Chitchat Singaporean says he spends 40% less a month after moving to Johor

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Singaporean says he spends 40% less a month after moving to Johor

Dollars and Sense
Wednesday, Jun 08, 2016


We all heard about Malaysians who commute to Singapore daily for work. They stay in Malaysia, usually Johor, and enjoy the lower cost of living and favourable exchange rate. Some of us may even envy that. We look at our Singapore denominated salary and wonder to ourselves how much more our salary could stretch if only we could spend it in a cheaper country.


Staying in Johor but working online in Johor

We recently caught up with a good friend of ours to talk about this. Gabriel Tan, who was formerly a consultant in the investor relation space, decided to leave his job in 2014 to focus on a few businesses that he was running.

Gabriel is a partner in Max Polish, one of Singapore's leading car grooming companies. The most unique thing about Max Polish is that they actually go to your house to groom your car for you. And they are very active online, particularly in social media. Gabriel's main role in the business is to support the company in its digital marketing plans.

Aside from running Max Polish, Gabriel also runs a company called M.A.P. Marketing, a business that specialises in helping SMEs with their digital and social media marketing. Gabriel is also an investor in a coffee shop in Singapore.

Gabriel, who is currently in his mid 30s, decided to give living in Malaysia a try to see if he could lower his personal expenses significantly while still running his Singapore businesses from abroad. To ensure that he could still physically be around to take care of his businesses when the need arises, he decided to base himself in nearby Johor Bahru. He has been living there since December 2014.


Cost of living is about 40 per cent cheaper in Johor, Malaysia

Based on Gabriel's own personal estimate, he spends about 40 per cent less each month now that he is based in Malaysia.

When you think about it, this really makes a lot of sense. Being an entrepreneur who does most of his work online, it does not matter if a person is working from a swanky CBD office in Singapore, or his own home office at Johor. The work can be done equally fast and well, as long as you have access to good Wi-Fi.

It goes without saying that saving money on office rent while working from home makes perfect financial sense for many entrepreneurs who runs their business online. For Gabriel, rent saving comes in two different forms.

Firstly, he saves money by not needing an office in Singapore since he works from home. Secondly, he is also saving money on rent by staying in Malaysia.

Gabriel was previously renting a 1,500 square feet condominium unit at Upper East Coast for $3,600. Today, he rents a 1,600 square feet condominium unit situated right above the popular KSL shopping mall. Think of it as Orchard Residence, the condominium development right above Ion Orchard. He pays RM3,300 each month for rent, or about S$1,100.

He co-shares the apartment with one other friend. In other words, Gabriel pays about S$550 a month for rent each month.

Aside from rental, Gabriel shared with us that he spends less than RM5,000 (S$1,667) a month. And that's with a very comfortable style of living. He has restaurant meals and spends when he needs to. In total, we estimate that Gabriel spend less than S$2,200 each month living in Malaysia. He used to spend about S$4,000 in Singapore.


Commuting from Johor to Singapore

Unlike many Malaysians who work regular hours job in Singapore, and are forced to cope with the jam during peak hours at the Causeway, Gabriel has much more flexibility with his own schedule.

On average, Gabriel comes into Singapore about 1-2 times a week to meet up with his clients, business partners and family members.

Aside from that, any other discussion can be taken over the phone, via email or through text messages. When you think about it, that's how many of us communicate with our colleagues and clients anyway.

It is interesting to note that because he has control of his schedule as an entrepreneur, Gabriel is able to deliberately plan his meetings such that he does not need to come through the Causeway during peak period. On average, he takes about 1 hour 15 minutes to get from his home in to his meeting destinations in Singapore. In fact, he can even reach his parents' place at Serangoon in less than 40 minutes if he decides to visit them at night.


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