'Expat Blues'

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Yes Paul, but don't let it get to you.

A very wise woman once said to me - dont worry about anything that you can't control or change - its a waste of life.  So although these arrogant 'superior' Chinese types make me cringe, I dont let it get to me.  

There are so many more Pluses than Minuses here, so just 'Chill Man'

Anway, why not take up golf and once I'm in residence we can play as often as you like for gratis - just the buggy to pay for!

A great way to spend a day:)  

I dont want my wife (a very wise woman) to become a Golf Widow so I will have to restrict my games to maybe only twice a week    

Shane

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Hi Paul
This all sounds just like upper class England to me. I am based in the Channel Islands USA and the Far East. I guess because I never really lived in the UK except for a few years in the 80's I see the UK as a foreigner.When the "Bankers" have the sail-in weekends on their Swan 60s (Chartered for the weekend) they are the most arrogant people I have ever met.Yes some calm down and nearly accept you when they think you are on the same financial level...but to me it's always been about the person. I have some really great Chinese friends but they are "old money" (from the 60's) they would do anything for me and I for them, only because we respect each other as people.I think it's a problem in many countries not just Malaysia. These people are just rude it's that simple and they feel that money (sometimes a lot less than you think!) gives them the right to act so.
From the posts on this site I get the feeling that everyone is comfortable financially but may not be content.
I must admit I went into semi-retirement too early (20s) I then started working again in my 30s you need something.
I hope that you can find that happy medium as I am sure you will.
Martin  

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Hi Martin

Yes its everywhere not just Malaysia.

Old money - New money, it makes no odds.

Its the person inside, not their 'class', thats makes someone what they are.  Arrogant 'rich' people were arrogant before they had money and will still be arrogant when they lose it.............

Live and let live.  We have come across so many nice people here, rich, poor & in between.

Lets just ignore those that feel they are 'superior' to us mere mortals.

We retired at 44 and 41.  We were so busy making money that we did not have enough time to spend together, so we decided that at our age Time was more precious to us than money.  What a great decision!

Keep smiling

Shane

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Hi Shane
I could not agree more!!
If you are with the ones you love and care for that's all you need.

Martin

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hi,

And I also agree wholeheartedly with SAG and Martin. It's not where you are, it's who you're with. And it's not how much you've got, but how much you share.

I retired at 47. Excluding university, I'd worked for 23 years. I decided to balance this out by putting my feet up for another 23 years, so I'll be looking for a job in 2018.

I don't live surrounded by folks who have loads of money, so I never feel short of cash. Although I don't have a pension, I've some savings from an apartment sale in Singapore in 1996. I thought that it would last maybe 5 or 6 years. It's lasted 13, and now that I've sold the property in Portugal (the one that I bought in 1986 as a bolt hole/retirement place) I've got enough cash to either live in relative comfort in Malaysia or buy a house in the UK and live, don't know what.

I spent some time doing up an old boat.  I now have to give this up as it is too much.

I spend some time on administration for this forum.

If I decide to stay in Malaysia I plan to write a guide to the "Forts, Castles and Other Historical Fortifications in Malaysia." So far, I've only got the title, and the idea. I'll publish it myself online. But that's for tomorrow.

I am grateful that I have a lot of choice. And I would really like the Motour authorities to do away with the RM10,000 income rule so that others can also have similar choices.

regards, Scott

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You're all correct, wherever you go in the world you'll find good and not so good people. I don't want people to think that Malaysia is not a great place to be, based on my silly little whinges. If I had a choice between being back in the UK and here I would choose here , but as is human nature things do pee me off 

Before you move to another country you build an impression of what to expect and I'm sure that mine were correct. If I was asked for my advice about whether the city centre was a good place to chill out then I would have to say that it depends on the type of person you are, if you want hustle and bustle, good nightlife and vibrancy then KL Citys a great place to be, but it can be a little wearing, if you want things a little quieter with the option of the vibrancy then perhaps Penang or Melaka. Age I believe also plays a factor, its hard to build up a social circle to fill your days in the city when your peers are out working, and on top of that you're not a local.

