1. Meet new people & create your network
   When you first arrive in a new country, you seldom have the chance to already have friends or acquaintances locally. Expat association are a great start to meet new people who are, or recently were, in a similar situation. After a few coffee or tea sessions you may even end up with a few friends, and your network will spread its wing from then on.
2. Speak in your native language
   Living abroad, one usually end up speaking more english than any other language. If like me you first discovered Shakespeare or Hemingway through translations, you’ll be glad to be able to revert back to your good old native language, even if only for a few hours.
3. Get advice and feed-back from old timers
   Local idioms and customs can be surprising at first. We all went through a learning curve when we first landed. Being able to share these experience with compatriots helps smooths the process. It also helps a lot to be able to reach an ol’ timer to get a trusted recommendation when a water pipe breaks or your washing machines refuses to start during Chinese New Year.
4. Discover your new country
   Most association organize events and outings, helping you discover your new country and culture. Even after a few years in the country, I sometimes found myself discovering new things and places thanks to these excursions.
5. Find a job
   Many don’t think about it, but expat association are mostly run by spouses of successful expatriates. Their hubbies or wives often have been posted here by big MNCs, or they have started their own business in order to stay in the country after their posting expired. Either way, mingling with expats trailing spouses is always a good idea when you’re new to the country and looking for a job. Who knows, maybe you’ll learn about a new position opening soon or even get an interview thanks to your new contact…

All in all, expat association may not be perfect, but they offers a lot of great things and have helped many new expats over the years. A great feat, especially when you consider that most of them are run on a benevolent basis and their members seldom get acknowledged for their efforts and time.

If you wish to join one of Malaysia’s expatriate association, just follow the link: Expatriate Groups, Associations and Clubs in Malaysia

If you are French or Canadian, you are raised to expect the government to provide for your minimum standard of living in later years; of course, you can sweeten your old days by saving and investing along the way. You usually pay a lot of taxes, but the social pact is that you’ll have your basic needs covered when you reach retirement.

Meanwhile, if you are Americans or Malaysian, you know you have to save for their retirement as your country does not guarantee you with a defined income upon retirement – civil servant being a notable exception. Your government do help you with compulsory schemes like the 401K or the EPF, and other tax incentives on saving accounts and other investment platforms, which end up lowering the level of tax you pay to your government. But in the end you can only rely on yourself to continue living a decent life once retired.

Once you become an expatriate, whether you come from a social thinking country like France or Canada, or a more liberal one like the US or Malaysia, you are faced with a tough decision to make: How shall you prepare for your retirement now that you are abroad? Do you continue your social scheme back home – if you have the opportunity ? Do you take your 401K or QROPS abroad with you ? Where will your saving and investment plan be located – back home? in your new country? somewhere else?

Difficult questions for sure. Many do shy away from them, and end up having to start from scratch a few years later. So the incentive really is in taking the bull by the horn and asking you those tough questions. The good news is that your scope of opportunity is wider, and you can build your stash faster as a result. It certainly is more work and less comfortable – especially for French or Canadian – but it also is more rewarding !

Many contracts to chose from

APRIL designed a range of 9 contracts covering accident or illness for expatriates. These contracts range from a simple, straight forward, international medical cover, to more comprehensive cover including out-patient, dental and optical. They also have contracts working on a monthly revolving basis to cover those on short missions, student exchange programmes or training, and an integrated Mutuelle which work as a  one-stop-center for French who want to remain in the French Social Security System (CFE) – If you are French and want to know more, read this article in french.

Great Medical Cover

Their hospitalisation cover from their Magellan contract is the best Medical Cover I’ve seen. You are covered for 100% of actual costs, up to a maximum amount of healthcare expenses which range from 200,000 to 500,000 Euros – these doubles in the event of accident or critical illness.

I do like the fact that these cover includes pregnancy delivery, even for their most basic plan. Sweet.

Best of all, their prices also are sweet. You would pay from 336 Euro if you are a 21 years old on a 200K cover, up to 2,832 Euros if you are over 70 years old on a 500K cover.  Pretty cheap by international standards.

Cover for life

Many insurer do tell you that they will keep covering you in your old days. But it is very hard to find it in writing. April does write it down. The following lines can be found on page two of most of their contract:

APRIL Mobilité offers lifetime healthcare cover if you take out a policy before age 71. You are then covered for as long as you wish with no increase in premium regardless of the level of your expenses.

