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/c/café daily chat thread for 27 June 2023
(self.cafe)
Welcome to our virtual third place, The Café.
Come on in and make a new human connection over a cup of coffee (or Teh Tarik). This is a casual community, do whatever you want, share your oyen pics, your frustrations, and even organize a weekend picnic with the community. The world is your oyster.
Rules are simple, be kind and civil with each other. As with any other café, rude patrons will be kicked out.
I see many people saying investment linked policies are bad though... And ILPs especially have very high commission fees which throws people off. Should I be wary of these? I do plan to start my own financial investments pretty soon too 😥
Yeah I'm aware of that... But I probably start it too late either. The latest I intend to start is 5 years later, and if I seem my financial stability good enough I'll start earlier
I guess people saying ILP are scams made me really paranoid. And I realize that even ILP can't protect from rising costs and you might still have to increase the amount you pay. Most people came out saying it wasn't worth it anymore and just stopped?
They're not scams per se, it's just their dividend payouts don't really come higher than market returns. Which makes sense then if you just go straight to an index fund. But we don't have those. The closest we have are mutual funds that acts like index funds.
Investment i do believe is something you ought to decouple from insurance. And seeing your answer I just want to emphasize that because your early 30s is the absolute last best time to get a good rate on your premiums so if you need to prioritize, priority should go to insurance (you're likely not to have chronic conditions, so they can't deny you coverage for preexisting etc. You want them on the hook for having to cover your diabetes for example, not give them the opportunity to deny this + you have to pay higher premium because higher risk)
That sounds fair... I guess it's all about the ezpectations. And no I'm not you are an insurance salesman haha 😂
Investment-linked policies also have different types and they will ask what's your risk appetite and how soon do you want to see returns.
I'll say this much: with few exceptions, not a single fund can beat the market overall. Some years you'll do better, some years you'll do worse. Consider it as a way to park excess money, but if you're eligible for the Amanah Sahams, take those instead.
Eh, shouldn't I treat investments and insurance apart tho ? 😅
I'd say so, but ILPs will be a dominant part of a typical agent's sales pitch so if you don't prep you might get caught up by their catalogue. But at least you got that clear!
Thanks for the great insight by the way! The one thing that bothered me is the base plan was life insurance and TPD, which wasn't what I really wanted(I'm mainly looking for medical insurance). I guess I just need to think what I really and get a plan that I really need, then only add riders as years go on.
+1 on not shopping around for insurance every few years - your premiums do get recalculated when you switch (i.e. you can't say I got such and such rate from precious package). So if you can afford a good package go for it. If your company offers a package that's also good - but pursue your own. The company insurance thing is an American norm that got exported (make money mah) but one consequence is that it's meant to keep you tied to a company (because in the US especially the risk of having no cheap coverage is real - this is not the same for us luckily). So think of the company plan as a benefit, but not your actual insurance. If you have both, simply use the company one first so your personal premium won't be affected (because no paperwork to induce them to recalculate your risk).
With this insurance package it's a good option but it does assume even as b40 you can get online. So there's this dimension. But insurance coverage is definitely an issue (especially for a society like us that prefer to privatize a range of social protection instead of expanding the public spending here) so i can see why this is being in the regulatory sandbox (IE they're testing to see if this can be viable - it's not quite as experimental as a pilot so that's good).
Would i say this is good tho? Based on the video, it depends. A lot of the stuff they want to cover is basic stuff but most people in the market they target don't even have that.
I see... It's just that I prefer not to jump too fast into purchasing insurance and I don't want to spend too much and get over insured :( I'm still doing research on what's the best way to move on
One way to keep your head straight and not be tempted by all the riders (extra package) is to shop for the one that can give life + medical basic coverage of up to 99 years with a monthly premium you can tahan. That's it. You can always add the riders later. But if you want to consider, consider the one with the women health coverage - that's always a good rider.
Of course, the most ideal scenario is to not think about this at all because we all get universal public health coverage with decent service. But we know that's a sector that's dying of a thousand cuts (to the budget)
(And you'll always be over insured... Since it's an industry of probabilities they are counting on you not getting hit by a terrible accident. Idk if that pov helps lololol)