At our age, nothing is more important than making ourselves and our other half happy. I am sure you and your wife will enjoy living in malaysia.

Living in KL is not a problem for you financially. The only thing left outstanding in your plan is medical insurance. It’s good to research now. Because you need to undergo medical checkup and also a waiting period. Get you and your wife a family coverage of about RM1m pa and no lifetime limit, and guaranteed renewal too. Insurance here must have “life” portion and “medical” portion. You don’t need the “life” portion so put “medical” portion to the max, “life” portion to min.

There are many choice of insurance companies. Allianz, HLA, prudential etc etc. No good to ask for recommendations from relatives. Once you ask, then you are stuck with the relative. Best is you research and compare the medical policy from different companies, and once you have selected the policy, only ask your relatives whether they know any agent from that company.

Actually the public hospitals in Malaysia is not that bad. The only bad thing is you have to wait in the long queue. Also there could be times when the hospitals run out of medicine supplies. Hopeful with the change of government, we can have better service. I have been to selayang and sungai Buloh hospitals, the environment is quite modern and they have all the medical equipment and specialists there. So, even without private insurance, there are still public hospitals we can go to. And really cheap too.

thks for the info...
in this case,...it costed about 1/2 days wage to wash a car in M'sia, where else it just cost 1 hour's wage in Australia...

I have gone through a few rounds of crashes. 1987, 1994, 1998, 2008.

Since 2008, there is no serious crash. That is when most of the youngsters born in 80s and 90s started to invest. And they never been through the plight of a crash. Some talked very big like investment guru  So much confidence backed with numbers, charts and theories....

Until they experience their first crash, then I am sure they will learn what is risk and returns.

Same thing happened to Greece and Venezuela. Before the crisis, nobody would have thought the country would go bankrupt. There were 101 theories to back up stability of the economy. But you can see what happened to them now...

And look at Gary’s friend who only invest in Aussie banks. A big chunk of portfolio was gone

Diversification is the universally accepted practice to mitigate investment risk. Because there is no certainty in investment world. Anything could happen. And usually they catch you by surprise. By that time, it would be too late for you to do anything.

I have invested in property since ~30 years ago. To the contrary, the property price has gone up tremendously. Maybe I have better luck ? 

May I ask what has my credibility got to do here ? In a forum, my point of view is more important than credibility. If it makes sense, that is the thing a reader can take away. If my point of view doesn’t make sense, even if I am the most credible person in the world, how would you benefit from it ?

Sorry I cannot remember, did I said something bad about you previously ? Just curious....
Bank of Australia ? Never heard of it

You must be talking about Commonwealth Bank of Australia 

Gary was telling you a real life story. His good friend loss million of dollar by holding substantial shareholdings in banking sector during the financial crisis.

I don’t understand what are you trying to get to....are you trying to prove his friend did the wrong thing by selling the shares ?
Diversification is trying to address the issue of “what if something goes wrong”

Even if a country’s economy is extremely sound, there are also benefits to diversify to other countries.

Just look at the thread in this forum. There are SGX, ASX, US stock, ETFs etc. Forummers here do diversify. They don’t put all their eggs in one basket.

However, if you feel that your investment objective is to invest in only Malaysia, that is entirely up to you. Nobody here can stop you. Everybody has his own choice and preference.

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/4600862/+300

Starting from post #308 page 16 to page 18

I think a person's attitude to life is very important (to be happy) whether in retirement or working. Now if we are able to appreciate/value our hard-earned assets/possessions more easily than others, we generally tend to be happier than others. I think the secret is being able to feel gratitude (感恩) for the things we have. If we are able to do this, we will feel that a lot of times, we really don't need more (money) in life.

Like in my case, compared to my group of Msians friends (all migrated to Sydney in 70s/80s), i am probably one of the poorest in the group but i am one of the happiest. Most of them have built up retirement/income-producing assets of more A$4-5mil (doesn't include their house) but yet they feel poor. They are all in their 60s/70s and they keep telling me to working to generate more assets/retirement funds. I ask them how much they need in retirement and they don't really know because they don't really calculate/plan. I don't really compare myself with these friends (they all have a few kids so may need a bit more to help the kids out ) because when you start to compare then you will feel miserable.

A very good link by sky18 - must say i learnt a few things from it.

Hi Gary it is good to know that you are staying in AU but choose to retire in KL, at least MY isn't that bad right

From my observation people in AU work until very old because the welfare there is too good and people thought they can always depend on the government, which I think is a really bad idea
It is better to depend on ourselves rather than on government. This is especially the case in MY because we don't have good welfare system but is not too far off with western countries like AU even though the welfare is so good. This is because (i) with inflation the money we get from the welfare is smaller in value in years to come so never depend on that (ii) as you said the welfare system is not sustainable and the increase in retirement age proposal meaning people have to work even longer and (ii) let's be frank, those in power will only think for themselves and not the people (as in the dramatic frequent-change of PM in AU and just 2 weeks ago AU has a new PM, again. I already lost count of how many PM change in AU for the last few years)

P/S: I saw your signature that you stay in Randwick. I stayed there for some time and really love Randwick. It is nostalgic thinking back

For the young man and woman who have set their mind on FIRE, I would like to throw you guys and girls a bigger picture :

1. Retiring early at age 40 sounds nice.

2. But if you think beyond yourself, your plan has a significant impact on the economy, society and human advancement. Sounds exaggerating ?

