Live like an optimist, but be prepared like a pessimist
This is how I choose to live.
Some people are total optimists, believing everything is fine and that everything will be fine, which goes against what history teaches us.
And others are complete pessimists who think the world will end tomorrow and live miserable lives, even if it turns out they are right in the end.
I choose balance.
I live like an optimist. I have investments that reflect this. But I also invest in asset classes that are likely to protect me in the event of negative developments in the world. Plan B residency permits and citizenships are part of that portfolio.
And when I see gold increasing to close to $4,400 per ounce I can’t help but worry about what the market is trying to sniff out.
Contextualize this with:
- War in Europe that shows no sign of slowing down
- Peace agreements in the Middle East that will absolutely not hold together
- Aggressive decoupling and tit for tat aggression between China and the West
- Ballooning debt levels all over the Western world and a complete incapacity to reform
- Increasing hatred and division within society
I feel like the search for sanity is simply a very reasonable quest.
The search for sanity
Sanity away from all the craziness can still be found in today’s world, and this doesn’t have to mean buying a farm in the middle of nowhere in Paraguay or Uruguay.
Malaysia is one place where sanity perseveres. And if you have at least $250,000 to invest, you can qualify for the MM2H visa which comes with flexible physical presence requirements and 0% taxes on foreign earned income.
In Malaysia you can expect peace, respect, privacy, first-world infrastructure, good education, good healthcare, low taxes, amazing food, and a very low cost of living.
In this video with TG my immigration agent in Malaysia, we discuss the pros and cons of residency in Malaysia.
You can find out more about all the requirements to apply for the MM2H program here and get in touch with TG.
How to get the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) residency?
There are multiple tiers of residency, the most affordable one being:
- Deposit $150,000 in an interest bearing account (or in Islamic finance) AND buy a property worth at least $140,000
- You can use up to half of your $150,000 deposit towards the property purchase, making the total investment about ~$250,000 including processing fees, property transaction fees, etc
- You can include your children under the age of 35, your spouse, your parents, and even your parents-in-law
- The residency is valid for five years, and is easily renewable as long as you keep the investments and don’t get caught doing something you shouldn’t be doing
A flexible program
- The minimum yearly physical presence requirement of 90 days is for the family as a whole. So if you are three in the family, you should spend a combined 90 days (i.e. 30 days each) in Malaysia to not have issues at renewal.
- Applicants above the age of 50 do not have any physical presence requirements, making the MM2H a great plan B for this demographic.
Who is getting residency in Malaysia these days?
- Asians who want to benefit from the tax situation
- Westerners who want better healthcare, quality education, a lower cost of living, tranquility, and who don’t want to pay taxes
- Muslims from Western countries who want to live in a modern country more aligned with their values, but without having to live in the Gulf where they typically get treated like second class or third class citizens
Here is the full guide to obtaining the MM2H residency in Malaysia
To a World of Opportunities,
The Wandering Investor.
Interesting residencies in Asia:
- Residency by Investment in the Philippines
- Malaysia My Second Home Residency by Investment Program
- Singapore Global Investor Program
- How to get residency in Singapore
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Transcript of “The Pros and Cons of Living in Malaysia as an Expat”
LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, everyone. Today, we’ll be discussing the pros and cons of living in Malaysia, together with my immigration agent, TG, who processes all of the MM2H applications here in Malaysia. TG, how are you?
TG: I’m good. Whisky?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, let’s–
TG: Glenlivet Founder’s Reserve. Are you okay?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. Let’s get that conversation going.
TG: This is the whisky that I have with my clients.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Nice.
TG: I mean, some of them like whisky, so we occasionally have it in our office. We talk a lot, share a lot of interesting experience. Why not?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, fantastic. Thank you. All right.
TG: Cheers.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cheers to that.
TG: We can talk about a lot of things.
LADISLAS MAURICE: TG, tell us about, let’s start with the positive stuff. Let’s start with the pros of living in Malaysia.
TG: Okay, let me just change that a little bit, if you don’t mind.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Sure.
TG: Let me talk about the cons, because there are only a few cons. It’s shorter than the pro.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Get that out of the way.
Climate of Malaysia
TG: Yes. The first one, and the most important one that some people complain is the weather, specifically humidity. If that person stays in Florida, no problem. But if that person stays in Alaska, yes. Humidity is high here. The only plus point for high humidity is you don’t have to spend money on the lotions and creams.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I mean, my skin has been glowing here.
