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Victor Liew is Managing Director of a Wealth Advisory agency attached to Manulife Investment Management Bhd. We always place the client’s interests first.

Guiding Malaysia’s professionals through the Shadow Inflation era — to protect wealth that truly lasts | Wealth Beyond Illusions™ | Strategy - Clarity - Freedom Wealth advisory is the business of advising and recommending solutions for protecting an individual’s family and their assets, and to start investing for growth and planning for the future. As our client, your wealth solutions are tailored for your unique situation. There’s no one size fits all here. Part of being an Affluent Link is helping others build a career. Would you be interested in a wealth advisory career? For new graduates and anyone in between jobs and searching for business opportunities, sales in financial solutions can either be the highest paying hard work or the lowest paying easy work. This needs repeating. Highest paying hard work or lowest paying easy work. And just as important, do you want to make a powerful positive difference in people’s lives? To be in this career for the right reasons means at the end of your working day you will feel happy in educating someone or a family take the step to do the right thing with their money. We can’t stress enough the importance. You’ve helped someone make the smart decision to protect their family and assets and to start planning and investing for their future. And there’s more. With our Centre for Success, you will have a career path. You are mentored to start your own business. How cool is that? So what do you have to do to achieve all this? Message us. Bring along the right attitude for work. The right attitude to help others. We will be there for you.

20/10/2026

THE COMPANY CAN CANCEL YOUR DIVIDEND. YOUR SUPERMARKET CAN’T CANCEL YOUR BILL.

Imagine retiring with RM3 million invested in shares and funds that you expect to provide your monthly income. You’ve all the right moves. Calculated the dividends, worked out your household expenses and convinced yourself the numbers are comfortable. Then one of your investments announces that the dividend you were expecting will no longer be paid.

This is next part is crazy.

Zetrix AI the darling of many institutions announced Monday it was withdrawing a dividend declared just two months earlier. The company cited unexpected operating expenses and the need to preserve working capital.

Cancelling the dividend saves approximately RM19.7 million. Unfortunately, the company is facing much larger financial pressures, including RM314 million owed to JPJ and a potential RM2.16 billion sukuk repayment obligation.

Its share price also collapsed by more than 90% since late August.

Now, Zetrix is an extreme example. Most dividend-paying companies aren’t facing these circumstances, and suspending a dividend doesn’t necessarily mean a business is failing.

But there’s a real lesson here if you’re approaching retirement.

During your working years, a missed dividend is disappointing. You still have your salary, and perhaps another 10 or 15 years to recover from an investment setback.

Retirement changes the equation.

Your electricity bill doesn’t disappear because a company suspends its dividend. Neither does your medical insurance premium, grocery bill or the money you regularly give your children.

And unlike your former employer, the companies you invest in have no obligation to pay you a monthly salary.

This is why I distinguish between owning investments that pay dividends and having a properly constructed retirement income plan.

A portfolio yielding 5% on RM3 million suggests RM150,000 annually, or RM12,500 a month. But that calculation assumes the distributions continue, the underlying capital remains adequate and you can tolerate the inevitable interruptions.

Those are big guesses.

Even funds offering regular monthly distributions require scrutiny. Where does the money come from? Investment income, realised gains or your own capital being returned?

A dependable retirement strategy needs more than an attractive yield. It needs sufficient reserves, diversified sources of cash flow and a plan for periods when investments disappoint

After spending 30 years accumulating wealth, the last thing you want is to discover that your retirement salary was built on assumptions nobody bothered to test

Before retiring, ask yourself this.

If 30% of your expected investment income disappeared for 12 months, would your lifestyle survive?

If you’re approaching retirement, planning on relying on dividends or investment distributions for salary replacement, do check the sustainability of the income. That’s one of the first things I review when assessing a retirement portfolio

17/10/2026

YOUR RETIREMENT PLAN MAY BE FACING TWO PROBLEMS AT ONCE.

RM3 million sounds like a comfortable retirement fund. Until your expenses keep rising while your investments occasionally fall 15% or 20%. The tough question is whether your money can withstand both happening together.

You’ve spent 30 years building your retirement savings, believing fixed deposits, bonds and investment funds would provide financial security. Then inflation starts climbing again, interest rates threaten to rise, and investments you considered reasonably safe begin behaving differently.

