The 40% taxation is based on Tier System, not that every income you earned it is taxed 40%. Correct me if I am wrong here. Thanks.

You realize a 'room' in a $4 million 'house' actually means a boarding house with 15 rooms right? $4 million buys you mansion with an ocean view here, noone sane is going to rent out the place room by room in such a place.

Frankly, i dont know whats so great about a 6 figure salary in Aus. Didnt realise that getting min AUD8,333 (before taxes) was that big a deal for a 'manager'. Ive worked with Australian companies since 2004 and i know some of the manager salaries in Aus. The real mid managers earn >AUD13K.

But in this guy's case, he's probably excited because his sister was just a very low level 'manager' here in Malaysia before she moved. Typical Malaysian corporate style of giving manager posts but pay very low salaries cuz they know Malaysians love titles. I started earning a 5 figure salary here in Malaysia at the age of 28 and i wasnt even a manager and i wasnt bothered in the least.

This post has been edited by cybermaster98: Aug 28 2014, 09:45 AM

well, probably that's why buying now is not on her mind... those that can afford to buy surely can afford to pay the taxes

boarding house? it is 2 bungalows joined together... 7 big rooms in total.. no ocean view, slightly out of cbd.. well, owner's family used to stay there now migrated and now the owner uses it as her vacation home... extra rooms she decided to rent out

well, to you might not be great but i am just letting ts know.. to know and to earn is 2 different thing.. if you wanna share yours to inspire ts please go ahead

well you can brag how great you are this and that and belittle others... that's up to you... dont see how is that going to help ts

I think its was your posts which were bragging. And with mistakes too.

Sounds exactly like a boarding house. FYI, depending on which state and council, say you have 3 rooms rented out to 2 to 3 couples, you need to apply for boarding house license. If it wasn't, then it is illegal.


And there are hundreds of them in Sydney, its just not illegal until you are caught type of scenario. Once caught, you'll have 1 or 2 weeks before getting kicked out in most cases.

This post has been edited by divine061: Aug 28 2014, 02:18 PM

bragging? didnt say it was me.. just letting ts know that live is better there than in msia

you on the other hand.. well, no point arguing.. if you wanna find fault i have no time to entertain you, doesnt contribute anything to ts

hmm, probably because it is still under 2 diff title? not too sure, was told it was 2 house initially..

I've been here for around half a year now. So far so good, haven't get a any racism remarks (and hope never will). Then again, its the case of grass greener on the other side. Neither Malaysia nor Australia (or any other countries) is perfect. Not like you never seen racism in Malaysia. Before I got to aussie, lots of my friends told me be careful might get aim for no reason, but until today I haven't seen anyone kena racist remarks.. yet.

But if you talk about culture, experience, money, etc. I would say Australia seems to have the upper hand. A simple example. Fresh grad malaysia 2.7k-3k and Aus roughly the same. Malaysia you buy iPhone one month salary gone. Australia you buy iPhone $1k. same price but your purchasing power stronger.

Culture wise, Malaysia *ahem* guy keep saying 1Malaysia, but in Sydney its even more diverse. There's Mainland chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indian, Caucasian, Europeans, Malaysians, Indonesian, etc etc. and the seem to get along better than we do

Experience wise, it totally depends on yourself. I would say some I like, some I don't. You can't get everything.

My advice, got chance go oversea, try it out!

my friend just started work in Sydney pay on a dollar to dollar basis is higher than msia but the cost of living ($ to $) is higher as well.. clothes there are not 3 times cheaper!!

A close friend who migrated last year with more than RM10 mil isn't enjoying life though.. diff ppl have diff experiences.. My family there is alright although its not easy to find a job in Aussie(unlike Malaysia)

I think aussie is alright other than the exorbitant cost of living due to the high minimum wage.

btw, the unemployment rate in Aussie is like 6.4% (more than the US also) while the mining boom is at it's end. so if u have a job there be glad =)

That's why you need to earn at Aussie salary levels and work/live in Malaysia. Best option for those looking for money.

I don't know how long Australia can sustain that kind of exchange rate. Labour cost is more expensive than even the US, but I do think american companies do better in productivity, innovation and creativity.

low level labor in Aussie costs almost twice of the US.. mid to upper mid positions pay slightly more than the US but the Cost of Living in the US is substantially lower (maybe 30-40%) but the min wage in the US will be increasing soon so things might change in the US.

the agree point is yes, cost are high here...as in the expenditure. If you know where to find bargain, there is waysss to beat the expenditure down.