TG: There is no need for you. There is no dry skin here, it’s always perfect. If you don’t have a problem with humidity, then you are fine. If you have problem with the humidity, the one way that you people go about is to actually stay high up in the condominium where, when you open up all the windows, you have all the fresh air coming in. Utilities, especially electricity and water, they are very cheap here.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I thought we were supposed to talk about the cons. [laughs]
TG: Okay, sorry about that. Thank you for reminding me. Second one is higher temperature. It’s not as high as those you have in Europe, where you have hot summers. The daily average temperature at night is probably 26˚C, 27 ˚C. In the morning, maybe, like, 28˚C, 29˚C, midafternoon, 30˚C, 32˚C, around three, four o’clock, maybe 35˚C, 36˚C. Occasionally, during Chinese New Year, or sometime in February, it may hit 40˚C, but it’s just a couple of weeks, that’s all. It’s not really the temperature, but it’s the humidity.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I feel like it’s a job interview when someone asks you, “What are your negative points? What are your issues?” And then you actually turn it into a positive. Because all of this sounds pretty good to me, if you ask me. The weather is nice here. I don’t see it as an–
TG: Okay, I haven’t told many people. I will tell you one story that happened about 15 years ago. I have a, I think, is American or British, I forgot, I think it was maybe British. He came to me, and he has visited Penang, and he said that he doesn’t like Penang at all. I say, “Why?” “There’s nothing much.” “What do you mean?” “There’s nothing much here.” And I later found out he owns a few castles in Europe, and he has a Fifth Avenue penthouse. So, of course, there’s nothing nice here, because he’s having this kind of penthouse.
When you talk about the cons of a country, especially like Malaysia, the only one that we can come out is the weather, which nobody can control. It’s either you like it or you don’t. The other one, which I show you just now, is that, unless you stay in KL or Kuala Lumpur, the capital, if you stay outside, life is easy. There’s very few negative influences. That’s the reason why, if you ask me, I don’t really have any cons. The only con is the weather.
Price of alcohol in Malaysia
LADISLAS MAURICE: What about the price of alcohol?
TG: Unless you drink yourself to death.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Which a lot of expats do. [laughs]
TG: You go to Langkawi. Do you know how cheap this bottle of Glenlivet is in Langkawi? Let’s not talk about Glen– I’m not too sure about this price, but I do know the price of Absolut Vodka.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah?
TG: The price of Absolut Vodka in Langkawi, a real one, not a fake one, is $10 a bottle.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Right, because it’s a free zone.
TG: It’s a duty-free zone. In fact, there are many people who left Langkawi and they told us that they just die very fast there. Why? I give you an example. Langkawi has very good yacht repair services, because it is a place where a lot of people go and yachting, yachties, as they call it. This guy, early morning, comes out, want to repair his yacht, and then his friends come out, “Hey, mate, here’s a beer. Let’s talk.” “Cheers.” Okay. He starts to drink. He starts to talk. He forgot about the boat. In the afternoon, when he tries to do something, another friend comes in here, “Here’s another bottle of whisky.” A beer in Langkawi costs around $0.50.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Really? Okay.
TG: About RM2 to RM3.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I’m going to Langkawi in two days, so I guess I’ll–
TG: You’ll go and find out.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay.
TG: The only thing here is, if you are alcoholic, don’t go to Langkawi.
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs] What about here in Penang or KL, that bottle of Absolut Vodka that’s $10 in Langkawi, how much is it here?
TG: $40.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so not cheap?
TG: It’s not cheap.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Right? Because in Europe, that same bottle, typically, would be €20. In the US, it really depends.
TG: No. In here, if you buy at a supermarket, it is, like, $40, it’s about RM180. Beer is still quite okay. One can of beer is, like, $2.50, which is–
LADISLAS MAURICE: For a 33 or a half-liter?
TG: No, 33. 33 is about RM10, so it’s about $2.
LADISLAS MAURICE: $2 for a 33?
TG: Yes.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Alcohol is pretty expensive, I’d say.
TG: Wine is not. Wine, you can get quite a good wine, not the cheapest one at probably around $10 to $15.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Look, it’s a bit frustrating to be paying these prices for alcohol. But then again, when you’re not paying any taxes on overseas income, and as long as you’re not drinking every day heavily, the reality is, it doesn’t really matter.
TG: Let’s drink to that.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. [laughs] Cool. Those are the negatives?
