The wife is already making me take walks around the neighbourhood though I still think it's a bit too chilly. Last weekend we went to Flemington station to buy some dim sum - which was pretty good. Then a few days ago news about some flemington market worker being hit with Covid surfaced - those who were at Flemington on the 8th should do the test & got myself slightly worried now:

"A case of COVID-19 has been confirmed in a person who worked at the market while infectious on Sunday, 9 August."

how many of you got affected by the pandemic? in terms of job and money? how do you cope it?

I am unable to move back to Melbourne. Although my main job is not full time there, my main source of income still from KL.

We would like to go to Chinatown again to have some nice food but probably going to avoid slightly more crowded places for now till this blows over. I happily avoid overly crowded places/eateries thanks to the pick pockets back in Msia which I encountered a fair number of times during my college days.

I have a cousin who depend on project for living. Since March until now no income at all because no clients to visit. He tried odd jobs, like fiverrs and etc. can't cope the high living.
It is becoming more stressful because being in mid 30s, he emergency funds are depleting, with repayment for mortgage and car, he is basically left with a few more months.

another friend of mine, manage to go on flight and come back to KL recently. Since living here is cheaper. Lost his job in Perth. But found a job in KL, at least for the next 1 year he doesn't need to worry much.

this pandemic gives me a very clear mind many things are very fagile. 

i thought you have a PR,so you can go back to Oz, just need to pay for the quarantine, and probably cannot leave after....

or maybe it's safer in Msia at the moment....

snow expected this weekend guys.....lol

import license is hard to obtain in Aussie compared with Malaysia.

For example, when i ordered a pallet of goods from Taiwan, I need to register yeah.
The lineancy for documentation in Malaysia is easier than Aussie which make a better business climate for starters.

In Aussie you need to declare up to the underwear, meaning u have to submit almost everything including their recipes, which many manufacturers are reluctant to produce.

my parent's F&B business in KL had salary cut for staffs after coming into a meeting and all the staff agreed to do so. Therefore few chains managed to survive through this pandemic. It is lucky enough that most of them do not have a lot of commitment, or i can say no high commitment, for example cheaper room rents, food and etc. What i am trying to say is, imagine the commitments are high, the staffs will suffer and possible they will end up complaining to Labor office, then union will form. lol

at least you know how to judge situation and change spending behavior.

i have many friends who does not, almost 40 yo still spending like crazy before the pandemic.

Insercure is not a bad thing, as long as you can notice it. I would pity some doesn't realize it. For example my single uncle reaches 50, he did not realize that his age matter in his job. VSS may happen at anytime and he wasn't prepare for it. even if it is not VSS, health matters can hinder his plan. because he always thought at the 5 years before actual retirement, he will focus on saving 100%. Saving is not 5 year thing, is should be displine and practiced life long..

My family group chat (some relatives who migrated overseas long ago) had people critisizing the peanut pay of RM 800 or RM 1000 from government for the covid 19 help. Which is only 300 sdg or 200 usd, or 150 pounds whatsover, they fail to realized that even so these are helps from government which is a big deal for many people in Malaysia. Although I do not comment much in that chat, I do however thinks that they may have had heavily influenced by the system, spoilt, and feeling entitled. Also, having not realizing what is right or wrong is worrisome, I do not hope that this will be happen to my children's midnset when they grow up. Therefore I told my wife, we may be keeping them back in Malaysia to attend normal schools and learn from there before migrate back to Aussie when they need to attend college. LOL!

Garysydney & Red_rustyjelly,

Just like to seek both your opinion about migration since you are both in Australia and your sharing here is very genuine, reflecting the real world scenarios and issues - indeed Malaysia welfare is one-sided and thus many Malaysian look for opportunity elsewhere.

Both my husband and I will be celebrating 40 years this year. We are currently engaged with a migration agency to process our application to migrate to Australia. We have 3 children in primary schools and we hope that by going there, they would enjoy unbiased opportunities, better schools, bigger currency, etc.

We are applying with Visa 190/491. My husband is a IT consultant, while I am a SJKC teacher. We worry about job opportunities, especially during the pandemic. What is considered a good salary to sustain a family our size in different cities in Australia?

