Would you swap a comfortable life in England for a life in Iskandar?
 

We hate the cold, just can't stand the long dark months here in UK. We lived in Singapore and Australia for years and life in England just doesn't do it for us, but we have to be here for now. We can move in 2 years and the choice is Spain or Iskandar... the latter under MM2H. What would you do and why? We have 5 children, 4 grown up and 1 in tow who would need to go to school. Any thoughts on Marlborough College? The fees would be a big deal for us .. would our son be the only one who isn't from a very rich family? Is it snobby? So many questions! Are expats friendly, do they welcome new expats and invite them to social events? We are very sociable people so want to have a nice circle of friends there if we go. Thanks everybody who take the time to reply.

Re: Would you swap a comfortable life in England for a life in Iskandar?
 

No. There are many Chinese (from Mainland, not from MY) who are willing to spend a very high part of their income on kids education in international schools.

Re: Would you swap a comfortable life in England for a life in Iskandar?
 

Why don't consider Kuala Lumpur?
There are lot of good and reasonable price international School for you to choose.

Re: Would you swap a comfortable life in England for a life in Iskandar?
 

Most non Malaysian expats and their kids to day schools in KL.

Friends of mine who did MM2H - husband v v bored as could not work, and did not enjoy his golf course buddies (all old, or a bit strange). Wife was ok in mummy mummy expat circuit.

Most expats make friends via work circuit, so as MM2H you are going to be totally reliant on friends from school and any clubs that you must join.

Other friends where wife is a teacher and he works in finance are also struggling as they are rich, but his work is online and teachers don't go out much.

Re: Would you swap a comfortable life in England for a life in Iskandar?
 

Be careful of scratching that itch... a comfortable (albeit predictable, routine - and dare I even say it, boring) life in England (the weather be damned) is still better than finding out that MM2H isn't all it's made out to be - what with a foreign country, the need to make new friends from scratch, being unable to work and being far away from family.

I'm not saying it's not worth a punt or the proverbial roll of the dice, but do so with your eyes wide open. As wiser men/women have said, "hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst" and you'll be fine.

Re: Would you swap a comfortable life in England for a life in Iskandar?
 

We have quite a good life retired in the US...We spend the summer at our lake home in the far north and the winter in Florida...But my younger (69 vs 50) Chinese wife is bored at both places as there are no other Chinese in either place nor availability of Chinese food...We are looking at one of the places in Malaysia with a large Chinese population like Penang or Kuching...My feeling is that she has sacrificed so far for me as I finished my working life and now I can give up my US life so that she can have a more interesting life for herself in retirement...It would also be far easier for us to travel to China to visit her friends and family and for them to come to vacation with us in Malaysia...

Re: Would you swap a comfortable life in England for a life in Iskandar?
 

Thank you for all your valuable and wise contributions to my question. I think on balance you have confirmed my suspicions, that one must be careful giving up a nice life in England just because the winters are long and cold. I won't be diving in too quickly to MM2H! Thank you again.

Re: Would you swap a comfortable life in England for a life in Iskandar?
 

Only you can decide. We all have different situations and you can break that down even further when unexpected life situations happen somewhere down the road (I was widowed 2 years ago. That was not in our MM2h plan!!)

From your post I detect that you enjoy England life during the warmer months? I also see that you have restrictions due to kids schooling.
Southern Europe?

You also mentioned Australia. Any possibility of moving there with the kids? Queensland is warm or hot all year round. Southern WA also good.... ok a few months of coldish weather.

Why Iskandar? Why not Penang? Plenty of international schools here.

Re: Would you swap a comfortable life in England for a life in Iskandar?
 

If you want to bring your kid to international school and have no employer to pay for it, then this will cost all the money that you save with the cheap and easy live in Malaysia. So if money matters for you, Spain probably is the better option.

But the idea foreigners have about Malaysian schools is totally wrong, there is not just muslim schools that teach things you don´t want your kids to learn, there are plenty of decent christian led mixed races, mixed religion schools.