I love it. To the point that I am introducing their insurances to all my clients who are in their 50s, advising them to switch to APRIL. To me, this is the perfect option for those who want to retire internationally, with programmes such as the Malaysia My Second Home Program.  An international insurance, replicating the French Social System, with a lifetime cover.

As you can see, I like this insurer very much. The more I work with them, the more I like what I see. If you feel like you’d like to know more, I invite you to visit their website (APRIL Mobilité). Unfortunately it is in French, but they do have most of their brochures and information in English. You can also contact me directly and I’ll be happy to provide them to you.

I’ll wrap this post up with a few figures on APRIL Mobilité and the APRIL Group.

APRIL Mobilité in figures

• More than 35,000 persons are currently covered by APRIL Mobilité
• More than 1,000 companies use their service for their expatriates
• More than 3,000 students covered per year

APRIL Group in figures

• 2.5 Million person insured
• 3,200 employees world-wide
• More than 30 years in business
• ISO 9001 2000 certification awarded in 2002

Let’s quickly review the scope of a good social security system – I’m not talking US here

Medical Cover – Covers everything related to medical (duh!), maternity, Emergencies etc.

Retirement – Help you plan your retirement. Some system promises you a specific monthly benefit at retirement, others provide you an individual account from which you can draw an income later on.

Critical Illness Cover – Kicks-in and provide you with a regular income should you suffer from a critical/incapacitating illness – i.e. you can not work anymore but still need to make a living

Income Protection – Provides you with an income were you to lose your job

Family Cover – Helps you with some reduction or tax benefits in order to ease the burden of raising childs

Social Aid – Financial help for those who are in difficult situations due to their handicap, health, social or economic difficulties when other system can not cover them or are insufficient.

I put them down in order of importance from an expat point of view.

The Medical cover is maybe the easiest to grasp for everybody.

The retirement one also is quite obvious for many, usually those whose social security system provide them with an individual account grasp this concept very fast- they are already used to be responsible for their own future income.

Critical Illness cover and income protection are less top of mind for many. Yet they are very important. Especially the critical illness cover. Statistically, we have more chances of suffering from an incapacitating trauma than we have of dying young. Yet most people are familiar with life insurance, but not with critical illness.

The last two are more macro concerns. They are paid for by our taxes and we pay for those in our country of residence.

So – did you cover the 4 pilars of social security? Or did you simply go for the adventures?

I hope you don’t mind my writing to you directly like this with a relatively straightforward question. As a foreigner living in Singapore, how can I finance the purchase of a property in Penang? Do I contact a local bank in Malaysia/Penang? In other words, do Malaysian banks lend to non-residents? I am not applying for the MM2H. Do you have any particular recommendations? Thanks very much.

The good news is that Malaysian Banks do not discriminate against foreign buyers of Malaysian properties. In fact, the approval process is identical to that

of a Malaysian borrower. You can usually expect to get 70% financing. Some can go as high as 85%. More and the customer/bank relationship is kind of special… even though Peter England from CIMB says they can go as high as 95%.

But you can also get your historic bank to help you. Some are ready to consider financing a property in Malaysia; especially Singaporean Banks. You should check wi

th them first. Should they not consider it, you should try to get them to recommend you to their local branch in Malaysia. A letter of introduction can go a long way toward negotiating better rates.

If you prefer to go with local bank, I usually recommend CIMB. Thanks to their re-branding, they still are considered new to the market – hence more aggressive – and are quite professional, by Malaysians standards…

Few things to keep in mind when buying a property in Malaysia:

• Foreigners are restricted to buying properties with a minimum price threshold. The threshold usually is of RM250K, but can vary from state to state. So check it out first.
• The buying process is slightly longer for a foreigner as it includes a compulsory state authority consent before the property can be transferred to the foreigner. It can take up to 6 months, even though the Malaysian government is trying to reduce this length.
• No need to come down to Malaysia to sign your Sales & Purchase Agreement. You can do it at the Malaysian High Commission of your country of residence.
• I still highly advise for you to check the property or its location before putting down your deposit. If you can’t, take the time to Google Map the location. You never know what surprises the developer / owner can try to hide… 3 days ago I came across a water-tank located right inside a new development premises; Not a good surprise!

Unfortunately, I am not very familiar with Penang. Therefore, I can not help you much further here. But should you be looking for properties in Kuala Lumpur, I highly recommend JED Realty as Real Estate agents. They are very friendly and professional.

Good luck in your searches & investment !

Few interesting links
Think Property – Promising New RE website
Bank Negara Malaysia – BNM info for foreign investors
My Property Talk – Best Malaysian RE forum, not much on Penang unfortunately