Shoban

Curious, do digital nomads prefer to constantly travel, or do they look to set up a permanent base in a country with low cost living?

This guy ended up making Malaysia his base

https://nomadcapitalist.com/2013/11/11/easy-permanent-residence-in-asia-malaysia-investor-visa-program/

but i noticed the majority of nomads like to travel to the next place as soon as their visit visa expires.

On 8/5/2019 at 11:50 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

Oh c'mon. I visited Penang and there was none of that.

The problem for me was that the beaches were even more ruined than Thailand's, and there was no night life.

Fine if one is not interested in fun, and has a partner.

 

Also, McD's charges extra to eat in their crappy restaurant, satay was really expensive, and the accommodation is way worse than in Thailand while being way more expensive.

It is true Penang's nightlife is not the greatest....Kuala Lumpur on the other hand is vibrant, probably the only city in Malaysia with good night life. Beach wise the eastern beaches are much better shape than those on the west

Pretty crazy list, seeing that retirement is more about stretching your money yet still affording some luxuries that can come with that? Here is a list that came in some email marketing i received last week. Takes the top 3 countries you can stretch your USD $300k

21 hours ago, Stocky said:

I realise you don't particularly care for accuracy, again you use an image from a public canning in Banda Aceh province in Indonesia.

If they want to keep this forum useful, helpful and relevant they should be banning members like Madmen here.

I visited Penang Island over the weekend, apparently it has the largest expat community...lovely state...good mix of traditional architecture, modern facilities plus seaside living. Bars are plenty, and all sorts of 'dodgy massage parlours' around. You do hear the loud call to prayer daily from the Mosque but that is pretty much all that would remind you of religion here too

Here's one of the notable nomads living in Malaysia. He is here under the MM2H scheme which he acknowledges in the comment section

13 hours ago, LivinLOS said:

That only solves the visa.. Last I looked into it Malaysia was similar to Thailand in how it handled needing a local employer for non national to work incountry. 

I am not aware of any umbrella like systems for Malaysia either. 

No not exactly, under the Malaysia My Second Home scheme you can run your own business. You only cannot be employed in the country.

Digital businesses are a grey area. You can very well register your own company and pretty much sit in a cafe all day, it's a grey area that is being exploited. I know a couple Swiss, British and Americans running their businesses this way out of Penang and Kuala Lumpur.

Anyway check out www.movetomalaysia.co.uk for the details. There is a minimum amount of liquid assets to prove though, which is why it may look like a retirement programme, but I have met some people in early 30s with enough cash so you never really know sometimes... I also have a brochure I will try attaching it to this post.

MM2H Brochure US v2.pdf

Malaysia is welcoming digital nomads under the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) scheme.

It used to be a 'retirement' programme but has since gone through a major revamp and welcomes anyone 'above 21' for this very reason. 

A couple of notable nomads have made the move including recently one from Singapore to Malaysia.

Big plus over Thailand is the language and work culture. I met a Swiss guy couple weeks back been working in Bangkok and (his words) he said he is tired of the lacks work culture in Thailand where nothing seems to ever get done. Kuala Lumpur is vastly different with many different tech clusters and co-working spaces all over the city.

English is also the second language of the country and in the city you could very well think it is their first language.

Anyway, you can find more about the MM2H scheme at www.movetomalaysia.co.uk

Thanks for the feedback everyone...unfortunately too much inaccurate comments about race and religion here...but maybe that is something that Malaysia needs to work on, to show that extremist religious issues do not affect the majority of peoples lives.

10 minutes ago, Stocky said:

No. You continue to generalise and make assumptions.

 

In truth the infrastructure in KL is better than many places in Europe and North America.

agreed, ridiculous assumptions and over exaggerations 

6 hours ago, Sujo said:

Im very lucky as I have permanent residency in malaysia because I am an expert in my field. So I didnt need any financial or other hoops to jump through. But before I even thought of applying for that I did 4 years of visa runs every 3 months.

 

So my thoughts on Malaysia are only what its like to live here. Im not taking into consideration any visa hassles.

 

Climate hot or hot and wet.

Alcohol, lots of places, yes quite a few muslims drink.

Girls, take your pick, thai, pinay, chinese, indian, malay.

Crime, its the most safe I have felt in any country.

Muslims, they do their thing and i do mine.

 

Nicest places I would settle are

 

Penang, Langkawi, Kota Kinabalu, Tioman Island, Kuching. Thats pretty much in order. Im only in KL because of work, hate the traffic but do like the nightlife and the many bars and restaurants.

 

I feel at ease here but if it goes tits up would head to vietnam or philippines as my next choices.

 

I do still like to visit Thailand four or 5 times a year but its lost its welcome for me due to high baht and a general feeling of just being a walking atm, getting tired of having to constantly be on guard for rip offs.

 

Just my 2 cents worth

Interesting insight, cheers

Hello everyone,

What are your thoughts on retirement in Malaysia? I have lived in both Malaysia and Thailand and currently living in KL city. I have met a number of young and older expats who mostly prefer Malaysian life over living in Thailand.

There is a good scheme called Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) which although has been pushed as a 'retirement' scheme, it is actually open to anyone above 21.  Recently I met a young chap from Swiss who runs his company remotely and he is coming in to Malaysia on this programme. 

I also met a couple from France who signed up and were looking at high end properties just overlooking the KL Twin Towers. Apparently the value they can get on real estate compared to living in France is really good here in Malaysia.

It offers a 10 year (renewable after that period) multiple entry visa. along with various tax free incentives.

There are only 2 main requirements which is a monthly pension or income of at least USD $2400 and liquid assets of at least USD $84000. I did research and it is more expensive that perhaps Philippines retirement programme yes, but Malaysia offers so much more in terms of quality living, safety, medical quality (M'sia was ranked number 1 in world healthcare quality recently) and infrastructure. 

Curious to know what expats in Thailand think about the programme! Here is a link to more details.

https://www.movetomalaysia.co.uk/?utm_source=web&utm_medium=forum&utm_campaign=promo

And also attaching a very detailed brochure on the programme too. 

MM2H Brochure US v2.pdf