What are some of the priorities for families like us going over? Finding job? Finding a place to stay? Husband go first? Family go together? This is all very new to us so we are seeking advise from experienced migrants, so can you give some opinion?

Thank you.

Thank you, just wanted to get the rough idea.

Yes, we do have family in Brisbane/Goldcoast and majority of friends in Melbourne. We have not consider the housing because we dont know which regional cities we will be in. I think we would be fine in either Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne but these are probably not going to be our starting points. My migration agency have talked to us about Adelaide and Canberra, so there could be where we start.

We attended a seminar on employment in Australia. The speaker told us there are more than 300 jobs paying AUD$200k per year, she made it sound like 300 is a lot of opportunity but with migrants from Malaysia/Singapore/India/others, we don't think 300 opportunities is a lot. We also not sure if AUD$200k is considered high paying. My SIL who lives in GoldCoast told us that we can live comfortably if we are earning gross AUD$120 - 150k, but we dont know how common is that. We are worried that new migrants will be bullied or paid less like AUD$80k will end up struggling.

I see you commenting about the weather quite a bit. We also prefer cooling weather but Malaysia is quite limited unless we head up to Genting or Cameron Highlands. Enjoy the sun and thank you for your feedback!

u miss Malaysia?

Yes, we need to seek clarification with our agency if there are any limitations to our VISA whether it is 190/491. I know my husband is already looking for job alerts in Australia using SEEK. He is in IT industry related to security. According to him, always so positive attitude, cyber security work is in demand but we cannot assume the same for Australia because we dont know the job, economy, opportunities, companies, etc there.

Starting to wonder if I will start feeling what feeling what you do about staying at home eventually since I'm always content being at home. I do my exercise at home and hobbies are home related too - so far I can't see myself feeling depressed being at home unless I'm trapped in it, being forced to do things I do not wish to. Why not just use the money on travelling to get yourself a heater to keep yourself warm and happy through out the winter if you're forced to remain here anyway?

This is one aspect most difficult for middle aged migrants....at 40+, most are at middle level jobs in Malaysia, but have to downgrade to fresh graduate level starting a new life and career in another country. Sometimes even need to downgrade to below qualification. A relative who was a middle management banker eventually had to settle for a sales job selling Telco prepaid cards initially.

There is also another thing about having my kids in Aussie, it is true they can be more socialized and open, but I don't want them to turn into Puberty period when they are teenage lol. because i saw 2 of my relatives teenage kids behave like western kids, thick cosmetic and body revealing photos in FB and insta, and probably too much too close to their male friends. I thought it could be me being too kolot(outdated mindset). I hated myself for thinking that way, but i want just want to protect them more.

it is, but i need to correct a bit.

In Malaysia, my first child is now in a decent pre-school. I am paying about RM 900 per month for montessori, not to say the super expensive one. but is another different method that Kinder.

She is getting alot of positive teachings from her Malaysian teachers. And since she entered the school, she became more independent than her cousins, she is entering 6. My wife thought it is her atttitude that followed my DNA, but when we attended New Year party last year, i was surprised to see other kids behave the same. Though i can't say much because she is only early stage but definately better than before she enter about 1.5 year ago.

and i think Independent is very subjective word to use. Some kids who do not attend school until age 5 here in Malaysia were independent already, because of home teaching. I do also surveyed many schools recently with my SIL's children, standing outside of classrooms and see how kids react. It is surprisingly many kids are different from our time. Not like silent or shy when the teacher asking questions, i visited both government and chinese vernacular school.

It is always a growing perception Malaysian parents are being brainwashed that overseas syllabus are better or moving to study overseas are better.

As a parents and adult, we need to be rational to not think the 3rd world country education system is always bad. This mentality will affect alot of genuine teachers who have the true passion to teach. I once met up with a group of teacher from a school for some job related, you know the most unfair thing for them to hear? Kids who are graduated from their school that are being send to overseas, mentioning Malaysia education is low quality, how in the first place the kid can pass the prerequisite to enter good college overseas? Because the childrens are entitiled, doesn't mean that they should degrade this teaching, it is equivalent to degrading the teachers. I was like that, and I have changed.

And in the end what will happen to the passionate teachers? they will be always the one that get blamed for nothing by the rich and entitled.