPF i-Account.

Year 2021 was the 5th year of dividend declaration for Shariah account, while dividend for conventional account has been declared annually since 1952. The dividend for Shariah account in all the years from 2017 to 2021 were lower than the dividend for conventional account of the same year.

The 6.10% dividend for EPF conventional account in 2021 is 17.31% higher than the 5.20%  dividend declared for 2020 (last year).

Calculation: (6.10-5.20)/5.20 = 0.90/5.20 = 17.31%

It is 7.96% higher than the 5.65% Shariah dividend declared for the same year.

Calculation: (6.10-5.65)/5.65 = 0.45/5.65 = 7.96%

In year 2021, there are quite a lot of people has taken out a portion of their EPF savings through i-Sinar, i-Lestari and i-Citra schemes. Hopefully, their money withdrawn from EPF had put in good use. Otherwise, it would be wiser to leave the money with EPF to enjoy the 6.10% dividend.

PTPTN announced 2021 dividend for SSPN-i and SSPN-i Plus

The Malaysia National Higher Education Fund (Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional, PTPTN) has just announced quite a disappointing dividend for year 2021 for the education savings schemes SSPN (Skim Simpanan Pendidikan Nasional, consists of Simpan SSPN Prime which formerly known as SSPN-i, and Simpan SSPN Plus which formerly known as SSPN-i Plus) on 22 February 2022.

The 2021 SSPN dividend payout rate is only 3%, amounting to RM206.25 million. This rate is the second-worst since inception, just slightly above the worst dividend in 2009 of 2.5%.

This 3% dividend will be credited into our SSPN accounts respectively on 25 February 2022.

According to PTPTN, the number of SSPN accounts opened to date is 5.24 million.

Historical SSPN-i dividend payout rate is as below:

• 2021: 3.00%
• 2020: 4.00%
• 2019: 4.00%
• 2018: 4.00%
• 2017: 4.00%
• 2016: 4.00%
• 2015: 4.00%
• 2014: 4.25%
• 2013: 4.25%
• 2012: 4.25%
• 2011: 3.75%
• 2010: 3.25%
• 2009: 2.50%
• 2008: 4.00%
• 2007: 4.00%
• 2006: 4.00%
• 2005: 4.00%
• 2004: 3.00%

You can proceed to the Online SSPN-i Statement of Account website to check the transactions and amount of savings in your kid's SSPN account.

You are also highly encouraged to read about Online paying PTPTN / SSPN-i with credit card through Boost.

Beside that, the Ganjaran Kesetiaan Simpan SSPN Prime 2022 campaign is now launched and active until 30 April 2022. You can enjoy a 1% return for new money exceeding RM500 that you put into your account during the period, provided that no withdrawal of any money from your account until 31 July 2022. Maximum amount to be given under this campaign would be RM8,000 per account.

Caltex RM5 cashback with CaltexGO pump-and-go mobile app

As you might have been aware, Caltex Malaysia has recently introduced the CaltexGO pump-and-go mobile app, available in Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Apparently, it is the same CaltexGO mobile app already in used in Caltex Singapore and Caltex Thailand for the same purpose of enabling contactless and cashless petrol refueling at their petrol station.

This is an enhancement to the existing Caltax tap, pump and go system, which you need to slot in your JOURNEY card to collect BPoints, then tap your credit card or debit card at the petrol pump terminal to refuel your vehicle.

Now, with the CaltexGO mobile app, you can bind your JOURNEY card and your credit/debit card with your user account, and you can refuel your vehicle at Caltex petrol station even without bringing those cards along with you.

CaltexGO will auto-detect the Caltex petrol station you are located at with your mobile phone GPS location detection service. You just need to enter your petrol pump terminal number into the app, then lift the petrol pump and start refueling. When you put back the pump to the terminal, your bill will be instantly generated, and you just tap a confirm button to pay for it. Your JOURNEY card loyalty points will be automatically credited too.

Currently CaltexGO in Malaysia only support VISA or Mastercard credit card or debit card. Hopefully e-wallets will be included too in the future.

As a welcome offer to encourage usage of CaltexGO mobile app, Caltex Malaysia is currently giving out RM5 cashback for petrol refueling of RM30 and above, until 31st December 2021.

Your RM5 cashback will be automatically used during your next petrol refueling of RM30 and above at Caltex station using CaltexGO. You will see it as "promotion discount" in your bill, as shown above. Your bills are paperless and stored in your app, so you can always track back your historical petrol refueling transactions in Caltex station.

This means that you will not immediately get the RM5 cashback during your first time using CaltexGO to pump petrol of RM30 and above. The next time and all subsequent times you do the same, you will get the RM5 cashback automatically, until the end of promotion period on 31st December 2021.