TG: Malaysia generally attracts family. Family, they do drink alcohol, but on special occasions. For me, all my clients who come to me, high alcohol prices is not a concern.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. You have a lot of clients, we were discussing in another video, that are, like, Muslims living in the West. They don’t quite like how things are developing in the West. They prefer to live in a place that is a bit more conservative, yet very much First World. And they come here. For them, obviously, not an issue.
Freedom and privacy in Malaysia
TG: You see, in Malaysia, there’s something that is very interesting. In a lot of Western countries, they like to force it down on the throat of other people. And in some of the Middle Eastern countries, they are also doing that. One way or another, they like to force it down your throat. Whether you agree or disagree, they force you to agree. In this country, it’s different. You do your things, I do my things. You don’t want to drink alcohol? Fine, you don’t. If you don’t take beef, like my wife, due to religious reason, then don’t eat beef. Nobody is going to force you to say, everybody, don’t do this, don’t do that.
It’s a very interesting place to nurture and develop your child in the sense that it’s not forced on them. They can have the rights. The parents have the rights together. Both of them can raise the kids in a manner that they see fit, without having to worry about people forcing, “You must do this.” “You must identify as this.” No. No, we don’t. It’s a place that was lost in time. And the time is the 1970s and 80s. Not the carefree time, but more of the sane times. And there is a saying that I like to share with you, which I share with a lot of clients, Malaysia is the oasis of sanity in the desert of weirdness from the Western world.
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]
TG: Cheers.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cheers to that.
TG: We can change that. Not the weirdness, we can change it to wokeness, or whatever it is. But it’s, don’t you find it, everything is sane here?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Everything is normal.
TG: Normal and say, no, we cannot use the word “normal”. It’s not normal in Europe anymore.
Is Malaysia a developed country?
LADISLAS MAURICE: That’s true. You can find more traditional values in countries that are a bit more rundown or not very developed. But Malaysia is objectively a developed country.
TG: Malaysia can always be considered as a developed country, but we cannot be called a developed country because the metric used is the GDP per capita based on US dollars. Malaysia is not a financialized economy. We don’t sell you properties and buy it back and sell you back again just to goose up the GDP. We don’t use financialization, all the tricks that they use in the financial engineering to goose up the GDP. No, we are purely a manufacturing and a traditional based country. Our GDP per capita in US dollars will never be very high.
Transport in Malaysia
TG: But we have a lot of debate with our German clients that they say that the roads here are much better off than the Autobahn, because it was in disrepair in many parts. If you drive from KL to Penang, the roads are designed to take on 180, 200 kilometers per hour.
LADISLAS MAURICE: But you can’t because the limit’s 100– I mean, the Autobahn, though, is better.
TG: [gestures by placing his index finger vertically over his lips] Shh. Okay?
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]
TG: Yes, the roads are designed. We have high speed trains. We have cheap flights between cities. In terms of communication, we have very good internet.
Airports in Malaysia
LADISLAS MAURICE: I’d say, let’s touch base on the airports, because I have mixed feelings about the airports here in Malaysia. One, I like the connections. Air Asia is based here, and it’s easy to fly all over Asia really cheap, there are multiple low-cost airlines, or within Malaysia. That’s great. I find with the airports, the quality of the airports themselves is pretty low. I mean, Penang Airport is a bit of a disgrace. KL is far, it’s slow. I’ll put it this way, the airlines are great, the connections are great. The actual airports, not so much.
TG: Penang Airport is due for an upgrade. There’s a lot of discussion going on. The airport that you see in Penang, it was built in 1970. They just upgraded and upgraded. They had an issue because the area surrounding it, they are the factories, the mega factories. What they want to do is they want to move it overseas to Batu Kawan over to the other side of the mainland, so that they have land to expand on it. Well, as for KL, whether it is far or not, is definitely far. It’s too big. Sometimes, there were some designs that are quirky. Is a known fact. How they want to address it, that is another issue. However, those people who stay here, they are not commuters. They will come and go maybe five times, 10 times a year. The airports, although it is not that great, but it doesn’t factor into the fact that, because of this, they’re not going to stay here.
Because you see, even, for example, like Penang, there are direct flights to Hong Kong, to Shanghai, to Singapore, to Jakarta, to Qatar, to Dubai. From there, you can go out anywhere in the world. If you are going to travel a lot, then probably you might want to stay near to KLIA, yes, then it’s closer. For example, if you work as the Sales Director for Asia Pacific, and you base your family in KL, so you might want to stay somewhere near to the airport where you can just hop on a train. I always take a train. The train takes about half an hour from city center all the way to KL. Then you just hop on the flight to go out. It depends on your work and your lifestyle, but if you are going for a very slow life, then Langkawi and Penang is a better choice.
