Hello Hansel, thank you for your advice.

My wife is the one who really wants to go back fast. Her dad passed away last May (in KL) and she couldn't attend the burial. She has so many things to do in KL and she is quite skeptical about taking the vaccine. I am more inclined to stay back in Sydney but my wife really hates winter as well.

I have a 82-year old uncle (who usually lives in KL) but has been locked down in Sydney (holds an Aust retiree visa) and he was initially skeptical about the vaccine but now wants to take it before returning to KL as he doesn't want the China vaccine. Don't know when is his turn but older residents like him will get priority.

When going back to Msia, we need permission to leave Aust (from Dept of Foreign Affairs) and also need permission from Msian embassy (need to get a Travel Note from Msian Embassy online). Flying from one country to another is harder than going to the moon

There are a lot of people i know who are afraid of the side-effects of the vaccine. When you live in Aust and the number of new infections are virtually non-existent (talking about situation now), you will wonder whether it is necessary to take the vaccine. I don't know what the future ruling will be in future - whether vaccine will be a prerequisite for travel but at moment it certainly looks that way.

Queensland is a highly desired destination for retirees - a lot of NSW retirees do eventually end up there. I would but i have no relatives there (all my relatives are in Sydney). At the end of the day, my wife is the boss as she cooks my meals so i leave it to her to decide - as long as my tummy is full, i have no complaints. This is why i like Msia - there is food everywhere and so many different varieties and much cheaper than Sydney .

I suspect my turn (age 59) will not be till July earliest this year. There is currently a slight delay in the rollout of the vaccine. Govt estimates everyone will be vaccinated by Sept/Oct at the latest.

From what i gather Aust govt is rolling out Pfizer and Astrazeneca and according to the news, we will not be told which one will be used when we go for the vaccine.

There is so much talk that people who fly in future will have to be vaccinated before they are allowed to fly. Don't know what to think of this.

Imagine people like us (PRs and citizens) are locked in the country unless you have a very good reason to leave the country. Talking about freedom and human right!!

Going back a few months, Australians couldn't even leave the country to attend funerals (of their loved ones) overseas!! Only citizens and PRs are allowed to come back to Aust - PRC students all can't get back into Aust once they leave the country. No wonder all the PRC students are not coming back anymore!!

My uncle did register himself (he is 82 y.o.) for the jab. His daughter registered it for him. If i ask my uncle, he probably wouldn't know as he is not very IT savvy.

I have been told to register for the vaccine through my GP.

I have a very good Egyptian friend (who i used to lend money to) and he works at RPA hospital nowadays. He got his first Pfizer jab a few days ago and he mentioned he didn't feel anything. He is a 63 y.o. male but he is very tough physically. Thought i just want to add this in as he is the first person i know in Sydney who has got his jab.

Superannuation will be a big thing in the future as more and more money goes in. As long as you are in an industry superfund, you should be fine as fees will be minimal. If you are young, just go for the most aggressive investment option (like 100% international shares or 100% High Growth) as you have plenty of time to recover if something goes wrong.

I have a defined benefit super which is very conservative in their investments and i also have a second superfund (Unisuper) which i have nominated 100% International shares - the returns on my Unisuper is more than double my defined benefit fund (State Super SASS). I am at the stage where i can start withdrawing my super as i am retiring on 15 March. I need to consolidate the two super accounts into one - hopefully what i have will be able to last me till i conk off

I haven't forgotten the lunch i owe you - just need to get all my finance organised. We can have yum cha at Burwood if you like since it will be nearer your residence. I usually have yum cha at Zilver in Chinatown but parking is a bit difficult sometimes as people are all starting to return to the city on weekends.

When you are young, be as aggressive as possible - after all you have many years ahead of you. Even for older retirees some of us who do not need the money for a long period, we can take a more aggressive position. When markets drop they tend to bounce back up. We have not seen a prolonged bear market for a long, long time and i do not think we will see one in the next 10 years because interest rates are low and there is so much liquidity in the market.

