Malaysia just removed itself from the list of FIRE destinations for most people.

[u/almost_retired]

You can find my original post about retiring and moving to Malaysia here

The "Malaysia My Second Home Program" (MM2H) targeting foreign retirees had been suspended since August last year. The Malaysian government has just re-launched the program, but with some very steep requirements:

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• Demonstrable monthly offshore income of $RM40,000 (~US$9,500) vs 25% of that previously.
• Bank deposit in Malaysia of $RM1 Million (~US$235K) vs 25% of that previously.
• Must spend at least 90 days a year in Malaysia vs 0 days minimum previously.

Malaysia used to be a very desirable FIRE destination because it was inexpensive, safe, English speaking, had good infrastructure and it was relatively easy to get a retirement VISA.

That last item is pretty much gone. If you are FIREd and pulling $10K a month, you probably have better options than Malaysia.

Oh well.

[u/scorp171]

True, I think sea expats makes the most sense. You can enjoy 40-50% of the days completely free and make a ton of money. I knew sea expats who were only on deputation, so they received their base salary in base country and 10k+RM there. It would be magical for somebody trying to FIRE.

(Even people from any Big4 consulting firms from developed countries had a similar situation).

[u/ZaviaGenX → u/scorp171]

Im, uh, from SEA myself. The rm10k was (almost) the whole package 😆. Im like the discount expat.

But yea, had more free time while I was a director then at any point in my career. Was really weird experience when my boss was like "don't work so hard, don't have to be in office all hours" n took a while to get use to.