We've only been here just over a year but everything has gone as planned, got the tax free car, got all the docs and Ids etc, travelled, bought a house and got my 75% back out of the FD just before the changes/deadline. So many things here have worked out just as envisaged. But living exactly one mile from the Petronas Towers means that we'll never escape the fact that we are in the very centre of KL, and even an escape from the city has to be planned to avoid the stress of the traffic! Malaysia (KL) may not be quite as cheap as I thought it was going to be, the people may not fit with the image I had of the people you see in the TV adverts, but when I sit back (all little moans aside) and think where else, the list is very short.

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"Superiority" >>> aren’t these traits merely to do with seriously bad manners – however, and by whomsoever, they are manifest?    Infuriating as it is - best to ignore or avoid  – and feel superior by so doing!   

I believe that "boredom" is part of the human condition (amongst others).  The real killer is Apathy – and none of you seem apathetic to me!

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I would look up apathetic in the dictionary but I just can not be bothered

Cheers

JJ

 

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JJ    

miraculous sunshine here today - but as usual the Winds do blaw....

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hi,

When I posted "retired at 47" the word retired was somewhat wrong. This was in 1996 and I spent some time trying to find the right word, or phrase, to describe the situation. No luck, things like "chill out," and "drop out" didn't do it.

What happened was that I stopped work. I'd had enough. I liked the work, liked the pay, but didn't much like the organisation, the bosses, and my co-workers. They were bring me down. And as I looked around it was all pretty much the same. So I just quit and needed to get out of Singapore (no employment, no stay) and there was Malaysia at 1/2 the price.

I also read the book, "The Joy of Not Working" and others like it. The comments in these books helped calm my nerves about the lack of a monthly wage. And so far, so good. From these books I also got a few financial guidelines, daft in themselves but worth remembering, like, "spend less than you earn OR earn more than you spend."  It's my choice and that's the great thing about it all. 



regards, Scott

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I am intrigued and inspired by this thread and want to read more to see if it influences my decision making. I am inspired by the ages that you retired at ...Scott 47, MartinB..20's, CA probably got rich when he was about 12 and quit in his 30's...fantastic. I 'stopped' at 52 and thought I was doing quite well but against you people I must have struggled. I look back now at people who are in the same jobs in the same houses and still paying off the mortgage and nothing seems to have changed. (except they are now probably in negative equity!!).
But now I am intrigued. When I say I stopped at 52, my wife continues to work on a lucrative contract and is only just 52 so is now due to stop also. However, when I read some of these posts it makes me wonder whether now is the time. We are not new to SE Asia and have been visiting for 35 years or more. We sometimes get bored there and simply 'asia'd out'. I am concerned that when we jump out of this into MM2H then we may get bored again. Some of you seem to have some dissatisfaction in whatever form it takes where others seem to have found contentment.
Others write about Australia as being an answer yet we are really over it here now after 15 years in Sydney. Rag and Brian think it's the go here and although I am still madly in love with Australia and all it has to offer I still need to move on and do something else. I am passionate about New Zealand but can't return there like many Kiwi's because of the tax laws.
I came from a poor background and thought the answer was 'money'. After travelling for many years and visiting and living in more than 50 countries I decided that it was 'lifestyle not money' and that became my mantra. I now feel like the work went on too long and I can't believe my own mantra any more. This thread is helping me to believe it so I will read on.
We are on the edge ready to jump and under the current economic climate there are possibly a few holes in the parachute.
Loopi.

