Saira Hayati, a 50-year-old mum from Kent, relocated to Melaka, Malaysia in 2024 and now saves £2,141 a month, enjoying a five-bedroom mansion, weekly massages, and a cleaner for a fraction of her UK expenses.
From UK financial strain to Malaysian luxury
After years of financial uncertainty in the UK, where her monthly household budget ranged from £3,612 to £3,929, Saira now spends between £1,788 and £1,874 a month in Malaysia. This lower cost of living allows her to afford luxuries like a weekly two-hour massage for £20, polo lessons, and a pool, which were rare treats in England.
Saira, a content creator and entrepreneur, initially planned to retire but found work in social media, which she doesn't stress about because she doesn't "need" the income. "The problem is in England no matter how much you earn it's not enough," she said. "I'm swimming, juicing, enjoying the sunshine. I feel healthier, happier, and more relaxed. My kids have said they noticed a difference."
Breaking down the savings
Her Malaysian monthly budget includes £150 for a cleaner, £300 for her daughter's online tuition, and £87 for weekly massages. She pays £20 a month in local charges, compared with £280 in UK council tax, while her electricity costs around £100 a month—three times less than her gas and electricity in England. Her water bill is just £5 a month, versus £150 in the UK, and her mobile phone costs £10, rather than £50.
Saira spends around £639 a month on eating out and takeaways in Malaysia, covering breakfast and dinner for three daily, whereas in England takeaways were a treat at £100 to £200 per month. She bought her 3,700 square foot five-bedroom, six-bathroom home outright for £165,000, benefiting from a better exchange rate in December 2023, compared to her £1,400 monthly mortgage in Kent for a four-bedroom detached house.
Financial security and family
Saira's financial outlook was shaped by experiencing four major recessions and the impact of the 2008 crash on her property management business, where she managed 350 properties professionally and around ten personally. She feared negative equity and had to "tighten the purse strings," including pulling her children out of private school.
Before leaving the UK, she sold properties from her personal portfolio, putting more than £100,000 into a Singapore vault with gold as a family safety net. "I'm comfortable in the sense that I don't need any more emergency fund and I don't need to earn any more than I need," she said. After a 22-year marriage ended, she found love again in Malaysia and remarried four months ago. "I've positioned myself somewhere that I know I can have a decent lifestyle that isn't going to cost me a lot of money," she added. "That's the kind of guidance I'm giving people having done it myself."