3. In economics, RE means a person does not contribute to the production of GDP anymore. He no longer is a net contributor to the economy

4. He is now a net consumer of scarce resources of the economy

5. An economy needs new blood to support the old and young people. That’s why countries with aging population face economic issues (eg Japan). If everybody retires at 40s, the economy will collapse. Just imagine 50% of the population are retirees, with the other 50% produce necessities for everyone else.

6. If you don’t understand in macro-economics terms, then think of it from the taxation point of view. When more people retire early, the tax revenue of a country will reduce. If a country has less income, the economy as a whole will suffer. The government cannot afford public services and the society will be in chaos

7. We all know our EPF is a quasi-ponzi scheme. If there are no new contributors, it will collapse. Remember those who retire at age 40 still have 15 years to go before they can dip into their retirement pot

8. From science progression point of view, people in the mid-40s are at their prime, most productive and most knowledgable. If all scientists have the same FIRE mindset, mankind won’t achieve what we achieved today. There will be very few inventions

9. If the seniors in work place retire early, the juniors may not be able to learn the trade in the most efficient manner.

10. RE is a selfish act. You enjoy the education provided to you for first 20 years. Bear in mind education are paid for by taxes from your predecessors who work hard. If they RE, taxes will drop, and you will not be able to enjoy the free education

11. After you graduate, you learn the skills from experienced seniors who don't retire early. You add value to yourself and progress through the corporate ladder and make more money

12. But when you reach 40 y/o, you have made enough money to retire and say bye bye

13. Instead of giving back to your country/society, you leave them and enjoy your personal lives. Younger generation will suffer

14. And when you become older and weaker 30 years later, you consume the resources and become a burden to the society.

RE at 40 years old is too early. If you have this mindset, you are a selfish person in the big picture. Work at least to the official retirement age. The country/society/younger generation needs you. Give back and contribute your part so that both the generations before and after you can enjoy the benefit you have enjoyed.

This is very true. Once you have achieved FI, you will have a lot of leisure time. You can travel all you want but after a while, you will probably be so sick of travelling. You will need a solution to your free time otherwise you will be dead-set bored. Having somewhere to go (to occupy your time) would be highly sought after.

I am currently working so i find time passes extremely quickly (even though bored at work but i am getting good money to sit down and do nothing  ). Once retired getting some hobbies would probably be quite desirable.

I not yet reach stage FI/RE, but I think if can I will just continue to work. Right now factor in weekend, public holiday, annual leave the total free activity days per annum are about 140++ days, for me the number is quite good enough.

Other than that, during working days nite time also can spend few hours on something that I preferred, isnt that bad to keep working unless I am hating my own job.

Like bro Garysydney mentioned on travel too frequent, keep doing the same thing whole year 365 days probably is too boring. What make it worst is when you are the only one retired early but your friend are all still working, last time you only need to find your friend once in a while but now your everyday is weekend you must have activity to keep the life moving but hardly got people free like you to entertain you.

Worst come to worst retired early just make yourself contribute to the statistic of retire early die early.

If you guys plan to RE, what would you do, instead? Travel? Part-time work? Volunteering in a charity? Join NGO?

We can afford to spend 6mths every year in each country but i find life a lot more interesting in KL esp after retirement (and we have no children). Sydney can be very boring (even though we have plenty of friends here after having lived here for so long) in old age. You see a lot of lonely old people here.

Actually i don't want to reveal such a personal and distressing story as i may one day meet-up with a forummer when i go back to KL but there is nothing wrong with people knowing a bit about my life history.

Due to my strong credit standing, i was approached by one of Alan Bond's (chairman of Bond Cord and was one of the richest man in Aust) associates in 1986 to 'warehouse' some of his holdings because at that time Alan Bond was slowly getting into financial trouble and needed people to hold a large parcel of his Bond Corp shares and I was given 'incentives' to do so. This made me so brazen because all the banks were 'chasing' to give me credit because when i showed them my trading statements (which was all on borrowed money from the broker), they went 'head over heel' to chase my business. Actually with hindsight, i could have made a lot of money because i had 2 brokers giving me unlimited credit. I was not street smart enough to handle the situation because i was very egoistic then - have you heard about the phrase 'Pride comes before a fall'? 

I was lucky that the property that i eventually inherited from my mum was not registered under my name otherwise i would have lost that. My mum only transferred it to my name in 1996 after my dilemma.

