Recently I read two articles on what young leaders in Singapore and Malaysia said, they may sound similar but actually there is a huge difference.

First click here to read No time, no money, no life: SDP’s Ariffin gets real about youth struggles in Singapore GE at Sinar Daily.

Then click here to read Young workers not interested in protests, only want to survive, says Muda’s Amira

So what did you catch from the articles above?

Well the young leaders are expressing what is a fact for most young people in their own country and there is a fundamental difference:

In Singapore, the young study hard and have work today BUT they have No Cash (due to high cost of living), No Time (they are hard working people or maybe too kedekut to spend money with a friend so give excuse no time) and No Life because they are either working or no money to go anywhere!

On the other hand, in Malaysia the leaders said the young just want to survive and one of the comments in the article was – “not enough jobs are available for graduates”.

So you tell me, which you prefer?

Option 1 – where you have work and earn a monthly salary to survive but no extra disposable cash, no time to relax and no life where there is no money for entertainment

OR Option 2 – no work and thus no money to survive.

The point is people who complain will get nothing but if one is a doer, he will find ways to survive and reached his/her goals.

Let me tell you a story, I took Grab recently and the driver was an OKU. He told me he used to be a Food Panda Delivery Boy but was hit by a car and his leg was injured badly and can no lonfer ride a motorbike. He was down and feeling sorry for himself for months until he decided to take actions and be a Grab Driver. Initially, for more than 1 years plus, he rented a car and after saving money he bought his own car (paid some money to the car owner and took over the car loan which had 3 years remaining). And because he was an OKU, he has benefits too such as OKU sticker ( damn good can park near entrances) and he told me Grab don’t take omission and I googled and it is true! Wow Grab is really good helping the OKUs. He told me in 2 years time he will buy a new car and be a Grab Driver until the day he no longer can work and thus get SOSCO benefits!

FYI, I have also been in a Grab where one driver is deaf and one has deformity to his hand. I am very happy to learn that GRAB does not take omissions from OKUs.

So coming back to the subject of survival, i.e. having a job – what you can observe is that most people who work in their own country won’t have enough cash to purchase/build a home.

For examples:

Many people from Bangladesh and Pakistan come to Malaysia to work so that they can send back money to their family. My grandpa when he was still alive had an Indonesia maid that was with him for years, she managed to sent money back to build a house (I know because she showed me a photo of the house).

Malaysians go overseas (Singapore, Japan, Europe and other developed countries) to work so that hey have extra money to purchase a home in Malaysia! I know a few people who have earned money overseas which allowed them to buy a house in Malaysia. (Oh, if you are thinking of going to Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and other 3rd world countries to work, you better go educate yourself on scams!).

But in Singapore it is a completely different story as the Singaporeans would not probably earn more money in other countries; and here is a fact, even if they do have money to purchase a HDB flat, it is not their property as they are leasing only!

So most Singaporeans are given the opportunities to survive as getting a job is not an issue, just that they do hot a extra cash, no time to relax and no quality life.

One thing for sure you can observe is that in Singapore, the senior citizens are still working (very obvious at McD and janitors).

Here are some shocking facts DOSM:

The average Median Salary of Malaysia is RM2,645…… wait…… how much does a person working in McD earns in Singapore?

RM2745 is less than SDG1K lah and even lower in USD.

More troubling (why?because long term Malaysians are earning less and less compared to SG and US and other developed countries) facts

Regarding the wage distribution, 32.2 per cent of total formal employees earned monthly wages below RM2,000, which was reduced by 2.4 percentage points compared to June 2024. Additionally, the percentile analysis shows that the bottom 10 per cent of Malaysian formal employees received monthly wages of RM1,500 or less per month, while formal employees in the 90th percentile earned at least RM8,800 per month, an increase of 3.5 per cent from June 2023. The wage gap between these two groups reveals that the highest earners (90th percentile) earned nearly six times more than those in the lowest wage group (10th – percentile). Source DOSM

In respect of the above, you are considered top 10 if you earn RM8,800 which is less than USD2K!!!

For Malaysians regardless if you are a graduate or not, the opportunities are there for those who are willing to go overseas to work to earn more cash and even save enough to purchase a home!

I have shared before that a Malaysian graduate went to Singapore to be a rubbish collector earning more than RM10K per month!

In Malaysia where not only is there not enough jobs for graduates, even if one graduates from a World’s Top 100 university, most fresh graduates will earn less than SGD2K per month which is less than a rubbish collector in Singapore!

One of my cousin’s son (in his 20s) who graduated from US works in SG earning more than RM18K per month. On the other hand, I also have a cousin who graduated from University of Melbourne and worked in UK for 3 years in an Investment Bank returned home with more than RM1M!

So basically, if you graduate from a World Top 100 University with the right degree, you can easily earn more than RM200K p.a. overseas. We are talking fresh graduates here. BUT then again, like I said, they may be able to purchase a home in Malaysia and not necessarily a home in the country they are working in!

Having said the above, salaries of fresh graduates do increase over time and eventually when one becomes a manager or senior executive earning more than RM10K per month, their monthly salary will give them a comfortable life….. but then again with government cutting this and that subsidies and increasing taxes, health insurance premiums increasing, house prices increasing, utilities increaseasing, food price increaseing and etc, maybe even with RM10K plus monthly salary will also lead to No Money, No Time and No Life!

Seriously RM10K is less than USD3K or SGD3K……… that is why today many parents who are earning more than RM10K per month can’t afford to send their children overseas to a World’s Top 100 University to get a Medical Degree. But no problems, can go to Monash Malaysia, serious. Why spend your hard earn money on a Medical Degree with other universities if the degree is not recognized overseas?

The contents above appliy to most young people and not applicable to those who have a family business to take over where daddy or mummy will make you small boss of the company and all essential living expenses (housing, food and car) taken care off.

Conclusion

Do not complain if you are not able to survive in Malaysia but instead be a doer and grab the opportunity by joining the hundred of thousands of Malaysians to work in SG and have No Time (have to travel daily on the causeway to save on food and housing, work as Grab Driver on weekends in Johor) and No Life (work work work to save money) but plenty of cash over the years to purchase a FREEHOLD Landed property in Malaysia which you and your further generations own unlike majority of Singaporeans who are leasing their HDB flats!