Dunno about australia, but i used to work in the states. After taxes, as far as living costs & expenses its about the same as in Malaysia, so I save about the same amount of money there as here in Malaysia, but its in USD. So when I came back to Malaysia, the money quadrupled (3.8). So working overseas (depending on country I guess) is a good option to save money. Our Ringgit is very weak. Even if you can save RM10k-RM20k a year, its a pretty small amount depending on what you want to do (i.e. travelling overseas, tuition fees for your kids abroad, buy car, house, etc).

Also, the government isnt making it easy on us, especially with the taxes on cars. For example, as a fresh IT grad in the states I was making USD2000 net a month (after taxes, etc). As I said cost of living is about the same, so lets say RM2000 here. But a honda civic only costs USD18000 there. So if I save USD1000 a month I can get a civic within 2 years. Whereas, here a civic costs RM100,000. If I save RM1000/month that'll take me around 9 years.

Same deal with goods as well, Nike basketball shoe there around USD150, thats 7.5% of my net monthly salary (150/2000 * 100), here its RM500, thats 25% of my net monthly salary (500/2000 * 100). PS2, USD200 when launched, thats 10% in the states, here its RM1000, thats 50% of the salary. See how low the buying capacity our Ringgit gives us?

Actually thats not a bad option. But you must consider it very carefully. If you intend to build a career in your field of study, then you should not do that because you most likely will not be able to get a legal job. But if you just want to earn money, you can earn quite a lot even as a waiter. A few of my course mates dropped out and worked as a waiter and they can earn on average between USD 3 to 4k per month on their tips and base salary. The good side is, working in a restaurant your meals are included so you save there as well. The bad thing is you work 6-7 days a week, 12 hours a day. The side effect of the bad thing is that you wont have much time to spend your money, so you end up saving a lot.