I am now a 56 year year old man and with such experience behind me, i am a lot more conservative than before because at my age now, there is no more 'second chance'.

Actually, the one who had the biggest shock was my brother - he nearly fainted when he found out i had 'pledged' it to the broker. I had plenty of time to close the account at Bain&Co (June 1985) and in fact, i was making money initially in 1984-1985 because i was long and the bull-run went all the way till Oct 1987. In March 1986, i felt the market was in need of a correction so i started 'shorting' a lot of stocks. One stock that i lost the most was Enterprise Gold. I started shorting from 80c all the way till $2.45 (when my credit ran out). The stock peaked at $2.80 in Oct 2017 and it crashed all the way down to 30c (in 3 days) before being delisted. Those were the 'cowboy days' and money was everywhere for those with good credit.

I was lucky i didn't get my Honkie broker into trouble because i was a 'corporate' client and all the bad debts went into the corporate debt. The broker would have been wiped out if i had been a private client. When i watch that show (can't recall the name of that movie) about Barings Bank being brought down by Nick Leeson, it reminded me of my young, immature days.

I think nowadays a lot of broker firms have come a long way and credit is a lot harder to get compared to the 80s.

fuhh. this thread again proved 1 Chinese saying.

钱是你的就是你的。
不是你的怎样都不会得到，就算得到也不一定长久。

wow. just wow.

I didn't care much about Mr Lee's activities. My only experience with his companies was a time when i held quite of big parcel of Sunshine Aust shares and someone wanted to push the share price up. Sunshine Aust was trading at about A$2.25 (my entry price averaged $1.80) and someone with the name of Colin Sim (i think even today Colin is one of the richest man around in Sydney) rang me up (i don't know how he got my number!!) and told me if i wanted to sell, he is a willing buyer of my parcel of shares at current market price. Sensing that someone wanted to push Sunshine Aust shares up, i went in and bought more of Sunshine shares myself. Within 2 days, the price shot up to A$2.85 and i offloaded all my shares and walked away with quite a good profit  . I remembered this vividly because i had never been much interested in Mr Lee's companies as a lot of people warned me about Mr Lee's companies because his company prices are all 'artificially manipulated' so i 'stayed away' from his companies.

There was a very rich doctor from Batu Pahat (he passed away 2 years ago) by the name of Dr Liew (both husband and wife doctors) and i know he was a good friend of Mr Lee. He lost about A$500k (around 1989) in Mr Lee's companies because the share price collapsed but he had a 'personal guarantee' from Mr Lee that he will never lose money in his companies. I don't know Dr Liew myself but his best friend (also a doctor from Batu Pahat) is one of my best friends.

Do you think i would hold a big parcel of Mr.Lee's Sunshine Aust without knowing what is happening? Do you think i am just an ordinary 'mum and dad' investor? When you read my post, you should be able to tell that i am also part of a syndicate and not operating on my own.

Appreciate your sharing, Garysydney

With the gen z nowadays aiming to achieve FIRE, I foresee some will take the 'go big or go home' or YOLO route and try to make a big win of RM3-5m by their 40s and then 'fire their bosses'. Some usual temptations include money games, speculating in stock market and gambling. Not many want to start real sustainable businesses.

Your advice is very timely.

Lately, I see a few young people comment about "digression". If the "digression" is presented like it was in /k, I would agree it should be moderated.

But the "digression" are, by and large, relevant to the topic.

From the comments, I notice the following :

1. Lack of patient - I think these young people lack patient to read opinion. They just want quick answer. "Noises" (in their opinion) is a waste of their precious time. When they do not get their answers, they feel agitated. They feel that when they research a topic, the topic must be well-presented to them, rid of "irrelevant" information

2. Lack of tolerance - I think these young people lack tolerance of differing opinion. When they read something "offensive" to them, they will take it personal

3. Narrow minded - I think these young people are too focus, and do not have a broader picture of their own life and that of the community/society as a whole. They see things from their narrow tunnel of vision, only from their own perspective

4. Easily instigated - when they see some words they don't like, they will easily get angry and feel the need to respond

However, on the bright side, at least they voice out their grievance/dissatisfaction, instead of keeping quiet. This is a good thing 

Let's not forget a democratic society will only progress when opinions, big or small, good or bad, right or wrong are being presented freely and openly, not suppressed. The opinion will then be judged by all the readers as a whole.

"Small", "bad" and "wrong" opinion will not get past a page of two and eventually be drowned in no time. "Big", "good" and "right" opinion will be further discussed. This is the natural process of how a topic come to a consensus.  

Let's celebrate our diversity, and learn to live happily with opinion you disagree. Remember, a few hundred years ago, Majority still think the world is flat.

Isnt showtime the one instigating other people over disagreements? What type of hypocrisy is this?

The rm2million will have to be liquid assets, and not including residence.