International schools for expats in Malaysia
LADISLAS MAURICE: Let’s talk about the schools here, because you were talking about education. Can you give us a bit of a range of the type of schools that expats would typically go for, for their children? Because I know there are the usual international schools, but are there other alternatives?
TG: There are two ways that children can get educated here. Number one is international schools, which is open to them. Number two is home schooling. You see, if you go to the international school, you have an option of taking a student visa and a guardian visa. But a student visa and a guardian visa provides for the mother and the child. What happens to the father? But if you are under MM2H, you are given for the whole family. If your child decided not to go to school and do home schooling, then you are provided for under MM2H. But if you are on a student visa and Guardian visa, no, you cannot, because once you stop school, the visa stops.
For those who are on MM2H, they either do home schooling, because they can take on exams as a private candidate for IGCSE, A Levels, all those things, and you just take it as a private candidate. So, why not? And they don’t force you here. Schools are schools, unlike many in the West, where you have all sorts of things coming in. Cheers. People like their children to study here.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cheers to that. Are there private Christian schools as well, and private Islamic schools for people who want that?
TG: So far, we have one in Penang. I wouldn’t call it as a private Christian school. But one international school in Penang has incorporated Bible studies is one of the subjects. As for Islamic schools, you will be surprised that many of those in the same religion, they are sending their kids to normal schools. And if they want, they can do it offline for religious schools. But so far, as what I see, they all go to the international schools. Local schools are not available because you need to do Malay language, and you have to start from day one, and they have a lot of issues on that, so they don’t make it available anymore.
Academic standards in Malaysia
Secondly, is that when I compare the standards for local schools, especially local Chinese primary schools, it is extremely tough. You won’t believe how tough it is.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Chinese schools?
TG: Yes. I give you one–
LADISLAS MAURICE: Not Malay schools, Chinese schools?
TG: Yes. We call it the primary schools. This one is a Chinese school. It’s still government school. One of the questions I was stumped for a 12-year-old, my daughter, who passed it to me. Remember, you’re only given one minute to finish this question, and you are not trained in algebra yet. The question is, there is a wedding ceremony, there is a wedding dinner. And in Malaysia, wedding dinner is like a table, got 10 people in one table, and then they have the food there. It’s not like a buffet style, it’s served on the table. These are all examples. There are 725 people coming to the wedding dinner. There are 80 tables in the wedding dinner, and 720 people came. Some tables are filled to nine people, some tables are filled eight people.
Please, tell me how many tables are filled with nine people, and how many tables are filled with eight people. One minute, do this sum for me.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I think you need more whisky. [laughs]
TG: I was, like, are you sure? Yes. That is the scenario here, where we focus more on academic rigorousness, starting from the primary all the way to universities.
LADISLAS MAURICE: What’s the tuition for these international schools here?
TG: Okay, it depends on location. Some can go as very high in KL where there are top notch schools, and getting in is a problem, because they have very high standards. Some of them are lower. I would think that the school fee, you can find it on the internet. You can find at the school’s homepage, there are lists of fees for all the different grades. I cannot tell you upfront how much that is, but if you’re interested in, for example, KL, go to the website and look at the schools and see the fees are all listed there. Cheers.
How much does a nanny cost in Malaysia?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Cheers. And how much does having a nanny cost, like, at home full-time to take care of the kids?
TG: Right now, they are working on the process for allowing MM2H to bring in maids. If you talk about it today–
LADISLAS MAURICE: Because right now, if you want to bring–
TG: The procedure, it’s not finalized yet.
LADISLAS MAURICE: If you want to bring someone from the Philippines, etc., not possible?
TG: Not now, but in future, yes. What we recommend people to do today, as of today, not like three months from now–
LADISLAS MAURICE: An agency?
TG: is to get part-time or hourly maid to help out with the house, washing, and cleaning. You can get them in, like, three times or four times a week first right now. But they are finalizing the process, and hopefully, this process of allowing to bring a maid in will be probably in a few months’ time. We are looking at a salary of about $400 to $500 a month for the maid. We don’t call it a nanny here, it’s a maid, because they involve in cooking as well, and taking care of the house.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So, accommodation, plus–
TG: You have to provide the accommodation for them.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Are there agencies that can just provide as well?
TG: Yes, there are.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And they add their markup, and then that’s it?