A lot of my retiree friends have more than a million in their superfund (i am the poorest in my group ). They are all living very comfortably and i can see most of them are still quite thrifty (only vice is going out to eat nowadays). Their passive income from their super is definitely more than what they can spend. I would say a million (Aussie) in retirement is more than enough to live on at age 60 for a couple (no mortgage/rent). I am at that stage now and i have been worried over the last few years about this.

Since you are taking public transport, we can go anywhere then. My wife and i are still wary about taking public transport. We will decide when we are ready for it. You will probably find it very easy to recognise me - 178cm, 80kg and 85% white hair .

I have lived in Sydney for about 40 years now - never seen so much rain in my whole life in Sydney.

Many places will be flooded in NSW today and the next few days.

Supposed to go out for dinner in Chinatown tonight but with this rain being so crazy, my wife and i dare not even go out the front door !!

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Mar 20 2021, 02:02 PM

Warragamba dam which supplies most of Sydney's water supply is now over-spilling and those low-lying suburbs where the river passes through are all getting flooded. Never seen it so bad before.

Whole week raining - at least the rain will clear up on Wednesday . Cannot do any washing for the whole week!!

The last time i renewed in Canberra was 9 years ago - i had to call up and booked an appointment beforehand. We drove down the night before and stayed at a motel. You hand in your application around 9am and collect after lunch. They only do a limited number a day. The procedure is probably different now with Covid. Mine is not due until June next year.

Looks like weather is clearing up now where i am. It is now a lot brighter compared to this morning. Got a Tuesday night dinner with my retiree friends group at Wewok Kingsford tonight. Hopefully we will get a few days of sunshine from now.

Looks like the sun is finally out today!!

I have been to Canberra so many times i have forgotten the places of interest now. In the nineties, Canberra opened their casino before Sydney's Star Casino so every time we had visitors in Sydney (from Msia), we would drive them down to Canberra to visit the casino. Most of these visitors were not interested in visiting the tourist venues in Canberra and just wanted to spend time in the casino .

I quite like the War Memorial (it is a war museum) because as we get older, we learn to appreciate life during war a lot more (older people tend to reflect more on how their lives has changed compared to younger days). There is also the Telstra Tower where you have to drive through some winding road before you reach the top of the mountain. Parliament House is quite pretty and you can go inside the Parliament to have a walk around - you might want to drive through all the different embassies (it is quite near the Parliament) as well as visiting the old Parliament. There is a place where they have everything built in smaller denominations (Cockington Green??? - cannot recall the name now). Been to Canberra so many times as i used to love to drive long distances but now old man don't enjoy driving far nowadays .

I need to make a time to have yum cha with you - maybe if it is okay, we can go next week on Easter Saturday at Zilver at around 12noon? Take your partner along (if she wants to go along) and i will see if my wife wants to join us. Don't bring anything up what i have written in LYN as she doesn't know i have revealed so much of our personal life on LYN

Good that you can attend on 3 April Saturday around 12noon Zilver. Usually Saturday is not very busy but being a super long weekend, it might be slightly busier. I have been there quite a few Saturdays yum cha and it wasn't very crowded. My wife and i would normally walk around Chinatown after lunch and do a bit of shopping. We have been eating quite a lot out in Chinatown in the past few weeks .

I don't think you will be able to travel until next year (earliest) so no need to renew your passport. At the moment, the Aust govt won't allow us out unless it is an emergency (compassionate) or if you are relocating for longer than 3 months. It is so difficult to travel overseas nowadays and with the need to quarantine, visiting loved one overseas is close to being impossible.

See you on Easter Saturday

NSW is giving A$100 to be spent to revive businesses caught up in the Covid downturn

https://www.news.com.au/travel/nsw-governme...ea7a13f49ef0c96

My wife and i got the 4 vouchers each worth A$25/voucher per person. Two vouchers each can be spent on restaurants. Most of the restaurants we go to are on the list of approved restaurants. Since retirees eat out a lot, this is a good thing for a cheapskate retiree like me .

