Hello from Malaysia..just retired April 30th 2010

[extm]

Hello all RE Gurus, I just retired last week...still in daze...on what next....Retired due to pressure and stress from work...Any good advices/suggestions how to cope with RE? My age 48, married with one kid Appreciate your reply...Will start actively participate in this forum starting this week...

[Htown Harry]

Welcome extm.

You will find plenty of good information here. Explore the FAQ's and search for topics of interest and you will frequently find someone has posted what you seek.

You'll probably get more of a response on your coping question if you could tell the forum a bit more about yourself. Is your spouse working? Are you Malay or an expat? Living the city life in KL?

[extm]

I surely will check out this Forum regularly...Both of us are RE, yes we are malaysian but we kive in Penang...not really a city life...I worked as expat for 12 years in few countries. Returned home 2008 continue working with until last week. Pull the plug as i'm getting bored of same job and also job pressure.

[kcowan]

It would be helpful if you can supply where there are pensions involved. How old is wife and child? Is Kepala batas a neighborhood or a city name?
What is your living cost?

I worked there in 2000. I am sure things have changed since then. We had a joint venture with Telekom Malaysia then.

[extm]

kepala batas is a City name in Northen of Penang...My cost of living should be around US2500 per month with a Investment return around 7% annually. Which company is that? (JV with Telekom Malaysia)

[Katsmeow]

I semi-retired on April 30 myself (still work one day a week). In a way it felt strange this week to have unstructured time that wasn't going to end in a week when vacation was over. I do have mental lists of things I want to do. We just moved so tehre is a long list. Yet, I wasn't really in the mood to do them this week. I guess just part of the decompressing.

On Friday we joined the local YMCA which has great exercise facilities, lots of classes and personal training available. I used to exercise but then with press of time got out of it the last few years so now I really really need to get back into it. I knew that if I didn't jump into it immediately it would be easy to just drift along and not do it. So will start doing that on Monday.

For me I think I will also make some written lists of things and will structure my day somewhat using them.

[extm]

it is a good idea to work one day per week. At least it will help to adjsut slowly into retiring mode. Especially when all friends are still at work. I need to get myself busy next week because we are renovating our house before we can moved in. Hopefully by June....

[yakers]

Some people like part time work. a fellow who sometimes posts on this board wrote "Work Less, Live More" which advocates part time work. For me, I retired 2 years ago enjoyed a clean break. My few friends from work are still friends, some still working. Now my wife retired four years ago from teaching and still works about 1 day a week. She likes the contact with students and teachers it isn't a financial issue.

[extm]

yakers, what do you do to fill up your time...any hobbies...i'm still did'nt find what I want to do...it seem a bit weird to see peoples rush for work (maybe because i'm still new in retiring business) while I am still at home with computer on...any good advice

[yakers]

I stay quite busy with managing our finances, my mother in law's finances and the investments for a fraternal group. Last year I was an officer but I travel too much to commit to a regular schedule. We work with Habitat for Humanity, Heifer Project and church activities. We are just back from Bali and like to travel a lot. In 2008 we took a 7 week 8,500 mile drive to arctic Canada & Alaska. We have a small travel trailer. I have 10 years of deferred maintenance on the house, caught up with a few months of it. I am trying to detune form the voice inside that says I 'have' to do something,anything but keep busy! Wife says to husband 'what are you going to do today, you did nothing yesterday?" He replies: "Thats right, and I didn't finish".

[Moscyn]

Hi extm, am happy to note a fellow Malaysian joining this Forum. Welcome! You'll find plenty of interesting topics and lots to learn here. I'm also a Malaysian - living and working in Hong Kong. Aiming to retire this year when I turn 50 just because I think there's more to life than work. When my friends hear about my plan, the first thing they ask is "what will you do then?". I used to worry about that but I don't think there is any need to make a drastic change although I will add two or more new activities. For one thing, I will stop rushing through the day. Just having more time to enjoy what one routinely does is already a blessing. Penang is such a nice town to retire in - it has such a holiday atmosphere and yet is quie and a reasonably inexpensive place to live well. If you like water sports, it seems there's so much you can do in Penang. It appears you have adjusted to life in Penang again after living abroad for some time. I think you will do well with this new phase in your life.

[kcowan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by extm kepala batas is a City name in Northen of Penang...My cost of living should be around US2500 per month with a Investment return around 7% annually. Which company is that? (JV with Telekom Malaysia)

Good cost of living numbers. You will probably experience a decline when your are both at home. Beautiful territory around Penang.

The JV was TM Orion into electronic payments on the internet. Has since been rolled back into TM.

[extm]

Guys, thanks a lot for the advice and sharing the experiences, I definitely take your advices. Yakers, what u did is fantastic especially on the NGO and church activities, i just enquire about voluntering in Malaysia Nature Society (Penang Branch), MOSCYN - I truly agree with you that sometime we just did not spend time to appreciate how beautiful is Penang especially the food, beach and people around us. KCOWAN, I know TM ORION, i think it is based in California back in 2000, when are you visiting Penang again?

[kcowan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by extm ...KCOWAN, I know TM ORION, i think it is based in California back in 2000, when are you visiting Penang again?

It was based in Vancouver BC. That was back when I was still w*rking.

My VP Business Devleopment still gets to Malaysia on his trips to China and Cambodia. His brother owns a printing shop in KL. Now that I live in Mexico, trips to the far east are less frequent (used to be once a quarter).

[extm]

KCOWAN, how's life in Mexico...what is the cost of living for family of three...

[Walt34]

One of the longest-running threads on this board is this one:

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...day-37868.html

By the time you're finished reading that, next month, you'll have a good idea of what to do.

Welcome to the forum!

[kcowan]

We are still trying to establish a baseline because we have intermixed the fitup of our new condo in our budget. But some work we did before coming here indicated that it should be around 60% of the costs in Vancouver Canada.

One of the problems is that we did the estimate before Costco was opened here. And the costco purchases tend to be
-higher quality, and
-large quantities

Tillamook cheddar is expensve, for example, but cheddar was not available before.