bakedbean

Have got MM2H visa and therefore have a ringgit deposit sitting there, and nothing you can do about that if you want the visa.

But have got some spare dosh in foreign currencies generating a wee bit of interest. And it really is a wee bit of interest these days. Just thinking about ringgit fixed deposits. Looks like you can get around 4 percent interest these days. But....but.....I have this nasty nervous feeling.

I have no plans to leave Malaysia. Ringgits would be handy. It's my only home. But.....but...... why am I nervous? Anyone else feel like this?

JC3

Hi,

Yes, it’s a concern. What with China being Malaysia's largest trading partner, and talk of the oil price going down again....and of a property bubble in Malaysia...

I wouldn’t like to see capital controls introduced in Malaysia again. I also don’t fancy my ATM withdrawals being restricted to 60 Euros a day like in Greece (or 50 Euros given they’ve run out of notes)

I just looked at UK house prices over the last 4 years for fun. Here’s some rough calculations.

If you had sold your UK home in Q1 2011 at the average UK house price you would have got £185,000. Coming to Malaysia and exchanging it at RM4.85 / GBP 1 and you would have had RM 897,250.

Four years later if you wanted to buy your UK house back again it would cost £205,000 (Q1 2015 average price) or RM 1,158,250 (at RM 5.65 / GBP1) i.e. an extra RM 261,000.

Whilst in sterling terms UK house prices over 4 years rose by about 11%, in ringgit terms UK house prices rose by about 30%. To be ahead you’d need to have been making about 6% a year on your ringgit investments. More than 6% a year once you factor in property buying and selling costs, RPGT etc.

Then again if you've got some GBP income, you've had a 20% pay rise from the exchange rate in the last year!

JC3

bakedbean

Hehe there's no end to these exchange rate conundrums. We've moved around a fair bit and our assets have washed through various currencies over the years. Having made good profits on all of our homes bought and sold, we then had our first loss in Thai Baht buying and selling our home in Thailand. Until someone pointed out that if we mentally converted back purchase and sale price into Sterling, then we would've made a profit So we smile and think of that house sale in Sterling.

man from emas

I can remember many years ago in Singapore when they were on pare, then they stopped taken MYR on the buses etc as it had slide down 5.sen, now its about 2.80 -1. The MYR long term trend is without a doubt downwards, we also have the MM2H FD, & several others yes the interest rate is better than most countries, the big loss will be when ever the place here is sold where to shift it without a loss.

xizzles

Well, I do have a small amount of Ringgit in a bank account (there was a point in time that I was giving the MM2H visa the once over, but that time has since well and truly passed) - and it hurts to think how badly that's depreciated against the major currencies. When I changed the lot, it was going at 2.2 to the Singapore Dollar. It's now tipping the scales at 2.8. That's a painful loss to swallow!

Edited to add: I'm also nervous about the recent news out from Kuala Lumpur about how the Chinese and Malays are at it again over the theft of a hand phone... Wonder if that's going to cause more trouble for the country and the Ringgit...

bakedbean

Yeh, but we may be up in the clouds with angels playing on their harps by then, so should we care?


There's a lot of bad news out there at the moment with the Ringgit and Malaysia. Yesterday we were thinking about switching some dosh to ringgits and get a nice little earner. Today we have both flip-flopped back, thinking better to stay with some (hopefully) stable foreign currencies and bite the bullet on the low interest rates. Decision made