Bank Negara Malaysia has indicated room to raise interest rates if inflation intensifies. Bloomberg reportedly puts the probability of an increase within six months at 76%.

Technology shares meanwhile have fallen sharply across Asia, with South Korea’s Kospi dropping almost 8% and Japan’s Nikkei losing 5% on Thursday.

These developments aren't entirely unrelated. Here's why.

Persistent inflation can keep interest rates higher, increasing financing costs and pressuring equity valuations. Rising yields can also reduce the market value of existing fixed-rate bonds.

For someone still earning a salary, falling markets may present buying opportunities. But if you're 60, retired and withdrawing RM15,000 monthly, the arithmetic becomes less forgiving.

You may be forced to sell investments precisely when their prices have fallen.

Consider a Malaysian couple retiring with RM3 million and spending RM12,000 monthly.

At 3% inflation, their annual expenses rise from RM144,000 to approximately RM194,000 after ten years. Their investments must support that higher spending regardless of market conditions.

And that's assuming their personal inflation is only 3%. That's optimistic. You know there's shadow inflation.

Medical insurance, healthcare, home maintenance and supporting elderly parents can increase much faster than the official inflation index. That's your shadow inflation.

Now imagine your portfolio falling 15% during the first few years of retirement while withdrawals continue.

The problem isn't necessarily poor investments.

It's a retirement plan built around average returns rather than the actual sequence in which those returns arrive - this is key.

This is why I spend more time examining how a client's wealth will fund retirement than predicting which investment fund might perform best next year.

A RM3 million portfolio tells me how much money you have. It doesn't tell me whether that money can sustain your lifestyle through inflation, market declines and another 25 years of retirement.

Before your final payslip arrives, I would rather examine what happens to your retirement income when markets fall than discover the answer afterwards.

If you're approaching retirement with RM2 million or more in investments, I can help assess whether your portfolio is structured to support withdrawals through difficult market conditions.

16/10/2026

YOUR BONDS MAY SEEM SAFE. YOUR RETIREMENT MAY NOT BE.

The most dangerous investment in retirement is not necessarily the one that fluctuates the most. Sometimes it is the one you believed could not fluctuate at all.

Bank of America has reportedly accumulated more than US$109 billion in unrealised losses on its bond portfolio. Not because the US government defaulted or the bank bought speculative investments. Much of the damage came from something far more ordinary: rising interest rates.

If you are approaching retirement, this deserves your attention.

For years, bonds have been regarded as the conservative part of an investment portfolio. They provide interest income, diversification and generally less volatility than equities. But many investors confuse relatively predictable income with predictable capital value.

They are not the same thing.

When interest rates rise, existing bonds paying lower coupons become less attractive. Their market prices fall, with longer-duration bonds generally suffering greater declines.

BoA's losses are unrealised. That's because a solvent issuer may still repay the bond's principal at maturity.

But retirement introduces a complication that a large institution may be better equipped to manage.

You need money to live on.

Your monthly expenses do not disappear because bond markets are depressed. Neither do medical bills, insurance premiums or requests for financial help from your children.

Suppose you retire with RM3 million invested and need RM10,000 monthly to maintain your lifestyle. You believe the conservative portion of your portfolio will provide stability.

Then that portion falls 15%, just when you need to withdraw money.

You might recover the paper loss. But Murphy's Law has an unpleasant habit of appearing when least welcome. If you must sell investments to pay your bills, part of that temporary loss becomes permanent.

That's why I spend more time discussing withdrawal strategies with retirees than predicting which investment will perform best next year.

Your retirement portfolio needs accessible money for immediate expenses, investments capable of supporting sustainable withdrawals, and enough long-term growth to counter inflation. No single investment performs all these jobs perfectly.

Bonds remain useful. So do equities, deposits and appropriately selected investment funds. What matters is whether they work together to support your lifestyle through difficult markets.

If you are approaching retirement with RM2 min, RM3 mln or RM5 m'n, I'd ask you something more useful than whether your investments are safe.

How long can you fund your retirement without being forced to sell investments at the wrong time?

Before your final payslip arrives, stress-test your portfolio against a 15% market decline, rising living costs and five years of disappointing returns.

