The Journey Begins

lets talk about the trend of work in Malaysia now.

i heard that the consulting industry is booming, sort of. After years of being low paid since the economy crisis in 1997, i saw a ray of light from the mist. That shows a shortage for professionals like us (engineers). Ever wonder why the IEM magazine, keep having advertisement like global migration to Australia? the answer is simple, they need more professionals (labours) like us to work, and i am not talking solely about Malaysia, but also other countries. More and more people took the opportunity to work in places like Australia, Middle East, UK etc etc as they thought they will be paid higher over there.

One of the idea where i do not agree with most of the people is, they pay the professionals higher in overseas as compared to Malaysia. Define better pay? Lets take an example. a fresh grad engineer in Australia will probably get a pay about Aud55,000 per annum now, that is about Aud4,500 per month, excluding tax. Bare in mind that Australian government tax about 30% of your income. There goes your Aud4,500 --> Aud3,000 per month. Also bear in mind that their living cost, accommodation, food, transport, petrol are generally ALOT higher compared to Malaysia. so there goes your Aud3,000 --> Aud1,000. You still get your Aud1,000 saving per month there. Ok, at least it is still better compared to a fresh grad here, because in general they only pay us RM2,000 per month here, for engineers working with the consultants.

A lot of my friends chose to stay in Australia upon graduation (i used to study in UNSW, Australia) Unless you are thinking of migrating to oversea, you can actually follow the plan. So you have to say goodbye to your neighbourhood mamak stalls, no nightlife as interesting as the Asians, food like nasi lemak roti canai teh tarik rendang satay tom yam laksa chicken rice ramlee burger etc etc... and make yourself familiar to the drinking beer culture and chinese restaurant dominated by chefs from china over there. but of course you can still find the food i listed out earlier over there, but Aud6 for one piece of roti canai? Aud10 for a nasi lemak? you have to think twice when u make the decision. and there are a lot more things to sacrifice if you are planning to stay there long term.

things are going to be the SAME if you don't convert the currency. you earn Aud3,000 there u save Aud1,000. you earn RM3,000 here and you save RM1,000... fair enough. you still don't get to own a house there with saving of Aud1,000 per month.

i'm not saying that working as an engineer in Malaysia has no prospect. i'm just trying to tell people out there that depending solely on your monthly income is not the way to make yourself to gain financial freedom, no matter where you are, and how much you are earning. Are you going to be satisfy with your salary 10,000 per month? do you think you are rich if you are having such pay?

Millionaires become rich not because of how much they earn, but rather how much they are able to save and invest
-- Adam Khoo "Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires"

There are still a lot of ways to earn extra money out of your monthly paid job. that's why i'm reading a lot of investment books right now, just like the one written by Adam Khoo "Secrets of self made Millionaires".

and i hope all the best to all the beginners out there!