TG: Yes, they will have agencies, or we ourselves can help, but we are waiting for them to finalize the procedures.
International universities in Malaysia
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, cool. Interesting. And then you said that there are a lot of universities as well here.
TG: There are about 12 universities, with foreign universities with branches here. Off my mind, you have Southampton, Nottingham, Xiamen, Heriot-Watt from Scotland. You have Reading, and you have Curtin from Australia, Monash from Australia, and a new one, Tsukuba, from Japan, coming in, and a few more. These are the foreign universities with branches here, and they take in local and foreign students. The good thing about them is that they are academically rigorous. And it’s a no-nonsense thing. If you are looking at all the nonsense, then I’m afraid that it doesn’t fit you. It’s more on studies.
LADISLAS MAURICE: You know, I actually got a job offer here in Malaysia when I graduated from my master’s degree. I ended up working for Nestlé in Switzerland, but that other job offer was in Sarawak, in Kuching at some Australian University. I forgot the name.
TG: It’s Curtin.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, yeah. To teach there.
TG: Yes. In other words, one way or another, education is a big-time business here for a lot of schools. Whether it’s nonprofit or for profit, there is a lot of things. And it is always the economic rigorous.
Household utility costs in Malaysia
TG: The other thing I would like to touch about is the utility bills, which we never talk about. A lot of people will get very surprised. Penang, especially, has very high water recovery rates, and they are very good and efficient at managing water. The normal bill for a household of two for a water bill, you can wash your car, no problem, not every day, maybe two times a week or once a week, laundry, standard laundry that you do, RM5 a month.
LADISLAS MAURICE: $1?
TG: No, $1.25.
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]
TG: A month.
LADISLAS MAURICE: That’s crazy.
TG: Yes. Nobody exceeds, like, RM10 or RM15 if you have two, unless your house is leaking water.
LADISLAS MAURICE: $2, $3 a month?
TG: Yes, that’s the max. Nobody has done that. It’s usually $1.50.
LADISLAS MAURICE: That’s crazy.
TG: And you talk about mobile phones, I have a family package, and probably about 20 gigabytes or 10 gigabytes of data. Unlimited calls. You can talk to your mom.
LADISLAS MAURICE: It’s each?
TG: Yeah. I’m paying about $8.
LADISLAS MAURICE: For the whole family?
TG: Per line.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Per line, okay.
TG: $8. I got four. I got $32 for the whole family.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Wow.
TG: Electricity bill, this office that I’m running two aircons five days a week, about RM150, about $40 a month.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. When you look, because some people say, “The MM2H, it’s a bit expensive, etc., getting residency in Malaysia.” Generally speaking, you have to invest at least $250,000, and that’s the minimum. But it’s investments. You either buy, with that money, partially, real estate that you can live in, the rest is in a bank deposit on which you can earn interest, or you can opt for Islamic banking as well. But the money is working. And then you get to not pay taxes on any income source from outside of Malaysia, and your cost of living here is just so dramatically lower.
Crime and safety in Malaysia
TG: You have to add in the social cohesion. You have to add in the stability. You have to add in the fact that when you walk around, you’re not afraid of people knifing you, or kidnapping you, or just robbing you, or snatching thieves, or taking things from you. You need to be very lucky to get into those, because the number of people who got it per year is very low. If you happen to be one of them, you are damn lucky to get it. To get robbed, I mean. Cheers.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Oh, to get robbed? [laughs]
TG: Yeah. Honestly, I’ve never heard of anybody being robbed at the ATM before. I have nobody that I know that lost a car through car theft.
LADISLAS MAURICE: You should come visit me in Latin America sometime.
TG: Latin America?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, come visit me.
TG: Oh, no.
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]
TG: The flight there takes too long.
Health insurance in Malaysia
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs] But what about healthcare? Because that’s a huge plus here.
TG: I won’t talk about KL, because KL is a big city and every area is local. Penang is a small place, and if you come to hospitals here, there’s one or two hospitals that are so big and so fantastic that you don’t even know it’s a hospital. You thought it’s a hotel. The doctors, they are all trained in UK, local, UK, or maybe some of them in Ireland, Australia. English is the medium of exchange. You talk to them in English. It’s not like some other countries where there is a translator, and there could be something lost in translations. Prices are reasonable if you pay from pocket. I won’t say it is cheap, but if you are not into any insurance, then you should pay from the pocket, and it’s still quite reasonable compared to other countries.
