• Andrew Taylor, 70, left the US to retire in Malaysia a decade ago.
• He now lives in a 2-bedroom condo in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city, that costs about $620 a month.
• "I probably would not be retired if I were still in the US," Taylor said.

At 60, Andrew Taylor retired and left the US to move to Malaysia.

Taylor, who used to do administrative work, started thinking about retirement when he was in his mid-fifties. However, the high cost of living in the US made it feel like a pipe dream.

"I realized that I was probably not going to be able to stay in the United States, or I was going to have to work until I was 80," Taylor, now 70, told Business Insider.

He started considering retiring abroad, and it was through his then-partner — who lived in Penang — that he first learned about the Malaysia My Second Home, or MM2H, visa program. The MM2H program was introduced by the government in 2002 to attract foreigners to retire and live in Malaysia.

The conditions for the visa have been tightened over the years.

Based on the most recent rule changes announced in 2024, there are now three different categories: Platinum, Gold, and Silver. Depending on the category of visa they apply for, applicants are required to have minimum bank deposits of between $150,000 and $1 million and also buy property in Malaysia. The validity of the visa ranges from 5 years to 20 years.

Having visited multiple times before, the idea of living in Malaysia appealed to him. He said he saw the visa program as something that could help him retire much earlier.

In late 2014, he applied and was approved a few months later. In 2015, Andrew packed up his bags and moved from Washington, D.C. — where he had lived for 40 years — to start the next chapter of his life.

Creating a dream apartment in the city

It's been 10 years since Taylor arrived in Malaysia. He spent seven years in Penang, a state in northwest Malaysia, before moving to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city, three years ago.

He's been in his current rental — a two-bedroom condo — for about five months.

Taylor said that his previous unit was on two floors, and he had to climb 20 steps to reach the bedroom. "I'm 70 and the stairs are irritating to me now, so I want it to be all on one floor," he said.

Taylor says he took just one weekend to find his apartment, which was about two miles outside the city center. The view of the city immediately caught his attention.

"I'm on the 22nd floor, and I can see the Twin Towers. I can see all the major towers in KL, and it's just a beautiful view. I think if I'm going to be in KL, that's what I wanted," Taylor said.

His rent costs 2,800 Malaysian ringgit, or $620, each month. It's a two-year lease with an option for a third year. Unlike his previous apartments, he opted for an unfurnished unit this time.

"I really never liked the furniture in the apartments that I was renting," he said, adding that he has always been interested in interior design. Most of his furniture is sourced locally.

"It's sort of eclectic," he said, describing his apartment. "I have oriental carpets and things like that, but with modern furniture."

His apartment block is part of a five-building condo development, which offers amenities like a pool and a gym.

This is Taylor's fifth apartment in Malaysia, and he says he plans to continue renting and riding around the city on his Vespa for the foreseeable future.

Lessons learned along the way have contributed to his decision. The first place he moved into after arriving in Malaysia was on the 35th floor of a building in Penang.

"The landlord said, 'Oh, they'll never build in front of it.' Well, yes, they built right in front of it immediately," he said. "If you buy a place, it's just harder to move on."

Americans are retiring abroad

Taylor isn't alone in his decision to retire abroad.

Analyses in the past year have estimated that a single person would need to earn $96,000 a year to live comfortably in many major US cities. It comes as no surprise that more and more Americans are being priced out of the US.

There's also a retirement crisis sweeping across the nation, with more people over 65 still punching the clock because they can't afford to retire.

An AARP survey of 8,368 people conducted in January 2024 found that 1 in 5 Americans 50 and over reported having no retirement savings. Over half of them also said they do not think they'll have enough money to keep them afloat in retirement.

It's a sentiment that Taylor shares. "I probably would not be retired if I were still in the US," he said.

In contrast, the MM2H visa has made Malaysia an attractive destination for expats.

As of January 2024, there were 56,066 active MM2H pass holders in the country, Malaysia's Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Tiong King Sin said during a parliament session, per local paper The Star. Chinese nationals form about 44% of pass holders, followed by those from South Korea and Japan. There were 1,340 pass holders from the US. The ministry did not respond to a request for comment sent by BI.

'Pretty similar' lifestyles in both countries

While Taylor's lifestyle in Malaysia is "pretty similar" to the one he had back in the States, the lower cost of living here means that his money can go further each month.

