Second row, from left: Willy Cheah, Serena Lim, Lee, Dr Sia, Husaini, Karen Tan, Dr Siti Nurhidayah and Dr Aik
Six teams, consisting of Faculty of Accountancy and Management (FAM) students, participated in the Case Study Presentation Competition on Retirement Planning on 12 April 2019 at UTAR Sungai Long Campus. The competition was organised by UTAR Centre for Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility in Business (CSDCSR) and FAM in collaboration with Private Pension Administrator Malaysia (PPA). The six chosen teams were shortlisted from 18 teams previously.
Themed ‘Financial Freedom through Investing— Let’s Begin Young’, the competition aimed to instil and develop financial literacy and interest of investment among the students. It also aimed to enlighten the participants on the importance of personal financial planning, the different stages of the life cycle, unit trust performance measures and future retirement planning.
Invited to the competition were CEO of PPA Husaini Hussin, PPA Head of Marketing and Communication Serena Lim, Public Mutual Berhad Senior General Manager of Retail Business Division Lee Kean Gie, Financial Planning and Institutional Support Department (FPIS) Manager Karen Tan, Deputy Manager Willy Cheah, UTAR FAM Dean Dr Sia Bee Chuan, Head of Department of Accountancy Shamini Kandasamy, Organising Chairperson Dr Tan Kok Eng, Department of Accountancy lecturers Dr Aik Nai Chiek, Dr Siti Nurhidayah Mohd Roslen and students.
Dr Sia sharing the importance of investment
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Dr Sia shared the importance of investing, “In today’s world, earning money alone is not enough. That may not be adequate for us to lead a comfortable lifestyle or fulfil our dreams and goals. We have to make our money work hard for us. This is why you need to invest. Money lying idle in our bank account is an opportunity lost. We should invest smartly to get good returns out of it. Most investment platforms such as stocks, bonds and mutual funds offer good returns on investment over the long run. This return builds and creates our wealth over time. The growth of money is also important to fulfil basic needs in life and investing can help a person to meet long-term life goals easily.”
The competition then began with the first three groups presenting in the first session, followed by the second session for the last three groups after the talk presented by Willy Cheah. Each team consisted of three to four members. Each team was given seven minutes to present their case study for retirement planning and three minutes for a Q&A session. The judges were Husaini, Karen Tan, Dr Aik and Dr Siti Nurhidayah.
Willy Cheah is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) under the Financial Planning Association of Malaysia (FPAM) with almost a decade of experience in the financial services industry. During the talk, he shared with the participants on retirement planning and how different generation sees retirement, “Based on a survey conducted, most of the people are not prepared and some have not even given a thought about retirement. Nowadays, we see people hashtagging YOLO (You Only Live Once) and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) on their social media. This could actually lead to poor financial planning as most of the decisions are made recklessly. Retirement simply tells us that every day is a Saturday and Sunday. When people choose to have more Saturdays and Sundays, they need to make sure they have enough funds to enjoy all the Saturdays and Sundays.”
Willy Cheah sharing the advantages of having Public Mutual for PRS
He added, “One of the advantages of having Public Mutual for Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) investment is the addition of Personal Accident Coverage. Another added feature is it is creditor proof. If a person goes bankrupt, the people that he or she owes the money to will not be allowed to touch the money in the PRS. Besides, we have to make sure our investment is diversified through asset classes, geographical and also market capitalisation so that the risk is actually spread out. Also, we must practice Ringgit Cost Averaging (RCA). Take advantage of the RCA so that we do not need to time the market and our money will continue to grow.” Meanwhile, he also encouraged the students to participate in the Young Graduate Entrepreneur Programme (Y-GEP), which is designed for Malaysian undergraduate students for both public and private institutions.
The top six teams received a certificate of achievement and five USSDC soft-skill points under Communication & Language component. In addition, the champion of the competition walked away with RM500 each in the form of PRS, while the first and second runner-ups walked away with RM300 and RM200 each, respectively, also in the form of PRS.
Karen Tan (eighth from left), Husaini, Dr Sia, Willy Cheah (back row, from right) and Lee with the winners
The result of the competition is as follows:
Champion
Members:
1. Lai Shu Ting
2. Lim Ke Xin
3. Liew Ka Wen
4. Saw Xue Min
First Runner-up
Members:
1. Chee Ke Xin
2. Karen Maria Susai
3. Pang Ching Vhen
Second Runner-up
Members:
1. Lee Jiar Ming
2. Liew Swam Yee
3. Ng Kah Yan
4. Yap Li Foong
Accounting students Lai Shu Ting, Lim Ke Xin, Liew Ka Wen and Saw Xue Min, the Champion of Case Study Presentation Competition on Retirement Planning, said, “We were surprised when they announced the winner because we did not expect it. We spent roughly one semester to complete this assignment. While completing this assignment, we learnt a lot about retirement schemes and provider funds which really helped us to know more about investment and prepared us for our future retirement plan. It is very important to have early retirement planning because it is easier to save when you’re still young. We would like to thank Public Mutual for their kind sponsors and our lecturer Dr Tan who encouraged us to participate in this competition. We did it!”
All the prizes in PRS units were sponsored by Public Mutual Berhad.
Dr Sia (right) presenting the token of appreciation to (clockwise, from left) Husaini, Karen Tan, Dr Aik, Dr Siti Nurhidayah, Lee and Willy Cheah
Dr Sia (second from right) presenting the certificate of achievement to the top six teams while Dr Tan (most right) looks on
For the past activities between UTAR and PPA:
MoU with PPA to promote retirement planning
Risks and Operations Management Seminar
Raising awareness on retirement savings
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