Fortunately for me, the cost of living in Malaysia is quite low compared to other countries. According to the world data info, Malaysia ranks 72 out of 96 in terms of the cost index which used United States as the base. Based on my understanding, this data was using 2022 and 2023 data which was the latest I could find. If I interpreted the data correctly, the data shows that the cost of living in Malaysia is about 65% cheaper than United States.
Cost of living is one thing but we also have to take into consideration of how much money people are making which correlates to the spending power. The Malaysia currency isn't that great compared to the US dollar so the purchasing power for Malaysians is a lot less than America as well. Inflation is very noticeable if you have lived in Malaysia for the past three-four years. I used to be able to take a grab for RM5-10 and now it's up to RM8-25+. Even the prices of food has gone up and this is most likely due to Covid and other factors.
In the chart above, you can see that the Malaysian Ringgit is getting weaker. Personally, I'm not a fan of holding MYR as it's losing value being kept in the bank. I only have what I need to survive and for any emergencies. I have been mostly focusing on moving my money into crypto and I plan to eventually diversify it into other types of investments like stocks etc. You can see from the picture below that I'm also slowly building up my HBD savings to make the money work for me. I think I got almost eight dollars in interest for the last thirty days. I want to get enough HBD into the savings where I'm getting like 1-2k USD worth of HBD a month which would technically be enough money for me to survive in Malaysia without working.
So based on what was mentioned before, Malaysia's prices of goods and services are a lot less compared to most of the other countries. If we are talking about my earning in Malaysia and most of the other people in Malaysia, the earnings we have would fetch us a lot less than in other countries unless it's a country where the Malaysia currency is stronger.
If I had the chance, I don't think I would reallocate. I really think I belong in Malaysia; I've always felt like I belonged in Asia. This might be due to my love for anime and K-pop. Some people think I'm crazy for leaving the life in America but I truly feel happier here in Malaysia. I like the people, the food and everything else except the weather. The good thing is if you stay indoors, then the weather isn't really an issue. I'm also not a big fan of the government but honestly, I think there's a fair amount of people feel that same way in wherever country they are. That's a wrap for me for this topic. I hope you all have a great weekend!
