FAQ

The short answer is as soon as you can. The earlier one starts saving, the more time your interest works.

Let’s consider two savers: Saver A and Saver B

From the age of 25, Saver A puts € 2,000 per year into CC Momentum savings plan for 10 years until he is 35. At 35 he stops putting new money into his savings and lets his savings work alone.

Saver A then leaves his savings grow until he reaches 65. He earns an average annual return of 8% and when he looks at his account 30 years later, he has €314,870.

Saver B, does not save anything until he is 35, at 35 he starts saving €2,000 per year. He keeps this up for the next 30 years until he reaches 65.

Saver B earns an average annual return of 8%, too but he ends up with € 244,691 at the age of 65.

To recap:

• Saver A has invested a total of € 20,000 and ended up with € 314,870
• Saver B has invested a total of € 60,000 and ended up with € 244,691

Yet Saver A is now worth 28% more than the Saver B even though Saver A only invested 1/3of the amount and  time.

Conclusion

Saving in the early years does count and although initially the amount might seem minuscule, the effects are seen in the later years. Starting to set something aside at an early age will give your savings time to grow and produce a compound interest multiplier effect that will help you in the later years.

The CC Momentum savings plan is designed to be flexible and to suit all purposes such as:

• Saving for your children’s future education,
• Saving for your retirement
• Buying a car.
• Saving for your dream holiday or for your daughter’s wedding.

The CC Momentum™ savings plan is a reliable and tax efficient way of compounding interest over time.

• Choose how much you want to save each month and change this amount whenever you like.
• Interest is re-invested automatically gross of any tax.
• Great potential for stable capital growth
• Peace of mind through a proven way of investing.
• Top-up your savings with one off deposits whenever you like.
• Pause and resume or even stop the savings plan whenever you want, no fees or restrictions.
• Receive periodic reports on your savings performance directly via email.

The minimum amount is 40 Euros.

No there is no maximum amount.

Yes, you can pause and resume the savings plan. During the first 2 years, you can pause the savings plan for 3 months each year.

You can stop the savings plan after a period of two years without incurring any fee. If you would like to stop the savings plan within the first two years a 2% fee will apply. However  during this 2 year period, you can pause the savings plan for a duration of 3 months each year.

Another feature of the savings plan is that it benefits from the effects of compound interest over a period of time.

Click on the following article to get a better idea of how this works

Article from BBC

No, it is not typical for savings plans to be guaranteed. The reason is that it would be virtually impossible to guarantee capital whilst aiming to beat inflation and working towards optimising the sum you will accumulate after a period of time. Typically in today’s market conditions, capital guaranteed products simply return the capital invested after a specified period of time and serve the purpose of conserving rather than growing capital. They therefore work inefficiently for the purpose of growing savings.

The CC Momentum savings plan however has a number of features that serve to protect the capital invested.

• The regular contributions are made into diversified funds with a very limited exposure to any single investment.

• Since regular contributions are invested over time, this serves to reduce downside risk and optimise the performance of your savings.

• Additionally, through a Savings Plan you will be buying more units when share prices are low and fewer units when share prices are high. This strategy of price averaging does not try to time markets. Instead it reduces the risk of investing a large amount, at an unfavourable time, by spreading your investments over a period of months, years or even decades.

The CC Momentum Savings Plan invests savings on a monthly basis into Bonds and Blue Chip Equities. The savings plan allows you to choose one of the following strategies.

1) 25% Equity, 75% Bond – Conservative

2) 50% Equity, 50% Bond – Balanced

3) 75% Equity, 25% Bond – Dynamic

The bonds portion of your savings plan goes towards the CC High Income Bond Fund Euro. The CC High Income Bond Fund aims to maximise the total level of return for investors through investment in a diversified portfolio of over 60 bonds.

The equity portion of your savings goes towards the CC Euro Equity Fund which aims to achieve a higher level of return for investors by investing, mainly, in a diversified portfolio of over 25 blue-chip equities trading on major European markets. European Blue Chip companies are Europe’s top companies that are known to weather downturns and operate profitably in the face of adverse economic conditions, which helps to contribute to their long record of stable and reliable growth. You can refer to ‘Our Funds’ on our website for further information.

The bond fund’s last distributions were 5% (USD and Euro) and although this may change, our Investment Managers aim to maximise return according to current interest rates. The CC High Income Fund is amongst the top performing funds of its type. The fund has also enjoyed an increase in capital since launch.

The equity fund invests in blue chips which historically (using data that dates back to the 1970’s) have outperformed bonds over medium to long term periods. Theoretically, in the long term the equity portion of savings should outperform the bonds portion however there is no way to predict if this will happen and by how much.

Bonds can be viewed as slow and steady approach whilst blue chip equities give a better opportunity for growth but also deal with more volatility. This is why, regardless of the strategy you choose, it is a good idea to have a mix of both.

There is no ‘best’ strategy to choose.

Whilst the dynamic strategy has a better potential for long term growth (historically blue chip equities have performed well) the conservative approach takes a slow and steady approach by investing mainly in bonds whilst still providing a steady income. One could consider the balanced approach which balances between both these strategies equally.

There is no cost for opening or maintaining a CC Momentum™ Account.

No there is no cost associated for setting up, or maintaining  your direct debit. The related bank charge is absorbed by Calamatta Cuschieri.

The fee is 1.5% and therefore on 40 Euros, the fee would be 60c. The CC Momentum™ has been specifically designed to provide savers with a flexible and cost effective way of saving for their future.

You can either visit one of our offices in Dun Karm Street, B’Kara, South Street, Valletta, Victory Street, Qormi, Tower Road, Sliema, Hompesch Road, Fgura or Fortress Street, Mosta.

Alternatively you can choose to apply directly online.