Now, if you’re on MM2H, you can buy a local medical insurance. And for local medical insurance, the premiums are very low, because we do have very high underwriting standards, I believe, when I look around. This is my personal point of view. And if you are healthy and good, for example, like your age, probably 40 plus years old or 30 plus. Let’s say you’re 30 plus years old. I would think that a very good medical insurance with unlimited lifetime coverage and also guaranteed renewal, is probably about RM3,000 to RM4,000 a year, or that is about $800 a year. A year, not a month.
And it is guaranteed renewal. It means that, at the age of 40, you got a heart attack, they pay the hospital bill, let’s say, RM100k example. All these are examples. They pay RM100k. Fine. But they have to renew it for you, even you have a heart attack for the same disease. And at the age of 45, you get another one, and cost you RM300k, they have to pay for it again. And some insurance company can cover up to age 80, 90 years old. And let’s say, at the age of 85, you got a heart attack, and at that point of time it costs, like, RM800k, they still have to pay for you. That’s why it is very good. Now for the kids, it’s even better, because even when they are over the age of 34, they can still keep the medical insurance.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Let’s say, because the kids can get sponsored up to the age of 34 on the MM2H, but then at the age of 34, essentially, they don’t get the residency anymore, but they can keep the health insurance.
TG: Yes, it is legal. It’s not illegal. It’s not like you’re cheating the insurance company. It’s legal. You can keep the insurance as long as you continue to pay, the premium is yours.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Could you just get, for example, the program for five years, just collect interest for five years, after five years, get your money back and then keep your Malaysian health insurance?
TG: Correct. But there’s one thing you have to add in, when you get MM2H visa, you need to buy a property. For many people, it is an option for them to actually stay here long-term. You see, when you get a property here, as parents, you get the property, and when the time comes, the parent will probably pass away. They will this property to the children. And the children can work anywhere in the world, but they still have the medical insurance here. If they get sick or get an accident outside of Malaysia, UK, US, Canada, whatever they are working, they can always come back and stay in this property, if it is not sold, which is willed to them, and they can actually claim from the insurance. It’s the best gift that the parents can give to the child.
LADISLAS MAURICE: This is really interesting. I did not know this. This is very insightful. And you were saying there’s repatriation insurance as well?
TG: Okay. My strategy for my clients is that buy travel insurance in Malaysia. Travel insurance covers you 180 days outside of Malaysia. On the 181st day, you are not covered.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Even in the US?
TG: Anywhere in the world. What happens is that, you leave on the 1st of January, sometime in June is close to 180 days already, correct? You make a trip back to Malaysia, visit your family, visit your father, mother, if you are the child. Then you leave again. You reset the 180 days to a fresh 180 days. It means that your medical insurance here covers you for the hospitals here, and the travel insurance that you buy covers you worldwide. You can go and go about traveling, do your stuff, or whatever it is, and you come back here within 180 days, you can still claim, if you have an accident somewhere in Europe or whatever it is. It’s essentially, like, to me, it’s like an international medical insurance, but local prices.
LADISLAS MAURICE: If you have a large family and you’re traveling a lot, health insurance can be problematic, or it can get quite expensive if you want good health insurance. If you were to play it this way, the way you’re describing it, you can get a very good ROI on getting your residence here in Malaysia, even if you chose not to live here. Even if you chose to buy the apartment, can you rent it out the apartment?
TG: Exactly, you can rent.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Even if you were, like, okay, we’re just going to rent out the apartment, etc., and just spend minimal amounts of time here in Malaysia, just all these savings you’re potentially making on the health insurance by itself is worth looking into.
Minimum stay requirements for MM2H
LADISLAS MAURICE: Tell us about the minimum presence requirements here in Malaysia on the MM2H.
TG: For those less than 50 years old, the MM2H requires that whole group of people under the MM2H to stay here at least 90 days a calendar year cumulatively. That means that if the application is husband plus wife, plus two kids, plus two parents, plus two parents-in-law. You have two parents-in-law, two parents, husband, and wife, and two kids, or maybe three kids, so total nine people, 90 days divided by nine it means that the whole family stays 10 days here. And nine people times 10 days is 90 days. Bingo, you have met the requirements.
