SALARIED private sector workers' desperate fallback on their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) contributions during the pandemic-induced depression is a paradoxical boon and a bane.
In recognising the despondency, the government permitted a one-time maximum RM10,000 extraction, even if the EPF relief — while triggering major misgivings — was ephemeral because the pandemic mercilessly eviscerated jobs, savings and businesses.
Now, there is a new concerted demand for a second round of EPF withdrawals, this time to the tune of RM30,000, because the pandemic's assault on personal financial wellbeing is still reverberating. The salaried can't be blamed: in the short term, sanity-preserving priorities are to settle deferred and delayed (again) payments of mandatory utilities and amenities.
It didn't help that not settling the monthly debt was a debilitating, if not psychological, pressure: people madly scrape for whatever funds, thus the boon in digging deep into EPF dues. The bane, of course, is that financial futures suffer a substantial hit, not just in monthly dues because of lost jobs and businesses, but also in annual dividends. Thus the paradox.
In troubling times, misgivings of premature EPF withdrawals ruining retirement age savings are duly noted and understood. That's just it: EPF contributors can't imagine the magnitude of faraway retirement — yet — when financial problems hit them hard now from all angles. All they see is the dire need for instant relief. The EPF-envisioned future is gloomy: only RM42 can be spent every month for 20 years after retirement for 6.1 million contributors aged below 55 (48 per cent of fund members) with savings of less than RM10,000. But do contributors care? No need to remind them on the old plug that saving for a rainy day is still an ageless truism.
So, what to do in the meantime while the going is tough? How do workers crossing into retirement prevent getting undone by the inflationary economy? And soon, the global recession, too. The short answer, it would seem, is simple: abandon the timeless concept of retirement at 60, even if the law mandates it. Time to find a replacement job that fits your time, passion and competency, even if your bones are cracking and the health is failing. The new philosophy is, no such thing as retirement. You work until the day you die, if that's even possible. "Retired but still working" will be the abiding new rule, an uneasy but pragmatic aesthetic.
As for the future, work it out with what you have, not what you think you're going to have decades from now because work will be permanent and perpetual. As for the nest egg conundrum, comes this clichéd but sobering maxim: you'll cross the bridge — if and when you reach it.