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Mar 27 2021, 06:07 AM

Good morning Kagenn, daylight saving has ended and we are now 2 hours different from Peninsular Malaysia now. Days are slowly getting shorter now.

Nice to meet you and your wife yesterday - my wife says you are very good looking. She was initially apprehensive about meeting someone she has no clue about but last night she told me you are a nice couple. If we had kids, they will probably be your age .

Enjoy whatever is left of Easter.

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Apr 4 2021, 05:13 AM

Long weekend coming to an end now. Weather has been fabulous the past few days - wish Sydney was like this whole year round. When i was younger, i didn't feel cold even in winter - i could just wear a light jacket at night even in winter but as we get older, we can really feel the cold now. We prefer warmer weather now - Brisbane is nice for oldies but i don't have any friends and relatives there.

We will see if i have some time for another lunch - maybe we can go to Bankstown Pho An one weekend Saturday (i don't like going on Sundays because restaurants are usually packed on Sunday (lunches).

Looks like coming week may get a little showery.

Keep in touch.

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Apr 5 2021, 05:32 AM

I was going to post this morning after i came back from morning walk to Coles but completely forgotten because my consolidation of the two super funds is finally happening today. I was so happy with the interest that the 2 super funds gave me from 15 March till now that i totally forgotten about posting - got A$21k for interest from the superfunds in the last 28 days. Even though i am now in a balanced strategy, that is fantastic but it is happening on the back of very strong markets (both internationally and overseas).

Now back to the weather - it is 9.6 deg in Randwick when i started walking there. Bloody freezing!! I had to wear my winter track suits and it still felt a little cold! Lucky the sun was bright and shiny!!

I bought a mid-sized Chanel for my wife last week and she is now asking for another Chanel bag after i told her about my super interest . I must learn to keep quiet now whenever my super jumps but i am the type of person who cannot keep quiet when good news come across. My share portfolio (outside super) has also jumped about 3% so never mind - lah .

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Apr 12 2021, 10:02 AM

Definitely agree Queensland has the best weather for retirees.

I have no friends/relatives in Queensland otherwise i won't mind trying retirement there.

Weather is starting to get cold in the mornings now in Sydney and my wife is starting to get headaches (due to the cold) and allergies. I myself don't mind the cold (like now) as it is not really that cold yet. I start getting uncomfortable in mid-June when morning temperature starts dropping to single digit.

Melbourne is so cold during winter. Brrrrr....

I remember my first visit to Melbourne in late June 1981 (during semester break) and stayed at my friend's place in Clayton. At that time, we were all Uni students and we had all studied at Taylor's College previously (Taylor's was located at the bottom of Pantai Hill then). Most of the the students in Taylor's ended up in Melbourne while i went to Sydney as my sister applied for NSW universities for me (via UCAC in those days). Good memories. It was bloody freezing in Clayton (i think it was something like -2 deg in Clayton (morning temp) the few days when i was in Melbourne. We were young then and it didn't feel that cold.Now thinking back that was 40 years ago!!

Shepperton in winter - wow, it is going to be cold (esp in the mornings/night).

Looks like there is a lot of confidence in the economy at the moment. House/unit price surging, strong share market as well as a strong Aussie. Everyone in Aust seems to be laughing now. Hope it stays that way for a long while.

I am applying to go back to KL in late May - if successful, i may be going back to KL at the end of May for a trial retirement. A bit scared about the Covid cases in Msia but my wife seems more scared about the cold coming soon.

Yes - i have been following Facebook group and according to them, all you need is to write a stat declaration and inform Border Force you will be away for at least 3 months - if you put a longer period your chance of approval is higher. I put one year on my application and i think chances will be very high.

The only problem with trying to get back to Aust is the expensive air fares and the 14-day quarantine. You also need to book your tickets a little ahead in advance. MAS used to bump passengers off last minute but recently seems to have stopped doing that because passengers are moving to SIA because of the unreliability of MAS services.

I bought a one-way Syd-Kul (me and my wife) and it cost A$1,720.