Saira Hayati and her daughter wanted a ‘better lifestyle’
Saira Hayati and her daughter on a boat trip in Malaysia(Image: Saira Hayati/SWNS)
A British mum moved abroad to afford a better lifestyle and said she saves £2,141 a month as well as enjoying weekly £20 massages, polo lessons, a cleaner and a pool.
Saira Hayati, 50, from Gravesend, Kent, relocated in 2024 after years of navigating financial uncertainty and learning to prepare for economic downturns. The mum-of-five said her monthly household budget in the UK was around £3,612 to £3,929 and stretched to the rare massage, a gym membership and access to a lake in the summer.
She now estimates she spends £1,788 to £1,874 a month in Melaka, Malaysia, and gets more luxuries – including a weekly massage and a cleaner. Her plan was originally to retire, but she has found work doing social media and doesn’t stress about inconsistent earnings 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.”
About more than money
The move has been more than just money saving for Saira, who is now embracing a new chapter with her youngest child while working to rebuild connections with her older children after spending most of her time focused on her career. Her other children are still living and working in England.
After a 22-year marriage ended, she found love again in Malaysia and remarried four months ago. The former director of a national mortgage brokerage says the lower cost of living has given her more freedom to enjoy everyday luxuries without the same financial pressure she experienced 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 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, compared with £150 in the UK, while 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 every day rather than food shops.
In England takeaways and eating out was a treat, at £100 to £200 per month. Buying her 3,700sqft five-bedroom, six-bathroom, home outright in Malaysia cost her £165,000 and Saira benefited from a better exchange rate in December 2023. In Kent, her monthly mortgage was £1,400 a month for a four-bedroom detached house.
How Saira’s outlook was shaped
Saira’s financial outlook was shaped by experiencing four major recessions and the impact of the 2008 crash on her property management business. At the time, she was working as a director of a property management agency and had a professional portfolio of 350 properties, alongside around ten properties in her personal portfolio. She spoke about the fear of falling into negative equity and having to “tighten the purse strings” on her family’s finances during the credit crunch, including pulling her children out of 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 said the pressure facing households in England had become increasingly difficult, regardless of how much people earned. Saira began selling properties from her personal portfolio before leaving the UK, eventually putting more than £100,000 into a Singapore vault with gold to give her family a financial safety net.
The fund means she no longer feels compelled to keep earning more money simply to feel secure. She said the £100,000 was enough to protect her family for years in an emergency living 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, moving abroad was not just about cutting bills, but about finding somewhere she could enjoy a better quality of life and spend more time with her family without constantly worrying about money.
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