Saira Hayati, 50, said she spends around £2,000 less every month compared to the UK
A British mother relocated overseas to secure an improved quality of life and claims she’s saving £2,141 monthly while enjoying weekly £20 massages, polo lessons, a cleaner and access to a swimming pool. Saira Hayati, 50, from Gravesend, Kent, made the move in 2024 following years of managing financial instability and learning to brace for economic difficulties.
The mother-of-five stated her monthly household expenditure in the UK was approximately £3,612 to £3,929 and occasionally stretched to the odd massage, a gym subscription and lake access during summer months. She now calculates she spends £1,788 to £1,874 monthly in Melaka, Malaysia, while accessing greater luxuries – including a weekly massage and domestic help. Her initial intention was to retire, though she’s secured work in social media and doesn’t worry about irregular income as she doesn’t “need” it.
Saira, a content creator and entrepreneur, said: “The problem is in England no matter how much you earn it’s not enough. I’m swimming, juicing, enjoying the sunshine. I feel healthier, happier, and more relaxed. My kids have said they noticed a difference.”
‘More than money’
The relocation has represented far more than mere cost savings for Saira, who is now welcoming a fresh chapter with her youngest child while working to restore relationships with her elder children after dedicating most of her time to her professional pursuits. Her other children remain living and working in England.
Following the conclusion of a 22-year marriage, she discovered love once more in Malaysia and wed again four months ago. The former director of a national mortgage brokerage maintains the reduced cost of living has afforded her greater freedom to savour daily indulgences without the equivalent financial strain she endured in England.
She said: “Over here for me to have a two-hour massage is £20. So I go for massages every week.”
Her Malaysian monthly expenditure encompasses £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 approximately £100 a month – three times less than her gas and electricity in England.
Her water bill stands at merely £5 a month, compared with £150 in the UK, while her mobile phone costs £10, rather than £50. Saira spends roughly £639 a month on dining out and takeaways in Malaysia, covering breakfast and dinner for three daily rather than food shopping.
In England takeaways and dining out represented a treat, at £100 to £200 per month. Purchasing her 3,700sqft five-bedroom, six-bathroom property outright in Malaysia cost her £165,000 and Saira benefited from a superior exchange rate in December 2023. In Kent, her monthly mortgage stood at £1,400 a month for a four-bedroom detached house.
How Saira’s outlook was shaped
Saira’s financial perspective was influenced by living through four significant recessions and the consequences of the 2008 crash on her property management enterprise. At that point, she was serving as director of a property management firm and maintained a professional portfolio of 350 properties, together with roughly ten properties in her private portfolio.
She discussed the anxiety of sliding into negative equity and having to “tighten the purse strings” on her family’s finances throughout the credit crunch, which included withdrawing her children from private school.
She said: “The cost of living is making people squeezed from every angle. The burden is heavier now than it was and people just aren’t in a position to do what they strive to.”
She stated the strain confronting households in England had grown progressively challenging, irrespective of how much people earned. Saira started offloading properties from her private portfolio before departing the UK, ultimately placing over £100,000 into a Singapore vault with gold to provide her family with a financial safety net.
The reserve means she no longer feels obliged to continue earning additional money merely to feel protected. She explained the £100,000 was sufficient to safeguard her family for years in an emergency while residing in Malaysia.
She said: “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.”
For Saira, relocating overseas wasn’t simply about reducing expenses, but about discovering somewhere she could experience an improved quality of life and dedicate more time to her family without perpetually fretting about finances.
She said: “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. That’s the kind of guidance I’m giving people having done it myself.”
Saira’s costs
Mortgage/rent
UK: £1,400
Malaysia: £0 – home owned outright
Council tax/local collection charge
UK: £280
Malaysia: £20
Service charge: grounds, pool and gym
UK: Not included
Malaysia: £30
Gas and electricity
UK: £300
Malaysia: £100 – electricity only
Water
UK: £150
Malaysia: £5
Internet
UK: £50
Malaysia: £50
Mobile phone
UK: £50
Malaysia: £10
Groceries
UK: £650 to £867
Malaysia: £80 – fruit, juicing supplies, and toiletries
Eating out/takeaways
UK: £100 to £200
Malaysia: £639 – breakfast and dinner for three daily
Fuel
UK: £217
Malaysia: £87 to £173
Car costs: insurance, tax, service, repairs
UK: £200
Malaysia: £110
Home insurance
UK: £75 – buildings and contents
Malaysia: £20 – buildings
Cleaner
UK: Not included
Malaysia: £150
Child tuition
UK: £0
Malaysia: £300
Gym
UK: £40
Malaysia: Included in service charge
Clothes, toiletries, haircuts and dental
UK: £100
Malaysia: Toiletries above; other costs not totalled
Weekly massages
UK: Not included
Malaysia: £87
Monthly totals
UK: £3,612 to £3,929
Malaysia: £1,788 to £1,874
Annual totals
UK: £43,344 to £47,148
Malaysia: £21,456 to £22,488
