In recent years, more parents are enrolling their children in private/international schools for both primary and secondary education to enable their children to gain early exposure to the international curriculum before sending them overseas for tertiary education.
Let’s take a look at the estimated tuition fees1 for private/international schools in Malaysia:
1The estimated tuition fees are computed based on the average fees charged by renowned private/international schools in Klang Valley; exclusive of other costs such as registration fees, deposits, uniforms & books, extra-curricular activities, etc.
Hence, you may need to start investing as early as possible. By investing early, you will be able to capitalise on the power of compounding and be better prepared to support your children in pursuing their dreams.
Proper education planning is essential in ensuring that your child will be able to reach for the stars. However, there are several factors that you should take into consideration before planning for your child’s education.
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Number of years before your child attends university
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Whether your child will be attending university locally or overseas
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Type and length of course
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Currency exchange rate of the country of destination
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Effects of inflation on your future expenditure
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Let’s say your child wants to pursue his or her tertiary studies in a foreign country. In this case, you should factor in the tuition fees and living costs that may vary from country to country.
The table below shows the estimated average annual tuition fees and living costs for international students in selected countries2.
*Non-medical courses.
**Education inflation rates shown are based on estimations only
2As stated in University Cost Guide 2022
Illustration3:
Assuming that your child will be pursuing his/her tertiary education in 10 years’ time in Australia:
Identify the estimated total living costs and tuition fees today for a common degree.
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For detailed information on the tuition fee and living cost estimations, you may refer to University Cost Guide 2022. .
3The calculations in the illustration are derived from the Education Planning Calculator, while the education costs are based on our University Cost Guide 2022. . The calculations are based on the liquidation method. You may repeat the same planning process for your other children or should there be a need to plan for primary/secondary schools.
You may also access our Education Planning calculator here.
You may consider investing in a country or regional fund that has exposure to the country your children will pursue their tertiary education in. By doing so, you can gain exposure to the currency of the country or region of interest to potentially hedge against foreign currency exchange fluctuations over the long term.
Public Mutual offers a wide range of conventional and Shariah-based unit trust funds for you to choose from.
You may consider investing in such funds to gain exposure to the currency of the country or region that you plan to send your children to in pursuit of the higher education:
The sooner you begin investing, the higher your chances of providing your children with the future of their dreams. You may consider signing up for the Direct Debit Authorisation (DDA) facility to start investing regularly. If you are a Public Mutual Online (PMO) subscriber, you may enrol for DDA via PMO. Otherwise, you may click here.
In fact, you may also be entitled to free insurance/Takaful coverage by investing in selected unit trust funds offered by Public Mutual.
You should review your target amount, risk tolerance level and rebalance your investment portfolio accordingly.
For example, when the education fund has grown to the amount that is required over the years and wealth preservation is your main concern, you may take a more conservative approach by rebalancing your unit trust portfolio to increase the weightage towards balanced, fixed income or money market funds.