RM5 is equivalent to 16.67% of RM30, which is a pretty good offer, isn't it?

i-Saraan voluntary EPF contribution with retirement incentive for freelancers, social media influencers & non-salaried workers

Nowadays, apart from the traditional career roles being a businessman, entrepreneur, or employee, there are more and more people working as self-employed, or working with broker/agent on a profit-sharing basis, including but not limited to the following roles:

• Freelancer
• Coach, instructor, consultant, ...
• Online sellers
• E-commerce drop-shipper
• Commission-based sales agent (insurance, property, unit trust, MLM, ...)
• Artist, actor, singer, magician, comedian, dancer, stage performer, ...
• Photographer, videographer, composer, writer, translator, self-media, ...
• Youtuber, Instagrammer, TikToker, social media influencer, ...
• Hawker
• Farmer
• Fisherman
• Taxi/Grab driver
• Delivery man
• Nanny, babysitter
• ...

If you do not have an Employees Provident Fund (EPF, a.k.a. KWSP) account that is compulsory for all employed persons in Malaysia, you have the option to open one under the i-Saraan voluntary EPF contribution scheme.

Other than the roles above, i-Saraan is also currently opened for application to:

• Retired government servant under pension scheme
• Housewife

The benefits of having an i-Saraan account include:

• Savings for your future retirement avenue
• Receive additional government special incentive of 15% of your contribution, up to RM250 annually. This annual incentive is given to members below 55 years old, from 2018 until 2022, with the possibility to extend further.
• Earn annual EPF dividend
• Enjoy personal income tax relief up to RM4,000 for each assessment year
• Incapacitation benefit of RM5,000 for withdrawal under the reason of incapacitation
• Death (before age of 60) benefit of RM2,500

To apply for i-Saraan, you need to be a Malaysian citizen who is below 55 years of age. You can open a new i-Saraan account at your nearby EPF service counters.

There is no specific payment schedule for i-Saraan. You can contribute to your account at any time you wish. The maximum contribution per year is up to RM60,000.

Contribution can be made via online bank transfer, bank counters (Maybank, Public Bank, RHB Bank, BSN) and EPF counters.

Persons who already have an EPF account can also make EPF contribution under a separate scheme called Caruman Pilihan Sendiri (Self-Contribution).

The benefits under the self-contribution scheme are the same as this one, but it is without the 15% government additional special incentive (up to RM250 annually).

Phillip Investment Conference 2021 - Sept 11 live online (promo code for free ticket)

FYI, Phillip Capital who manages eUnittrust.com.my and Phillip Mutual Berhad, is organizing the 11th Phillip Investment Conference 2021.

The theme for this year is "Road to Investment: Turning The Corner".

Due to the current pandemic situation, the conference will be held online.

Date: Saturday 11 September 2021

Time: 9:00am to 6:00pm

Venue: LIVE Online Conference at www.phillipinvestmentconference2021.com.my

Ticket Price: RM138 (early bird price: RM108)

Use this promo code to redeem for FREE admission ticket: PCELEEUT

You can collect accreditation points with this event:

• SIDC – Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Points  
• FIMM – Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Points 
• MFPC – Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Points 
• FPAM – Continuing Education (CE) Points

 Click here to register for this event.

Free post-vaccination insurance coverage for COVID-19 by Chubb

Chubb is giving out free insurance, provided to Malaysian citizens age 18-70 years old, without any charge or payment of premium needed, for COVID-19 vaccination.

You might have already received email from AirAsia BIG Rewards regarding this initiative, as AirAsia BIG Rewards is a joint-organizer for this "Complete a Survey,  Get Free 14-Day  Post Vaccination Insurance & Be Rewarded" campaign.

This insurance covers up to 2 times of COVID-19 vaccination within Malaysia, with approved vaccine taken on or before 31 December 2022.

The insurance benefits:

• In the event of hospital confinement as a result of adverse reaction following immunisation (within 14 consecutive days from your most recent COVID-19 vaccination), a daily income of RM200 (up to a maximum of 14 days) can be claimed.
• In the event of accidental death as a result of accidental injury within 14 consecutive days after each of your vaccination, an amount of RM5,000 can be claimed.

The coverage shall start upon your successful enrolment with Chubb by submitting an online enrolment form in their website. Note that the protection period is within 14 days right after you have taken your COVID-19 vaccinations.

You can click here to get more information about this free post-vaccination insurance.

How much can you earn with Touch n Go eWallet GO+ account?

By now, you should be aware that there is a daily return earning account called GO+ inside Touch n Go (TNG) eWallet, which maintains a separate balance from the normal eWallet balance.

Unlike the normal TNG eWallet balance which has zero return, this GO+ balance enables you to earn daily return. Your balance will be seamlessly used to invest in money market fund operated by Principal Asset Management Berhad, which is a joint venture between Principal Financial Group and CIMB Group. 

Touch n Go itself is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CIMB Group, while TNG eWallet is a joint venture with Ant Financial.

You need to go through the eKYC procedure to activate the GO+ feature in TNG eWallet. If you haven't done so, and plan to activate it, you can use this referral code "7shwuw" during your GO+ activation.

You can cash in your GO+ account either directly from your bank account using FPX, or from your eWallet balance. You can cash out your GO+ money, also either directly to your bank account or to your eWallet balance. 

There is minimum and maximum daily limit for the 2 types of cash in and cash out, as should in the table below.