If your retirement plan can't explain how you will continue paying yourself under those conditions, there's work to be done.

08/10/2026

YOUR RETIREMENT SHOULDN’T DEPEND ON PICKING THE NEXT TAIWAN

Malaysia’s economy is growing. The KLCI is down. Taiwan is flying. If you’re retiring soon, which market should you bet your retirement on?

Answer: ideally, none of them.

Twenty years ago, when your salary was still arriving every month, getting an investment call wrong was uncomfortable. At 60, when the portfolio may soon have to replace that salary, the consequences are different.

You don’t merely have investment risk anymore. You have withdrawal risk.

Imagine retiring with RM5 million but keeping most of your financial wealth concentrated in the country where you live, own your home, earn your final salary and eventually spend your retirement.

Then Malaysia has a bad few years.

Your income, property, currency and investments can all feel the same pressure at roughly the same time.

The answer isn’t to abandon Malaysia and chase Taiwan because Taiwan happens to be winning today. That merely replaces home bias with performance chasing.

A retirement portfolio needs a different design.

Some money needs to be available when markets misbehave.

Some needs to produce the cashflow replacing your salary.

And some needs exposure to businesses and economies beyond Malaysia so your purchasing power isn’t dependent on one country’s fortunes.

You don’t know whether the next decade belongs to America, Taiwan, China, India, Europe or somewhere nobody is talking about yet.

Neither do I.

That’s precisely why I wouldn’t build your retirement around having to get that prediction right.

The objective isn’t to own this year’s winning market.

It’s to build a portfolio capable of paying you through many different ones.

If you’re within five years of retirement, one question worth asking is: “How much of my future retirement income ultimately depends on Malaysia doing well?” I run this as part of my Retirement Wealth Audit.

28/09/2026

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗥𝗠𝟱𝗺 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱.

It doesn’t know your salary stopped last month. It doesn’t know you still need RM15,000 for groceries, insurance, travel, family and everything else that made up your life before retirement. And it certainly isn’t going to send RM15,000 into your bank account on the 25th.

This is where retirement planning becomes very different from wealth accumulation.

You can own a RM5m home, have RM1m in EPF, another RM500,000 sitting in deposits and proudly say, “I’m worth RM6.5m.”

You are.

But that’s only part of the story. I would still want to know something else before telling you that you can retire:

How much can those assets actually pay you?

Your home may be extremely valuable while doing its job perfectly: giving you somewhere to live. Your EPF has another job. Your investments may have another. Cash sitting in the bank gives you flexibility, but too much of it can quietly lose purchasing power.

None of these assets is necessarily wrong.

The problem starts when a person spends 30 years building a balance sheet and assumes the balance sheet will automatically replace the salary that disappears at retirement.

It won’t.

There’s lots of similarities with your life and running a company. Both live and die with - cash flow.

Suppose your lifestyle requires RM15,000 a month. That is RM180,000 in the first year alone — before considering inflation, healthcare, longevity or an ugly market at exactly the wrong time.

Suddenly “I have RM6.5m” is not the most useful answer.

I want to know where the RM180,000 comes from next year. And the year after that. And what happens when RM180,000 eventually becomes RM240,000 because of inflation and what nots.

That is the transition from wealth accumulation to Salary Replacement Planning.

Your net worth tells me what you own.

Your Retirement Salary tells me whether what you own can fund the life you want.

Before you retire, ask yourself one uncomfortable question:

How much of your wealth is actually paying you?

This is deliberately 𝗻𝗼𝘁 another Liquidity/Income/Growth explainer. It establishes the larger category first: 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘆.

If you know what you own but don’t know what monthly Retirement Salary it can support, that is the calculation I would do before deciding you are ready to retire.

25/09/2026

YOU CAN AVOID EQUITIES AND STILL LOSE MONEY.

One of the most dangerous retirement assumptions is that you can remove investment risk simply by moving your money into “safer” assets. It's a "cover-my-ass" move that financial advisers and unit trust companies use to sell products to so-called risk averse clients while feeling good about it. We witnessed this backfiring during the Covid lockdown. Many bond funds never recovered from the sharp price collapse of this black swan event. Conversely, the so called "riskier" equity funds recovered and thrived.

