EPF dividend 6.35%

Alhamdulillah the news is out that EPF is paying 6.35% dividend for 2013, a record payment since GFC 2008.

But already I saw postings saying it is too low; could have been better, unit trust paying higher, bla bla. These are just noise but probably a louder noise than those congratulating EPF. Its easy to complain and simply say it can do better, and it's very typical of Malaysians to condemn everything without doing proper research.

To me the math is simple and just by looking at government bond yields alone you can already guess the result. Of course it can be better if everything is invested in KLCI since it rose 10% last year. But be prepared to see dividend fall significantly if we go through another GFC again. If you think unit trusts are doing better, well, I have never seen their dividend rise in line with KLCI when we saw rallies in 2006/7 despite putting their entire investments in equities. So they are not entirely great either. Even ASB has a fixed cap on each individual as market liquidity is limited. Some GLICs calculate their 15-20% dividends on book value, not on asset value. Is that correct? Unlike some other GLICs, EPF publishes its annual report. Just do your research.

If EPF dividend is so bad, why do those having more than RM1m in their account continue to leave their money there? These individuals are professionals and highly entrepreneurial, so they should know better than to leave their money in EPF. Nobody is stopping them from taking their excess money out.

Those who complained too much should get finance education first before making such remark. But the saddest part is that even the educated ones complain the most. So I don't think its anything to do with intelligence. I think people are either getting greedier and expect the world to themselves; or just simply want to see the negative side of things, even when they know it is not. They just don't have any respect for others and not grateful with what they already have.

Anyway, I plan to make some withdrawals to reduce my debt so I can't wait to stand in line tomorrow. Well done EPF.