Those above the age of 50, they are not required to stay any days here. But because this visa, a lot of them wants to make Malaysia their primary home, so what a lot of them actually do is that they actually make Malaysia their base. And if you talk about people on a budget, because not many people fly business class, to be very honest. Yes, there are, but there are not many people who fly business class. There are many people who fly, like, Air Asia. Because when you multiply by five people, it can be quite a lot of money. And Malaysia is a hub, so many of those retirees, or those people who are semi-retired, they want to travel all over Asia, they make Malaysia their base, and then they travel all around here.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, this is a little-known fact. The fact that these three months are cumulative and doesn’t apply to people above the age of 50.
TG: That’s correct.
Taxes for foreigners in Malaysia
LADISLAS MAURICE: That’s really interesting. Tell us about the whole tax situation here, because, I mean, that’s, obviously, one of the main points.
TG: Taxation in Malaysia is not like the Western world. Our tax code is very simple. We don’t have personal tax accountants here, and each one of us takes about half an hour a year to finish our tax filing. Okay?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Americans? [laughs]
TG: We don’t have tax accountants for individuals, unless you are so rich and you don’t know what to do with your money. But that is the general rule of thumb. And for Malaysia My Second Home, one of the reasons we were told long, long time ago that they do not intend to tax anybody is because they realized that if you don’t tax anybody, they tend to spend a lot of money here buying all the junk that they don’t need, and they have to pay the sales tax on that, which the government is more than happy to collect. That’s the reason why, for the last 20 years, there were no tax on any foreign income coming in, because all this income eventually will be used to buy Hi-Fi sets, all the things that you may not even need at all. That’s the rationale that the local Malaysian Government has.
Moving into the future, I think that is what they want to do as well, just to make sure that you guys spend the money here. In the last Parliament debate, which you can find online easily, go and search online, you can even provide the link later on, is that they had a parliament session last October, and they have concluded that they are not going to tax anybody from any foreign income. They are supposed to debate it in 2026, I think, maybe under pressure from some country somewhere in the world, I don’t know. But in the last parliament session, they postponed it to 2036, where they will start talking about this tax in 2036. In the meantime, for the next 12 years, nothing. You’re not even given a tax number unless you ask for it.
Yes, the property purchase owner will get a tax number because, just in case, you are going to rent it out, but the spouse won’t get a tax number. If you don’t get the tax number, how are you going to pay Malaysian taxes, if you are not given even a tax number? Cheers to tax numbers.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, cheers to that. Yeah. And getting a tax certificate, how long, if you want a tax certificate? A lot of people don’t need a tax certificate, and a lot of people think they need a tax certificate, but a lot of people don’t actually need one if you want–
TG: IF [emphasized] you really need one, we can help you to get one. You need to stay 183 days a calendar year. There are small rules attached to it, but it’s not for this session. But basically, if you stay 183 days a year and you register yourself, they can give you a piece of letter stating that you are a tax resident here. That’s all. Whether your home country will accept that letter, that is your problem.
Differences between Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor Bahru
LADISLAS MAURICE: You have offices here in Penang, in KL, in JB, as well, right across from Singapore. Can you tell us a little bit about the type of foreigners that move to Penang, that move to KL, that move to JB, because they’re all very different?
TG: We have the procedures ready to open a branch in KL and JB, and we are going to submit them. We think it is not a problem for us to get a branch. I think by early February we should be able to have a branch in KL and JB. We already started the process to get the branches. Prior to that, the procedures were not formalized yet, so now it has been formalized since last week.
Now KL tends to attract younger crowd, those with more money. It’s not a cheap place to stay, especially if you drink a lot, if you party a lot, and you spend a lot of money. Penang tends to attract people who are retired, who want to take it easier, including parents with children as well, because it is a much slower life, less negative influence here, example, like, materialism, materialistic environment. Those who wanted a slow life, cheaper lifestyle comes to Penang. And of course, the older ones, because Penang really have good healthcare system.
Now, Johor tends to attract those from Singapore, whether it’s expats or Singaporean, because they can always go in and out to Singapore easily. And that is the beauty of Johor, it’s close to Singapore. The other place that I should mention is Langkawi. Langkawi is a place where a lot of those boaties or those on yachts, they like it there. Langkawi is virtually crimefree. You can leave things there, and nobody even bothers to take. They have very minimal police force. I think it’s because there’s no crime, I think, I don’t see a lot of police around. I can see that nobody locks the car doors. House is basically unguarded. And one of the very interesting things is that the locals accept the foreigners very easily. They like to live in villages, foreigners.