Bonds feel conservative. Fixed income sounds reassuring. And after 30 years of working, avoiding large market swings feels perfectly sensible.

Except the bond market has just delivered an uncomfortable reminder.

US 30-year Treasury yields have climbed to their highest level since 2004 as inflation concerns, higher oil prices and government borrowing push yields upwards.

When bond yields rise, existing bond prices can fall. The longer the duration, the more painful that adjustment can become.

None of this means bonds are bad investments.

It simply means “safe” needs a better definition.

If you are approaching retirement, your portfolio isn’t solving one risk anymore. It is solving several at the same time.

Ultimately risk isn't volatility. Risk is just how long you don't need to access the money.

Nearly everyone needs enough liquidity so a market decline doesn’t force you to sell assets at the wrong time. You need income because your salary is disappearing. And you still need part of your wealth growing because retirement could last another 25 or 30 years.

Push too much money towards bonds "safety" and inflation becomes the problem.

Push too much towards growth and volatility becomes the problem.

Lock too much away and liquidity becomes the problem.

Retirement investing isn’t about eliminating risk. You can’t.

It is about deciding which risks you can afford to carry — and assigning your money accordingly. This is where your adviser comes in. Crafting the optimal balance based on information you provide.

Before asking, “What’s the safest investment?”

I would ask a different question:

“What job does this money need to do?”

That question usually leads to a much better retirement portfolio.

If you’re within five years of retirement, don’t start by asking which investment gives the best return. Start by working out which part of your wealth must provide liquidity, which part must replace your salary, and which part still needs to grow.

24/09/2026

A GOOD ECONOMY WON’T PAY YOUR RETIREMENT BILLS

Malaysia’s economy is expected to grow 4.9% this year. Good news. But if you’re approaching retirement, don’t confuse a stronger economy with a safer retirement. They answer two completely different questions.

While the ADB upgraded Malaysia’s growth outlook it warned that El Niño could keep food and energy prices elevated. At the same time, this week’s unsubsidised fuel prices rose again.

And there is another number worth remembering: by 2040, one in six Malaysians will be 60 or older.

Now put those three things together.

You may retire into a reasonably healthy economy, live considerably longer than your parents expected to, and still discover that maintaining your lifestyle costs far more than your retirement spreadsheet assumed.

This is why I think too much retirement planning starts with the wrong number.

We ask:

“How much am I worth?”

Perhaps RM3 million. RM5 million. RM10 million.

I would rather know:

How much of it is liquid?

How much produces dependable income?

How much can continue growing for another 20 or 30 years?

And how much is sitting in a house that may be valuable but cannot pay next month’s grocery, insurance or medical bill without first being sold?

Retirement changes the job of money.

During your career, your salary pays the bills while your assets accumulate.

After retirement, the salary disappears. Your assets now have to do both jobs: fund today’s lifestyle and protect tomorrow’s purchasing power.

GDP cannot do that for you.

Neither can a large number under “net worth”.

Your retirement portfolio eventually has to answer a much less glamorous question:

Where is next month’s salary coming from?

If you’re within five years of retirement, I would stop asking only “How much have I accumulated?” and start calculating how much monthly income those assets can realistically produce. That’s the conversation I have with pre-retirement clients before we start talking about investments.

21/09/2026

YOUR LAST SALARY INCREMENT

Your last salary could be the last pay rise anybody ever gives you. Retirement doesn’t come with HR, annual increments or a promotion. From that point onwards, your assets inherit the job.

Malaysia’s median monthly wage rose 5.3% last year. If you’re approaching retirement on RM15,000, RM25,000 or RM40,000 a month, the national median probably doesn’t mean very much to you. But there is something buried in that number that should.

Your salary can increase.

Your retirement salary doesn’t automatically do the same.

For most of your working life, somebody else has been running your income machine. Every month payroll deposits money into your bank account. Over the years there may be increments, promotions and bonuses.

Then you retire.

Payroll goes to zero.

You may still own RM3 million, RM5 million or RM10 million. But net worth doesn’t automatically produce an increasing monthly income.

This is where I think many retirement plans are badly framed.

The question isn’t simply:

“How much have I accumulated?”

It is:

“How much monthly income can those assets produce — and can that income keep up with my cost of living for another 20 or 30 years?”