Your GO+ account also has a maximum balance limit of RM9,500 only. When you have reached the limit, you can no longer cash in more money to your GO+ account, but the balance inside your account will still earn daily return and continue to be added to your balance.

The daily return rate of your GO+ account is estimated to be within the range of 1.2% p.a. and 2.4% p.a. Most of the current time, it is between 1.4% p.a. and 1.5% p.a.

The return is daily rest, and the cut-off time is 4pm everyday. The daily return will be credited into your GO+ account around 1am in the next day.

So, how much return can you expect in your GO+ account? You can refer to the table below.

If your GO+ balance is below RM200, your daily return will be negligible. Therefore, it is advisable for you to maintain your GO+ balance above RM200 to have some meaningful return.

 

If your account balance is at RM9,500 and the daily return rate is at 2.4% p.a., you will earn about 62.47 sen each day.

Let's multiply the earning return by 30, you can then estimate how much you can roughly earn per month with an average daily return rate as listed in the table below.

The return amount might not be very impressive, but bear in mind that this rate is actually much better than bank savings account.

How much of your paycheck should you save, and why?

 

Photo by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash

“Save more money!” countless advertisements shout at you. “Put aside part of every paycheck!!” your parents scold. “Save as much as you can, or you’ll regret it later!” your financially savvy friends advise. 

Yeah, saving is important, but the above tips are remarkably unhelpful, aren’t they? You’re always left wondering, “How much of my paycheck should I save?” No one really seems to tell you the answer. 10%? 50%? What’s a good amount that will set you up for the future?

How much of your paycheck you put aside depends on your individual situation. There are no definite savings rules that will guarantee future financial stability, but let's go over a few guidelines that you’d be wise to follow.

How Much of Your Paycheck Should You Save?

So, the big question. When asking what percentage of your paycheck should you save, the general rule of thumb is that you should put aside 20% of each check. More is ideal, but anything is better than nothing if 20% isn’t possible for you. Try to stick to the 50/30/20 rule: 50% of your paycheck is for essential expenses, 30% is discretionary, and the remainder is for savings.

What Should You Save For?

Another big question is what kinds of things you should save for. “Savings” is pretty vague — the point is to have it in case you need to spend it, but what circumstances would require you to do so?

You should save for all sorts of expenses. Do you want to buy a new car but can’t afford one just yet? You’ll have to put a little bit aside every month until you can. However, it’s important not to drain everything you have, so you’ll need to save up enough that you’ll have a financial cushion left over.

A few other examples of expenses you should save for include:

●       Retirement;

●       Emergencies;

●       Education (for your children or yourself);

●       Vacations;

●       Transportation;

●       A home;

And other financial goals. Some of these expenses allow you to pay monthly, but you’ll need to have enough for a sizable downpayment. It may be in your best interest to have separate savings accounts, so you don’t overspend one or the other. You don’t want to be without your emergency savings because you opted for a more luxurious vacation.

What Kind of Savings Account Should You Use?

An important thing to remember is that not all savings accounts are the same. Most grow your money with interest, but some offer significantly higher rates than others.

For instance, your retirement savings should be in a traditional IRA (Individual Retirement Arrangement), a 401(k), or another kind of retirement account. Other plans exist, such as Roth IRAs and SEP plans (Simplified Employee Pension) that provide tax benefits or entail financial contributions from your employer. You want a retirement savings account that turns your regular contributions into a significantly larger sum that supports you when you stop working later in life.

Traditional savings accounts are what you are probably familiar with already. You can open these easily at any bank or credit union. The interest rates will be low, so don’t expect a small deposit to become much bigger in a few decades (maintenance fees may even cancel out any interest earnings), but they’re still safe places to store your money.

Money market accounts, however, offer higher interest rates, so you can earn more money just by depositing. They also allow you to write a limited number of checks per month and use an ATM card like a checking account. However, these kinds of accounts may charge monthly maintenance fees if you are below a certain balance, and they often require you to make substantial initial deposits.

Check out this link for other kinds of savings accounts.

How Long Will Saving Take?

How long it will take for you to reach specific savings goals depends on the size of your regular deposits (and, therefore, your income) and your annual interest rate. Depositing $200 a month into an account with an APY of .10% will get you to your goals much quicker than $50 a month with a rate of .05%. You can use this calculator to determine how long it will take you to save a certain amount of money based on your current balance and other factors.

Another complication is, well, remembering to save. An easy way is to set your online bank account to deposit part of your paycheck automatically. Another is to use financial apps that send you reminders. Earnin, for example, offers an opportunity called WeWin, where you could win major prizes simply for remembering to save a small amount of money every day.

Saving money can seem more complicated than it should be, and you’re not alone if you feel that way. If you don’t know how much of your paycheck you should save every month, start with whatever you can afford (preferably a minimum of 20%), and open your account as soon as possible if you haven’t already.

 

This article originally appeared on Earnin.

 

Please note, the material collected in this blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be relied upon as or construed as advice regarding any specific circumstances. Nor is it an endorsement of any organization or Services.