Guys, I have just been granted an 18 months temp visa to Aus and Im planning to head over there sometime next year. At the same time im also trying to get a PR first just to be safe.

I wouldn't mind doing some general labor as a start to familiarize myself with the culture there. However, I couldn't help but to worry on the possibility of landing a job as I have heard many stories of local grads that eventually had to return home after completing their studies..

my advice is don't let other people words let you down and try with your own.


most of the people i know who couldn't get a job because they are picky and only look for the best employer.

May I ask what category of this Visa you got for ? Thanks.

That is a possibility that you may have to face. However, if you don't mind working odd jobs out of your field, I would say that it is not hard to get one.

Different people different story, if you cant get out your comfort zone; you wont get big with your life. Since you got the chance, take it.

Let me address some of the points that have been discussed on this thread. By way of background and for context, I am a Malaysian Chinese who grew up in Australia. I am pretty much an ABC.

Firstly to anyone who mentioned Frankston – this is considered a low-socio economic part of Melbourne. Low-socio economic meaning less, educated, not as open minded. Translation, more likely to be racist. I have only ever lived in the inner east of Melbourne and spend my leisure time/work within a 15-20km ring of the city. I have never experienced racism in my 26 years in Australia (got here when I was six). So if you go to these areas, yeah you’re probably going to get remarks. Just like if you go to certain parts of KL at night, there’s probably a high chance of you getting rob. If you look at Melbourne CBD or Sydney CBD, it’s basically one giant china town. So many Asians you would think you were in Singapore.

As for the point about bamboo ceiling – I think this is a cop out. I am starting to believe this is a byproduct of Asian Confucius culture i.e. respect, not question elders, savings face and all that. There are a bunch of successful Indian CEOs in fortune 500s (Pepsi Co, Microsoft, McKinsey). No yellow faces. Why? The corporate world isn’t just simply about being technically competent and expecting to be promoted every 2-3 years because you do the same thing day in day out (like maybe in Japan). It’s about building personal relationships which is hard for Malaysians to do I Australia because there is little cultural commonality that allows you to build that most basic link in the first instance (what’s cricket and afl?). Question: If you did the most brilliant piece of analysis at work, and only you knew about it, did you actually do the work? Answer: The answer is no you didn’t. If no one knows about your work, if you don’t share it, tell people about it, no matter how technically brilliant you are, in everyone’s mind, you and your work don’t exist. This isn’t about shameless self-promotion which I know is what the majority of you are thinking, this is about communicating. I was hired for this function, I did this work, and it probably is valuable. Now I need to be proactive about sharing that work, rather than just sending an email to my boss, or waiting for my boss to tell me what do . The reality is, culture and the Malaysian education system brought most of you up to obedient followers and not question anything. Just do you work and speak when i tell you to speak. I always tell this anecdote to illustrate this point. I was waiting in the autogate line at the LCCT. There were three machines. One was clearly out of order. One had no line behind it. The remaining machine had a small but growing line. I joined this line. Not wanting to wait, I asked the gentleman in front, do you know why no one is using that machine is it broken? He said he didn’t know. I waited another 30 seconds, during which time more people joined our line. I decided it was worth trying to use the machine with no line. Guess what? It worked. Everyone just assumed it was broken. As soon as I got through, the single line split in two. Believe it or not, Australia is far more of a meritocracy than Malaysia will ever be, where if you work for anything remotely government related, you will eventually hit a bumi-ceiling. So yes, that does mean if you are a bumi, you would be unwise not to stay and take advantage of all the advantages the system provides whether explicit or not.

Anyway, these are just the random thoughts of an ABC. Make of it what you will.

PS. My dad struggled to get a job here like most first generation migrants. First generation migrants from Malaysia always have the toughest time getting a job based on\ what I have observed in my friendship group. Their children who grew up here, have a far easier time.

EDIT: To the poster who implied degree = job, this mentality stopped being true when everyone started getting degrees. A lot of people have Masters degrees from the sandstones. Reality is, Australia's market is so tiny it can only handle so many service jobs. Believe it or not, it's not just overseas graduates who are struggling, local graduates are struggling too now. Unemployment is 2-3 times the national average in the 19-24 demographic.

This post has been edited by maxmillion: Aug 31 2014, 08:37 AM