The Sun: Do Homework Before Investing with EPF Money

In this article, Ian states that EPF is a very solid fund that your money is safe in and the returns so far have been good, proven by the recent 6.10% dividend announcement. He cautions that withdrawing EPF money to invest is essentially transferring money from your left pocket to your right pocket, often with fees being deducted in the process. He recommends investing from personal cashflow rather than using EPF unless you have a savings of hundreds of thousands in EPF. 

For those interested in unit trust investments, Ian advises to start as early as possible in their career and to look at factors other than just the minimum investment amount so that they invest in a good fund. Ian emphasises that unit trusts are a relatively passive method of investment that is not meant to be a frequent buy and sell type; investors should buy and hold as long as they maintain confidence in the fund house and management. 

Investors must first research and understand the structure of unit trusts, also known as mutual funds. Then, they should have in mind a general strategy of what regions or countries and industries they want to invest in. Fund evaluations can be made using the fund fact sheets, prospectus or other relevant documents which are easily accessible on the fund house’s website. Ian highly recommends considering different funds from different fund houses and further states that Malaysians have hundreds of funds to choose from, therefore investors need to choose wisely.

This article can be found online here.