the troubadour

For those folk living out retirement in Penang or elsewhere in Malaysia, do you so your present situation as being a life time one?
Perhaps you see yourself when becoming frail as returning to your country of origin? How do you see yourself on real old age as living in Malaysia if do indeed decide to remain? Or if becoming alone due to loss of partner.

bakedbean

Do you see your present situation as being a life time one?
I think my situation will change but my crystal ball is currently broken, so who knows.

If becoming alone due to loss of partner?
This is something I have considered a lot lately, for reasons I won't go into on here. Yes I would stay in Malaysia if that happened. No reason not to.

When frail/real old age? Move back to "home" country
There would be no point in my moving back to "home" country (UK) as I have no close relatives there. No-one to oversee a frail Ms Bakedbean who has lost marbles. And to pay for any kind of home help/carer would be extremely expensive. So....no.
My long term strategy, and strangely enough was talking with a friend about this only last week, is to stay here in Penang. I have a few other good friends who think the same as me, and hopefully we would all keep a look out for each other. Try to stay fit and healthy as far as possible. At some point, take on a "live in maid" to help out around the house. Not something I would wish to do, but just being realistic about old age.
I think you also need to have a trusting lawyer on board at this point too, to oversee the dosh.

So...that's my Plan at the moment*

*Having said all that, you really never know what is around the corner in life, so best to keep all options open.

ex reg

Just been in Perth and Margaret River etc for a few weeks.

What a great city Perth is if you like outdoor activities.

Mind you Friday nights is a buster if trying to get a drink.

Lot more expensive eating out compared to Malaysia.

But we had a great time.

the troubadour

What would be your thoughts on retirement in Perth? Your right of course very expensive these days and value not readily found.
Still Perth is popular with Singaporean and Malaysian immigrants and only a shortish flight away.
Glad you enjoyed it. You just missed the heat that we are experiencing now and for the rest of the week.

ex reg

For me we'd have to have lived and worked there and developed friends and stuff.
If we'd've done that imo it would be right up there with anywhere I've seen.

It was warmish in Perth but the nights were quite cool in MR and Denmark.

32ish is really my liveable maximum.
Dunno if the flies get too much in the hotter weather, they were bearable when we were there.
Surprised at the 'lack' of seafood generally in that part of Australia.

Marron were ok but not as nice as I remember from 20 years ago.

Oh yeah the accommodation looked fantastic.

Bluenose1

For me, retirement is Melaka, given this is where my wife comes from and we are planning to build a house here. However, as BB mentioned above, things can change, sometimes at very short notice. Take our situation. Yes, our (for that read my wife's) plan was always to retire to Malaysia but that was a long-term plan which started when we got married in 2008. At that time, my wife came to live in the UK and we honsetly thought we would be there at least until I reached retirement age. That is due to be in 2020 (although who knows if/when the UK plans on retirement will change again before then?). Then, last July, I found out that I was being made redundant. I looked on it then as a challenge. However, as time went by and although I had a few interviews, I never actually received a job offer, despite twice getting through 2 interviews and having face-to-face third interviews. Then the phone stopped ringing even with enquiries as to availability.

At that point, we sat down and had a real serious discussion. We had already bought in the services of a Financial Advisor to look into the possibility of me merging 3 of my pension schemes, with a fourth (ex British Rail) being good enough to stand on its own. It was going to be do-able, but only if we emigrated to Malaysia with its lower Cost of Living. So here we are!

As to whether it will be forever, I have already intimated to my wife that, should something unfortunately happen to her and I outlive her, then I will almost certainly sell up whatever I have here and return to the UK. I do have 2 children and 1 grandchild (with another due next month) in the UK. I also have a brother, sister-in-law and several nephews, nieces, great nephews and great nieces in the UK along with a number of cousins.

That is the current situation. But who is to say what will happen in 10, 20 or even 30 years time?

Rish

Wow, I'm going throug a similar predicament - I got made redundant in August, got lots of phone calls for jobs back then..... now it's all gone quiet. I'm now thinking of moving to Malaysia from London. How has it been for you in Malaysia?

Bluenose1

How has it been for me in Malaysia? Well, so far so good. I guess we are fortunate in that most of my wife's family are from, and still live in or near Melaka. The house next door to her sister became available to rent from last November, which, at that time was perfect. She arranged the rental and that enabled us to ship all our things (we brought just about everything imaginable, but did leave the kitchen sink!) and we were able to arrange for S-I-L to accept delivery - that was in December. We didn't actually make it out here until March (but that's another, long, story!).

My wife owns land nearby and we have started work - we've had it all cleared & had tonnes of soil laid to level it off, although we do need a lot more! We have finally decided on an architect and have seen some initial drawings. My wife is actually meeting with him today to make some alterations. All being well, the architect will be able to submit them for approval either late this month or early December.

Having my wife's family nearby has been a tremendous help and they have all accepted me (apart from the odd hiccough when I was borrowing family cars and they broke down - inevitably I got the blame!) as has the extended family. Whenever we visit, everyone is quite welcoming, and genuinely seem happy and pleased to see us. I think that has helped me to settle here much more quickly than I thought. What has also helped is that I use Skype fairly regularly to have video calls with my family back in Blighty and can also keep in touch with other family members and friends via Facebook.

I do still struggle with the heat and humidity to the extent that we still have the aircon on all night in the bedroom. I have made a little progress though when I sit in the lounge - I now rarely have the aircon on but the wall-mounted electric fan is on constantly when I'm in there. Saves a bit on the electric as well!

All-in-all, we've been here just over 8 months now, I am on my second LTSVP visa and have also got a Malaysian Driving Licence so things are still going pretty well and I have no real complaints.

Rish

Thank you very much for sharing that with me, very useful. I have been to Melaka and it is a very nice place. Good luck with your new house.
I am coming to Malaysia to investigate how much money (sterling) I need a month to live a reasonably comfortable life with a wife and a daughter.