78% of Malaysians have insufficient funds for retirement

Malaysia may be one of the top five places to retire in the world, but how ready are Malaysians themselves for retirement?

Apparently, not that ready, according to reports from Bernama.

In fact, more than three quarters of Malaysians who are active contributors to the country’s savings and retirement fund, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), do not have enough funds in their accounts for retirement.

Quoting Balqais Yusoff, EPF head of strategy management department, the national news agency stated that 78% of the 6.7 million active contributors did not have the basic amount of RM196,800 (S$66,944.21) for their retirement.

The amount was set by the EPF as a savings threshold that would allow a contributor to spend RM820 a month for the next 20 years.

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"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 told Bernama.

Balqais attributed the lack of sufficient retirement funds to the low salary structure in the country.