Teachers in Selangor among most likely to have serious debts<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThey usually begin with legitimate needs such as medical expenses, home repairs or consolidating other debts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem arises when borrowers take additional loans to service existing ones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Because personal loans are unsecured and carry higher interest rates, repayments can quickly consume monthly income.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe margin between what they earn and what they owe can be surprisingly thin.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany had taken on long-term debt earlier in life on the assumption that income growth would keep pace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen that growth falls short, amid rising living costs, financial cracks begin to surface,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
At the household level, Tan urged early intervention.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo a simple financial health review, build a small emergency buffer and seek professional advice early. Don\u2019t wait until the situation worsens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sunway University economics professor Dr Yeah Kim Leng said the figures lend weight to concerns about the so-called sandwich generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany in this age group have both children and aged parents to support. Those with many children are especially vulnerable to rising financial strains that typically include dual car and house loan obligations.<\/p>\n
\u201cLonger life expectancy and inadequate retirement savings among older Malaysians add to the burden, particularly in urban areas where expenses are higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cWage compression and uneven income growth further intensify the squeeze,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Universiti Teknologi Mara\u2019s Dr Mohamad Idham Md Razak said the vulnerability of this age group is structural.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the phase when financial commitments are at their highest. Even moderate economic shocks such as job disruption, health expenses or interest rate adjustments can quickly strain cash flow and push financially stretched households into insolvency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He noted that personal loans are frequently used to bridge liquidity gaps or consolidate debt, but repeated reliance on unsecured borrowing weakens repayment capacity over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo mitigate risks, policies should aim at boosting wage growth, productivity and job creation are crucial, alongside expanded financial literacy initiatives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PETALING JAYA: Malaysians aged 35 to 44 form the largest share of bankruptcy cases, accounting for 39.61% of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[150150,58793,72,176,13282,150152,114631,61,5232,60,85849,150151,174,25572,175,30135],"class_list":{"0":"post-323424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-35-to-44","9":"tag-bankruptcy","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-financial-literacy","13":"tag-financial-obligations","14":"tag-financial-strain","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-interest-rates","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-malaysians","19":"tag-peak-earning-years","20":"tag-personal-finance","21":"tag-personal-loans","22":"tag-personalfinance","23":"tag-sandwich-generation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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