Actually you can clearly project what will happen in the future - people living here will not have sufficient funds to live and have to resort to crime to justify their daily means.

I didn't know the culture in Malaysia very well as i have lived in Sydney too long having never worked in Msia at all. Coming back here and living here makes me realise how lucky i have been living in Sydney in my working years. I would never have got as far as i have living here in Msia. I am glad i migrated at a very age. I have the funds for a very comfortable retirement so can choose whether i want to live in Msia or return to Aust. I can see the future of the nons in this country is looking extremely bleak unless you are fortunate to be born in a wealthy family. Very sad to see this happen in this country.

Actually my huge group of ex-Msian friends (mostly Chinese) have all done very well belonging to the boomer generation - most of them live in Maroubra, Malabar and Matraville - we were the first generation migrants and were very thrifty in our earlier days. Their children are mostly ABCs and will never return to Msia to live - the children have all mostly graduated from Uni (somehow we first generation migrants all view tertiary education as extremely important and push the children hard in their studies). If i had children, i would definitely remained in Sydney for my retirement.

I first joined LYN to find out retirement costs in Msia and i didn't expect that it is so much cheaper. I tend to be a worrier in nature and always make sure that if i spend $10, i have at least $100 in my pocket . Somehow migrant life has made us very independent and also a stronger in nature.

Now that i have lived 13 months in KL, i am beginning to understand the plight of the nons (especially if you are not very rich). I didn't realise all these difficulties of getting a good education for the nons unless you are willing to pay. I now understand why so many people want to migrate. I now am beginning to realise how we have been so lucky living in Aust. Aust has a totally different culture but at least migrants are still given a fair go in life.

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Jul 2 2022, 09:29 PM

Just renewed my rrv (subclass 155) for 5 years for A$431.

Got 5 years to decide if i want to go back to Sydney to live/retire.

Did it online - quite easy but took about 30 minutes to complete.

Hello my friend, inflation is increasing in Msia but i am bringing back Aussie so it is still very cheap compared to Sydney prices. Kopitiam prices is still very cheap compared to our Sydney prices (average A$20 per plate for kopitiam types of food in Sydney). No doubt the plate sizes is smaller in KL compared to Sydney but the difference in price (esp after factoring in the exchange rate) is astronomical. Even restaurants with air-conditioning here in KL is about half the Sydney price - the only thing is a lot of restaurants here add in 10%sst and 6% service charge - something we don't have in Sydney.

Only thing that gets on my nerves is how people drive here - people here drive like lunatics!! I don't drive fast so i learn to cope with all their erratic driving behavior. We got to watch everywhere because you will get people driving against the traffic sometimes (people going the wrong way in one-way streets). I never have much to complain about driving on Sydney streets but in KL, i see a lot of crazy drivers and riders here. Lucky i go out only at off-peak hours.

Stay in touch!

I think KL drivers are a lot worse than Lidcome drivers.

I will relate something fresh in my mind. Yesterday i was out for my morning walk at Solaris Mont Kiara and there was this car stopped in the middle of the road for about 30 seconds with 3 cars behind him. The cars behind just stopped and didn't do anything - nobody knew why the front car has stopped. After a long while the front car started turning right into a one-way lane. In Sydney, everyone would have blasted their horns but here everyone just patiently allowed this front car to turn. This front car had no indicators on and was turning illegally (slowly) into a one-way lane and cars behind just sat quietly for at least about 50 seconds. Here nobody gives a shit about the law because they know it is so easy to get out of anything. In Sydney i will be terrified breaking the law because i know consequences will be mean huge fines and possibly a jail term.

Catch up with you again.

CPI 7.3% - Looks like interest rates set to rise higher. Aussie dollar going up slightly expecting RBA will increase at least 0.5% in Nov

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/int...98a04d8d6f392af

Standard variable rate in CBA now 7.05%
https://www.commbank.com.au/home-loans/interest-rates.html

A lot of people expected 0.5% in Oct but RBA only offered 0.25%. Now they expect at least 0.5 on Melb Cup day (1st Tues in Nov) - see the Aussie dollar going up slowly now. RBA is afraid going up too fast will create a recession in Aust which is why they dare not increase too fast but with the latest inflation (was a shocker!), RBA has no choice now.

