Here’s what we know about the future: a lot of Malaysians will struggle to survive after retirement.
According to statistics released by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), only 1.47 million people out of 6.7 million active EPF contributors (that’s 22%) aged 54 years have sufficient savings to sustain themselves during retirement.
The remaining 78% of the contributors, said EPF Head of Strategy Management Department Balqais Yusoff, did not meet the minimum requirement of RM196,800 to live comfortably after retirement.
In fact, to make matters worse, Balqais said 65% of the total active contributors had less than RM50,000 in their savings.
“Based on our definition of basic savings where retirees will need at least RM820 a month in their retirement years, those who have RM50,000 in EPF can go only for five years before their savings run out,” she told Bernama.
“That is if they live at RM820 a month. And we know that RM820 is not enough, that amount is probably sufficient for grocery shopping only and that’s the reality today,” she added.
However, the contributors are not to be blamed for the lack of savings, said Balqais. The low salary structure in the country was the main culprit as 89% of the working population earn less than RM5,000 a month.
