A weekly thread to discuss financial matters - from personal all the way up to global.
Ground Rules
- Remember that we're all just Internet randos. Don't bet your life savings on a hot tip from this thread.
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- Be kind. Remember that everyone here comes from different circumstances. We all have different resources available and different risk tolerances.
- Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Better is better. Celebrate people when they take a step up and work to move their finances in the right direction. Don't flame out because they haven't followed what you consider the optimal path. Everybody has to start somewhere.
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Notes -
The MM2H minimum property will get you something very liveable. I paid approx 1m MYR (250k USD) for a 5br in a gated community in an upper middle class 'local' area in outer KL. Expat centric areas tend to trend higher and the minimum buy in Selangor is 2M but that'll get you something exceedingly liveable. 10% is required down payment.
I prettymuch haven't been anywhere without good AC. Unless you're somehow managing to move into a 50 year old house in a shitty area, there'll be AC. Air quality is fine. Humidity can be annoying during the spikes but generally polite society avoids going outside midday.
Social scene is good. I mostly rely on BJJ for my non-family socialization and it's very strong and English speaking. My personal social circle is mostly local/Malaysian Chinese but I'm like 40 mins away from the peak expat region. Dating culture is quite conservative but also foreigner friendly if you're dating to marry and seem to have your shit together. Generally the 30% or so Chinese are more inclined. The 50% or so Muslim Malay population are friendly but you'd be expected to convert to Islam to get married (On paper at the very least, mileage may vary depending on girl/family) since there is legally no such thing as non-Muslim Malay. It's not Thailand/ideal for sex tourism but it's also not ultra conservative.
As a white foreigner I feel pretty solid. Malaysian internal racism stuff tends to focus more on skirmishes between the local Indians/Chinese/Malays. There's definitely prejudice against the abundant unskilled foreign worker population from India, Indonesia, Bangladesh etcetera. Rohingya get a lot of complaints in the media, but I've never experienced anything I'd consider anti-white.
I'm on a spousal visa and have no real intention of ever working in the country. I don't feel 100% firm in never getting kicked out but I would be highly surprised. The politics have had a lot of reform/cleaning up since the massive embezzlement scandals about 10-15 years ago. There's very strong positive discrimination for Malays in government and govt adjacent business, but they're nice enough and don't tend to be receptive to particularly radical Islam. The Chinese have had friction historically due to being overwhelmingly economically successful inside the country, but there's never been sufficient political will to do anything dramatic like in Thailand or Indonesia.
I think Malaysia is in a good position to take advantage of the world pivoting more towards China. Singapore has reached capacity for non-financial investment and the bordering region of Malaysia is picking up a ton of overflow. I'm more bullish on Malaysia for the next 50 years than Australia.
Only real healthcare engagement was birth of my youngest child. Cheaper (approx half) and higher service than Australia. I'm looking at moving my parents over presently as they're getting elderly and cost of in-home care is considerably lower here, though I don't know enough about the trade-offs if somebody's got a particularly intense/difficult to treat condition.
Can't imagine relocating back to Australia in foreseeable future unless the country randomly collapses or avoiding a war or something.
Food culture is good, usually pretty comparable to Australian cafe culture. Grocery availability is good but haven't had to deal with any particular sensitivities on my part.
I'd done 2 month long trips before pulling the trigger so I felt pretty solid before moving. IMO if you're on the fence about Asia just look at chaining 2 weeks in Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and get a feel for each of them.
This is helpful. Thanks!
What's the best and worst part of living under Islamic rule?
How do you see the demographic situation developing? Any risk of mass unskilled immigration like we've had in the West?
Uh. The Malays are pretty moderate and there's kind of a kayfabe where most affluent Malays know that the Chinese actually make the country work economically. Occasionally populist leaders do stupid things but generally they are more focused on forcing Muslim Malays in the rural Muslim states to live more piously than impacting the big metro areas. They're also pretty good at rooting out radical movements since the government doesn't really want to go down that path.
There's huge illegal immigration but the safety net is very weak and I think approximately 200 adults are given Malaysian passports each year. Typically requiring a multiple decade tenure in the country or being a huge contributor. Hence the immigration keeps wages low for unskilled jobs but doesn't really produce the same impacts. There's a large population of Rohingya who make up the majority of refugees in the country and they're not legally allowed to work or get education for instance which causes issues but there's no refugee luxury communism on offer.
What types of people might adapt well by moving to Malaysia? Who ends up thriving and who ends up moving out again? If you have any thoughts on this. :)
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