7.3% inflation rate is a shocker!! No one expected inflation to be this high.

Usually RBA announce the rate on Melbourne Cup day (Victoria has a public holiday on that Tuesday due to the Cup) around 2.30pm - just before the Melbourne Cup starts.

Home loan borrowers will be the hardest hit esp those that borrow to the max - a lot of analysts are saying that housing prices will drop quite heavily in the coming few years (esp in Sydney and Melb as they have gone up the most).

Money market is betting on 0.5% or higher next week - AUD is currently 0.648789 after having been as low as 62c the past couple of weeks. If standard variable rate for home loans hit 9%, you may see a lot of distressed loans.

Let's see what happens next Tues - i am predicting 0.5%

Thank you Hansel.

Whichever way it goes, it will be another 0.5 for the rest of this year. So if RBA goes 0.5% in Nov, then borrowers will have a happy Dec

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Oct 28 2022, 12:37 PM

Yes - in Aust all interest rates (borrowings and depositors) are linked in to what the RBA does. You will find term deposit rises as well (but not as much/fast as borrowing rates).

Quite a big proportion of the population (esp the younger generations) in Aust have very high borrowings (esp Sydney and Melb) and if they had bought recently, they will see increases in repayments quite disturbing. Aussies have been very lucky in the past 30 years in that home repossessions by banks have been very low. Whether we see home repossessions by banks increase substantially will be interesting as this may cause some headaches for the govt.

P's:

I have a Egyptian colleague (now 65 y.o.) with a A$1.31mil loan (used to owe A$1.65mil) who have 5 properties just 2 years ago - sold off 2 in the past 12 months and pocketed quite a big profit even though he had to pay capital gains tax. He only earns A$60k gross/yr (wife doesn't work with a dependent high-school daughter in year 10). He did a self-managed superfund and bought 2 properties in Campbelltown/Casula with his self-managed superfund. He calls me every now and then as i have lent him quite a lot of money before (to tie him over as he couldn't manage his house repayments so he is eternally grateful to me ). He was just telling me last week if he had not sold his 2 investment properties, he would face about A$2,950/mth EXTRA in repayments - bankruptcy probably for him. Luckily now he has enough equity in his properties so he is crossing his fingers that interest rates won't go up too high. Luckily his rentals for his properties have increased tremendously (all landed properties he holds now) recently.

My Egyptian's friend story is so fascinating - i can't resist not telling it.

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Oct 28 2022, 01:33 PM

Sorry - just saw your post.

If RBA puts up 0.5% in Nov, it is unlikely they will do anything in Dec - don't forget X'mas is a big thing for Aussies. If they put another 0.25% in Dec after putting in 0.5% in Nov, this will kill the economy. Lowe is a very conservative chap and he likes doing things slowly while in America, Fed does it more aggressively by cutting 0.75% each time. Dow Jones is slowly creeping upwards lately so it appears the market players in US thinks that rate rises are moderating - hopefully inflation has already peaked in US.

I have always been very aggressive in my investment approaches but i have started to reduce my exposure to stocks lately (the returns from the last 10-15 years in stock investment would never be repeated again in the foreseeable future and we may see years with negative returns which was quite unthinkable just a couple of years back). In Aust, we have seen many years of good solid returns with our superfunds but this kind of performance will unlikely be repeated in the next 5-10 years. The baby boomers was a very lucky generation (with hindsight) in terms of asset price appreciation in Aust.

I have to admit my prediction is wrong

Have to eat the humble pie and keep quiet now . I am surprised the Aussie has not dipped after the 0.25% announcement today - with the increasing difference in interest rates between US and Aussie, we may see the Aussie going down to US60c level soon.