Wah, bro… please don’t stand on ceremony. It would be our pleasure and good fortune to have a sit down dinner together with you and yours and talk about how blessed and lucky we’ve been to be where we are today.

Oh, I have other factor to consider like marriage, kids etc.

If just purely looking at money yes SG is not the best place to work. Earning CHF might be a lot better.

Then there's also tax and living standard considerations in GBP, USD and EUR countries. Capital gain tax, inheritance tax etc. all eats up your wealth.

A lot of things to consider, in the end I choose SG in the end to stay with my future special one.

Actually it depends on the context and profession. A specialist medical practitioner stands to make more in Singapore based on 3 factors. Low taxes, nil taxes on coupons, dividends and interest earned, catchment for patients from ASEAN countries and the fact that medical fees here are on a user pay basis with minimal subsidies from government (means tested).

For many of us, the benefits outweigh the costs

that's the thing.

many thought in order to earn SGD you have to be physically in SG. To earn USD you have to be physically in US.

but actually not.

I think it depends on your profession. Most professional white-color jobs like doctors, accountants, professors, researchers will require physical meetups with clients and students. In those cases, earn SGD can only be done in SG and likewise for other currencies.

Arbitrage in spending can be done in places where there are geographical proximities with different currency strengths. Famous examples are like JB and Singapore, Shenzhen and HK. Not sure if San Diego <-> Tijuana counts... well Americans do cross border to Canada and buy cheaper drugs...

Anyway, I know tech bros and crypto bros can be digital nomads, but then not everyone's interest or strength is in cryptos or coding.

To each their own lah

This post has been edited by TOS: Apr 27 2024, 06:23 PM

While I do telemedicine consultation, I can’t telemedicine surgery and procedures. So you are right. To each his own.

This post has been edited by hksgmy: Apr 27 2024, 09:25 PM

Cause not everyone is rich to migrate and not necessarily you can get what you want if you migrate. I am from lower M40 without any help from govt.

Right now I am using ringgit to earn foreign currency.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Apr 29 2024, 03:51 PM

nowadays one can deploy one's capital/investment funds overseas and still stay in a low cost area... this is also a form of geo-arbitrage... at least it is way easier to do so nowadays vs 30 or 50 years ago... good for retirees and fund managers really.

Well, that’s what I intend to do starting next year when I’m over Down Under. I’ll continue earning my dividends and coupons and interests and notes payments in Singapore where it’s tax-free… and use Wise to transfer whatever I need whenever I need it over bit by bit.

But then, again, I would still be working part time in Australia. And with my passive Australian income stream, I would really have very little reason to touch the pot back in Singapore.

I know this can come out sounding all wrong, but geez, it’s good to have financial freedom.

was thinking of a much wider difference of low cost vs high cost arbi (such as MY vs USA) compared to SG vs OZ, but i guess OZ is cheaper than SG...

Surprisingly, once the housing is taken care of in Australia ( and thankfully we got on the property ladder decades ago before prices went batshit insane), things are actually pretty affordable compared to Singapore.

As long as you’re willing to cook yourself, which we intend to (that’s why we’re hitting the Michelin joints in Singapore so hard at present - get our fix before the big move over haha), the cost of groceries and fresh produce is around 1/2 or 2/3 of Singapore prices for way better quality food.

Healthcare is essentially free, and I get to keep my Porsches until their wheels fall off without having to renew the COEs.

To me, personally, Australia is cheap.

Nah. I don't agree with what you said that most professional white-color jobs required physical presence.

Anyway, I know many and I encouraged many to go through this path and initially they did it as part time but at the end the income increased sufficiently overtaking as their main income.

Heck I even have a colleague who quit his professional job and pursue his talented artwork once the USD he is getting consistently exceeded his full time job salary.