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 Self funding retirement is obviously a challenge and I wondered if the ex poms amongst you (me included) know about the changes in the UK pension laws. At one time you had to have 49 years of stamps to qualify for a state pension. The government introduced new laws recently to reduce those qualifying years to only 30. You are allowed to pay back stamps which are roughly about 350GBP per year for around 12 back years plus any years up until the age of 65 which then gives you a pension of around 100GBP per year plus 60% for the spouse if you have the full 30 years.Otherwise you get so many 30ths of the pension. On advice, my wife also paid up her own stamps so when we are both 65 we would get around 100GBP each per week. Now if you worked a while in England...or had kids there (if the mother stayed at home to take care of the kids and claimed child allowance..those years also add into the qualifying years), or went to college or University (those years count too) you can soon get up to your 30 years. For us it was a 'no brainer' . We had to pay around 5-6,000 GBP in back stamps but if we live beyond 66 we're in profit.

Depending on where you lived during all those years might also help you to qualify especially if you move back to the UK to live. For example, Australia had an agreement until 2001 but withdrew that year. It worked out basically that if you lived and worked in Oz for say 20 years prior to 2001 and then moved back to UK those years would be counted towards your stamps. They are not counted if you continue to live in Australia. Many other countries also had agreements.

I am surprised when talking to English folks that don't know about the pension stuff and as it's not means tested and can be paid anywhere in the world it certainly tops up the weekly income.

There are a few downsides to this good news. For you young folks out there , they raised the retirement age in stages to 68 depending on what year you were born. For CA and various others of you..they will probably raise the retirement age to 75 by the time you get there. This is one of the few benefits I can think of for being nearly 60 already
 
I have phone numbers and address of the place in Newcastle that deals with all this stuff and will supply it and more information if anybody is interested.
Loopi.

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I just found some posts by FCS and Qjumper that already stated some of this stuff in an ealier thread. Some bits of it have changed or become clearer and as far as I am aware it isn't yet possible to get an exact  and accurate forecast  of your pension entitlements until the software is finally updated. (UK spring 2009). I am constantly trying to figure it out and the IR never fail to reply to my query with a five or six page explanation that leaves me even more confused. They also send replies by pigeon and by the time they get here (3 months) I forget what the question was...email seems to be out of the question.
If you are in the UK you can do it yourself online I believe but for us foreigners we have to be patient.
Loopi.

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Hi Loopi

Yes my wife and I are fully aware of the new rules - 30ys contributions = full pension. Having taxed us to death in the UK, this is the first decent thing Labour has done for us in 10 years!!!!!

We have both paid sufficient voluntary contributions to achieve this new lower requirement.  Now we must wait 14 years + 17 years before we can be on the receiving end.  But its a great investment return!

Also before 5.4.09 the contribution rates for missing years was quite reasonable but since then (only this week) the rates for all missing years has increased a lot.

The Work and Pensions web site is really easy to use but first you must obtain a Gateway ID - using a UK address  ( do you have family whose address you could use?).  With this you can easily check online your Pension forecast and projections. I did this only yesterday to obtain confirmation that we both are entitled to full pensions.

And yes letters and emails do take a while to be reponded to.

Have a look at

http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/



Have fun

Shane

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Hi Shane,
We too have been playing the pension game for the last couple of years. I now have 29/30ths and my wife has 28/30ths...the shortfall comes from the fact that in the last letter they sent us they slipped in that years in college or university counted towards the 30 stamps. We subsequently phoned them with several questions but could get no clarity on that issue. They said we had to wait unitl they could give us a full forecast this spring (UK). I got a letter yesterday without requesting it giving me a forecast as of 5th April 2008?? I don't know why. It was dated 1st April '09 so if they had waited just a few days they could have given me an up to date one.
It's a little bit of messing about but I intend to live until I'm 90 just to get my own back and it will be the best investment I ever made.
So ...I'm calculating backwards and figuring you are 51 and 48...my word ..you are now on my list of early retirees.(BTW..we are 58/53)
I have to say that I am nosey and favour all  profiles being viewed by regular members because I am fascinated by the 'story so far' for all the folks that post here.
It's now starting to be an early retirement club and I think it's fantastic.
Loopi.