In fact, I have one German who is so touched. He stayed in a place in Langkawi that is close to the village, and he made friends with all of them. Yeah, English was smattering because the villagers they are quite old and not really highly educated, but they get along very well. And this German guy went off for holiday, I think, during a few years ago, without telling the locals, but they have their mobile phone numbers. After a few days of in a week, he got a call from his neighbors. And the neighbors asked him, “Are you okay? I haven’t seen you for a week.” He was so touched, because he said that in Germany, if you die in apartment, nobody knows. And he was so touched that when he came back in the next Hari Raya, because the villagers are usually Muslims, in the next celebration, he actually bought a feast for the village.
There are a lot of people who stay at the villages there, and they were integrated into the village. It’s a different kind of lifestyle that people are looking at. You may like it, you may not like it. You may like it in KL, oh, yes, plenty of LV bags for you to buy, or you want to do it in Langkawi, where you can have a vodka for $10, but you don’t drink yourself to death, okay? Nobody cares about you.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Interesting.
TG: As long as you don’t mess up with other people. You try to disturb other people, that is completely forbidden. You want to drink, you want to get drunk, you go and do it in your room, but you don’t go and mess up with other people, and they are not going to mess with you.
Personal freedom in Malaysia
TG: Malaysia is not a surveillance society. We don’t have a lot of CCTVs monitoring you. Unlike some countries in Southeast Asia, where they say you need to register every three months, you need to tell you where you go. In Malaysia, we are not even close to Europe, where you go to the local authority and register your address. We don’t have that function here. You don’t need to tell the authorities where you stay.
LADISLAS MAURICE: The government doesn’t even know where you stay?
TG: Yes, doesn’t even know, local as I am, where I stay.
LADISLAS MAURICE: This is attractive.
TG: Yeah, it’s quite attractive for a lot of people who are looking for what I call personal freedom. Not to say that you’re going to commit crime, but it’s something that you should feel okay about, because nobody is bothering you.
LADISLAS MAURICE: How was it here during COVID? Was it very strict? Were there QR codes to enter restaurants, and malls, and this, and that? Because that’s always a bit of an issue, or it’s been an issue in a lot of Asian countries, or it was, like, pretty hard.
TG: Enforcement is done by the establishment, by the shop. Some are lenient, some are not, so you just go to the ones that are lenient.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so it was pretty livable.
TG: It’s livable. It’s livable. And that part of history, I believe, has been erased from a lot of people’s memory, and I don’t think it’s going to repeat here ever again. Cheers.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, let’s hope that’s the case. [laughs] Let’s finish off on a negative. We started on negatives, then we talked a lot about positives, now let’s finish with a negative.
Can you apply for citizenship with MM2H?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Is there any pathway to citizenship if you get the MM2H?
TG: Unfortunately, let me share with you, even if you get a permanent residence, I don’t recommend because permanent residence, you are taxed.
LADISLAS MAURICE: On worldwide income?
TG: Yes, on any income that they deem that it is taxable, so I don’t recommend. That’s the reason why a lot of people don’t realize that why MM2H is a tourist visa, because generally, tourists don’t pay taxes. If you cannot get, it is very, very difficult to get a permanent residence, unless you have special qualifications. Even if you marry a local, it is very hard for you to get the PR.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so let’s take a step back. You’re Malaysian, so why don’t you just acquire Vanuatu for, let’s say, $130,000? I’d be happy to help you with that. Then you apply for the MM2H Platinum, and then you can live here as a Vanuatu citizen. You can still run a business on the platinum visa, and then you wouldn’t pay taxes on overseas income. Is this doable? Just a mental exercise.
TG: I don’t have any overseas income. All my income is derived here. Anybody who has overseas income brought into Malaysia, of course, it is taxed. But this no-tax thing is to actually encourage foreigners to come in. For us locals, if we have income overseas, it has been taxed at that source. If I have income in Singapore, you would have been taxed at that source. When I come in, the double taxation would work in my favor. But if you are not working here, and there are certain classes of income that might be taxed outside, so we generally tell people that if the visa at MM2H is renewable for life, why want to take a PR? Cheers.
How to contact TG for the MM2H program in Malaysia
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, cool. Fantastic. [laughs] TG, thank you very much for your time. Look, if you’re interested in getting the MM2H residency here in Malaysia to lower your taxes, lower your cost of living, have a nicer lifestyle, there’s a link below with a lot more information on all the different pathways to that MM2H, as well as the contact information of TG and his team who can help you process the whole thing from A to Z.
TG, thank you very much.
TG: Thank you. I hope you enjoyed your whisky.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I did.
TG: Come, let’s continue with the whisky.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool.
