An Insightful Weekend

Now is the Ching Ming period, where families pay their respects in memory of their loved ones who had passed away.

Last weekend was no different for me. My family and I went up to Ipoh, with an uncle (Uncle Albert) who had coincidentally, made a trip down to KL from Melbourne just last week.

We stayed at my aunt's place, Uncle Albert's sister-in-law whose husband (Uncle Albert's brother) had passed away about 15 months ago. We had a lovely time, as everyone was joking and relaxing, and talking about old times.

My "Khoo Ma", i.e. my father's cousin sister, had had a mild stroke about 2 months ago, and since then, she has been recuperating in her sister's house in Teluk Intan. On the day we arrived in Ipoh, she was scheduled to return to her house in Pasir Pinji accompanied by her sisters and a newly hired maid. So we all spent the afternoon there, cheering up the place with chatter and laughter, and went on to have dinner together (a RM600 dinner spent by Uncle Albert).

Uncle Albert is a self-made multi millionaire. He studied for his Accounting degree in Australia, by virtue of my dad's sponsorship back in the old days. After graduating and working in Malaysia for 3-4 years, he migrated to Australia with his wife and his firstborn child. This was about 25 years ago, and he has never looked back since.

He started work in WP as an accountant, and worked his way up the corporate ladder quickly. In the process, he was exposed to numerous areas such as Treasury and Corporate Planning. After 15 years in the company, he opted for an early retirement at the age of 47 years old, because he did not want to relocate to Perth from Melbourne, a place he had grown to be familiar and comfortable with. By then, he was already the top 5 highest rank personnel in the WP group of companies.

They granted him a golden handshake, of which he slowly invested in properties he used as assets to generate income for his growing business in providing luxury serviced apartments.

Today, his net worth easily comes close to an estimated AUD10 million or more.

Having an uncle as a classic example of someone who had "made it", I asked him what he thought about my decision to make my big move over to Miri, leaving my family, friends and house behind to start over a new life. Many well-intentioned friends have voiced out their concerns and questioned my sudden decision to make such a big change to my life. So much so that sometimes, second thoughts seem to be trying to penetrate my already-made-up mind.

I was delighted to see and hear Uncle Albert's response to my announcement to him about my move to Miri. He was genuinely excited for me, and thought that this is such a great opportunity for me to make a change in my life, a change for a better, more exciting future!

He didn't see this as me having to leave everything behind. Instead, he saw this as me just re-arranging my current plans to fit my new environment. I will not be losing the friends and family I already have, but instead, I will be making new friends and my family will come over to visit me (as well as me going back home).

My house is an investment, as it is, whether or not I live in it. Even if I don't rent it out now, I've got a friend who was going to help me take care of it. Perhaps 4-5 years later, if the time is right and I so decide, I could sell it off with an almost certain capital gains return, as it is a landed freehold property.

If I later decide to rent the property out and a few years later, find myself returning here to work again, but the tenants did not take care of my house as much as I would have liked them to, Uncle Albert argues that by that time, I would be able to afford either to renovate the property again into a nicer, better condition than it is now, or do minimal repair works, then sell it off. Again, landed freehold properties' value are much more certain to appreciate with an almost constant demand for 2nd hand properties in a good, mature area.

Having heard all these from an expert in real estate, someone who had made his millions by buying properties, earning income from them, and then cashing out on the appreciating value, my doubts are no longer there.

He also ensures me that he KNOWS the company in Miri will be good to me (due to the close relationship of WP with it), and that I will not regret this move. If he had not been relocated to Perth, he affirms that he would have stayed on in WP and he is certain that he would be equally as financially sound and happy as he is today!

This has been a really insightful weekend for me, learning so much about my father's family history during the chatters of my relatives re-living the past, discovering my Uncle Albert's life account to success during our journey, and also receiving sound advice and encouragement about my decision to pursue a whole new life in an entirely unfamiliar land.