There is some even special cases that I know. One of the example is one of my friend applied job in Shell Malaysia got rejected. She then apply Shell USA and get employed but based in Shell MY. And yeah, they pay her in USD. Amazing.

anyway, this is my 2 cents and my intention is to break up the mindset that many are trapped in and encourage more people to explore in this.

once one's get to see things, it's mind blowing how wonder the world works. "Macam ni pun boleh a?"

This post has been edited by skty: Apr 28 2024, 12:57 AM

Radiologists can do full time telemedicine … they report scan results. Some cheaper centres utilize radiologists from India for this purpose to save costs.

Surgeons obviously can’t. Physicians shouldn’t because physical examination cannot be performed via telemedicine.

Similarly, GPs shouldn’t for the same reason but I know quite a few big chains are pushing for remote doctors to keep costs down and profits high.

They only need to miss diagnosis a Wegener’s granulomatosis as a normal case of ‘sinusitis’ because they couldn’t and didn’t do a proper physical examination and we’ll see how ‘effective’ remote medicine is.

So, as far as the discipline of medicine and surgery goes, and as I’ve clearly illustrated, not everyone can get away with a keyboard and a monitor like what was implied above.

Those who have 10m above networth, definitely life is good even for generations to come. I think some SME owner cannot even achieve this figure when they reach their 50s.

Haven't physically lived in AU except for holidays, but when I did my simulation to assess the financials impact, I noticed the same. If excluding the property, everything else (cost of living wise) is really cheap, epecially groceries (in local currencies without conversion lah).

On physical presence though, especially for engagement-related works, as much as I hate socializing physically (being an introvert myself), I can't deny the advantages that physical meeting has over a virtual ones. The experience is REALLY different, even in corporate world. Most of the major decisions/discussions/influencing factors came from informal "coffee chat" or over "dinner time" rather than formal meetings where people tend to have reserves / play their politic games. But having said that - definitely agree that it is not required for 100% of the time. Key thing is to strike the right balance, in my view.

As for opportunities - definitely agree that it's everywhere and we just gotta keep an open mind for any kind of possibilities and opportunities. Limiting factor starts from our very own beliefs Can't help but to ponder why sometimes people react negatively when they see someone else being more successful than them - rather than taking it as a source of inspiration. Mind really do work wonder when we feed it with the right beliefs.

In Australia, all foreign derived income including dividends, capital gains, r taxable if u r a tax resident there unless u choose not to declare them. But with CRS, it can be difficult as ur SG info will be shared with Aust automatically, and later in life if u decide to transfer all these to Australia, u will have a lot of explanations to do.

For privacy reasons, I will not disclose my total net worth (I learnt this trick from the Government of Singapore, which never discloses the true value of its not inconsiderable reserves), but for the purposes of furthering your discussion, I can safely say that just based on the value of what I hold in AUD alone, which is approximately AUD5m in cash & bonds, and excludes the values of my properties (both residential and commercial), I can confidently agree and concur with your assessment.

This post has been edited by hksgmy: Apr 28 2024, 11:48 AM

There are ways to limit the damage... stay less than 180 days per year is my primary method - hey, we are retired, I can spend 6 months Down Under, 3 months in NZ and another 3 visiting friends and family back in Asia.

But, for more creative damage limitation ways, I’ll leave it to my bankers to weave their magic.

The damage will have to be borne but what I’m hoping for is limitation of it.

This post has been edited by hksgmy: Apr 28 2024, 11:07 AM

no doubt. I always wanted my consultant to come and meet me personally to resolve issues.

for one that is working as employee, I just can't understand why one is worrying so much.

if the nature of work required physical presence, that foreign company will definitely won't take in foreign employee. If they are willing to take, the risk is all borne by the company alone.

as an employee working in local companies, how many can really climb the corporate ladder to be Director / GM?

working and getting paid in foreign currencies can easily elevate one's income to the GM level while still living in M'sia.

Yes you can do that but most boutique funds only send monthly reports to their clients and I would prefer the convenience of calling them directly if i need to take immediate actions. Often the info u can obtain through conversations can help u make better decisions.