A portfolio designed only to avoid volatility can create another risk: preserving the number on the statement while slowly losing the purchasing power behind it.

That doesn’t mean taking unnecessary investment risk.

It means recognising that after your employer stops paying you, your assets have to take over three jobs: keeping enough money accessible, producing income, and maintaining enough long-term growth to support tomorrow’s spending.

Your final salary may be the last pay rise somebody else gives you.

After that, your money has to do the work.

Before you retire, don’t just calculate your net worth.

Calculate your next payslip.

If you’re five years from retirement, I would spend less time asking whether you have “enough” and more time calculating what monthly salary your wealth can actually replace.

18/09/2026

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗦𝗧 𝗗𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗦 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗗 𝗜𝗡 𝗥𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗜𝗡𝗩𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗠𝗔𝗬 𝗕𝗘 “𝗦𝗔𝗙𝗘”

If you’re approaching retirement, you will probably become more conservative with money. That’s perfectly rational. What isn’t rational is assuming that moving into something labelled “safe” makes the risks disappear.

Malaysia’s bond market is providing a useful reminder.

The yield advantage of 10-year Malaysian bonds over Japanese bonds has fallen to around 1.12%, compared with a five-year average of 2.78%. Malaysian 10-year government yields have also risen sharply since June.

You don’t need to understand bond mathematics to understand the lesson.

Risk doesn’t disappear. It changes form.

Shares give you market volatility. Bonds give you interest-rate and duration risk. Cash protects nominal capital but exposes you to inflation. Property can preserve substantial wealth while giving you very little liquidity.

Even FD isn’t “risk-free” in the way a retiree should think about risk.

If RM3 million earns 3%, that’s RM90,000 a year. Useful.

But if your lifestyle costs RM10,000 a month today, at 3% inflation the same lifestyle costs roughly RM18,000 a month in 20 years.

So the retirement question isn’t:

“Where is the safest place for my money?”

It is:

“What job does this money need to do?”

Some money must be available when you need it.

Some must replace the salary that disappeared when you retired.

And some must still keep growing because when you’re 75 or 80 your groceries, insurance, electricity and healthcare won’t remain at today’s prices.

That’s why I don’t think retirement portfolios should begin with products.

They should begin with jobs.

Assign every ringgit a job.

If you’re approaching retirement with RM2 million–RM10 million and aren’t sure how much of it can actually replace your salary, that’s the calculation I would do before choosing another investment.

08/09/2026

YOU DON’T NEED MARGIN FINANCING TO SUFFER A MARGIN CALL

The worst time to sell an investment is often exactly when life forces you to sell it.

That is why retirement portfolios need liquidity before they need cleverness.

Zetrix AI has just given Malaysian investors a rather expensive lesson in risk. Its shares lost more than two-thirds of their market value after margin-call liquidations hit its largest shareholder. He and his investment vehicle disposed of a net 960.7 million shares in just over a week.

Most retirees will read that and think: “I don’t borrow money to buy shares, so this doesn’t concern me.”

I think it does.

A margin call is really a liquidity problem. You need cash now, so you lose the luxury of deciding when to sell.

Retirees can create exactly the same problem without borrowing one ringgit.

Imagine retiring with RM3 million and investing almost everything for maximum return. Then markets fall 25% just as you need RM250,000 for medical expenses, family commitments and living costs.

You can tell yourself the market will recover.

Your bills will not wait.

Suddenly you are selling investments at precisely the time you would rather be buying them. That is effectively your own private margin call.

This is why I don’t start retirement planning by asking:

“Which investment will give you the highest return?”

I first want to know how much money must remain available so that nobody — not the market, not a hospital bill, not your family and not your monthly expenses — can force you to sell your long-term assets at the wrong time.

Then the remaining money can be divided between assets designed to produce income and assets intended to grow over the next 10, 20 or 30 years.

Diversification isn’t merely owning many investments.

It is having enough different sources of liquidity, income and growth that one bad event cannot dictate what you do with everything else.

In retirement, the dangerous investment isn’t necessarily the one that falls.

It is the one you are forced to sell.

If you’re approaching retirement, don’t just ask whether you have enough money. Ask how much of it you could access tomorrow without being forced to sell something you wanted to keep.

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