"I would say I used to try to keep my budget to $2,000. Now it's a little bit more than that. I would say $2,500 is what I live on now," Taylor said, adding that he doesn't think he could live on the same amount back in the US.

He has a basic health insurance policy that costs 340 Malaysian ringgit each month.

"There are other much better policies, but I went with the cheap option," Taylor said. He says it only covers hospitalization and related costs.

He's also satisfied with Malaysia's healthcare facilities.

"And you don't have to wait long for an appointment or wait long at your appointment," he added.

Cost of living aside, Taylor says he also feels safer in Malaysia.

"I've never felt safer anywhere. Where I lived in my last place outside D.C., sometimes I would hear gunshots from outside my window, and that just is so foreign here. There's nothing like that," he said. "I've never ever felt any uncomfortable feeling when I'm out, even alone walking around."

These days, Taylor spends his time filming YouTube videos about what it's like to live in Malaysia.

However, he says that such a drastic move might not be for everyone — especially for those who have children, grandchildren, or even aged parents. It only worked for him because he had loose family connections.

Looking back, Taylor says he's learned not to be afraid of living outside his comfort zone.

"My family thought I would last about six months, and then I would come back. 10 years later, and I'm still here, and I have no intention of ever going back to the US," he said.

Have you recently relocated to a new country and found your dream home? If you have a story to share, contact this reporter at [email protected].

• Shruti Dhumak navigated maternity leave amid Google's AI industry shift and layoffs.
• She split her leave to maintain visibility and manage family support from India.
• Dhumak focused on self-improvement and open communication to regain her work efficiency.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Shruti Dhumak, a cloud customer engineer in Google's Boston office who gave birth in February 2023. It has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified her employment history.

Before I had my son, I always doubted how I was going to manage being this overly ambitious person with motherhood.

I've been with Google for about four years. I had my first child in February 2022 and split up my maternity leave in three phases to make the most of temporary support I had when my family visited.

Between Google's policy of six months of maternity leave, one month of prepartum leave, and one month of paid time off, I had a total of eight months of time away from work. I knew I was fortunate to have this time off because it is rare in the US, but going on leave and the anxiety of being replaced while I was away was one of the hardest things I have dealt with.

I'm a customer engineer, and a large part of my role revolves around managing relationships with our cloud clients. If someone takes over for me, the customers end up being closer to that representative and I risk losing my accounts to someone else.

I was also paranoid that my absence or my performance below my peak, once I returned, would make me more susceptible to a layoff. Two weeks before my delivery, Google announced its biggest, 12,000-people layoff. As someone on an H1-B visa, a layoff would mean I would have to find another job in a matter of weeks or risk having to move back to India with a newborn.

When I came back to work, I was not a hundred percent myself — not as a person and not as an employee. I was not a hundred percent efficient. I've had my moments where I broke down and lost my train of thought during a call.

Despite my efforts, some other senior people were preferred by the business partners for some responsibilities. To add to it, Google was entering the artificial intelligence industry. Being away months felt like I was behind by many years.

But I was able to turn my performance around. In 2024, I got awards for my performance, and it's just the opposite of how last year went.

There were four things I did to make the transition easier on myself:

1. Split up my leave

Google offers employees the flexibility to take their maternity leave for up to a year after the baby is born. I broke up my leave into three stages, which allowed me to come back to work periodically to ensure I was visible and my work was not forgotten.

I took my first break a month before the baby was born. I returned in my third month after the delivery and went back on leave in the months of September, November, December and January. It was designed based on who was there to help me with the child throughout the year — first my parents and then my in-laws.

2. Highlight my work

Nobody is going to talk about me until I do, which is something I have struggled with in my previous companies.

I made sure to speak up when things weren't going right and made sure to collect evidence of my efforts and achievements.

I took advantage of the help I had and spent evenings and weekends taking exams and completing certifications to upskill myself and show others that I was coming up to speed.

3. Have open, honest conversations

What helped me through the year was my manager. She saw what was happening when I missed things because I've been a good performer all these years.

I shared everything with her openly during one-on-ones, which helped because she understood my challenges. She also helped me maintain visibility with upper management, because Google is strict with grades and the ratings you get.

It made a world of a difference to have a female manager and a work culture where men could empathize, too. My job involves a lot of talking and explaining, and I suffered from shortness of breath during my third trimester. My male counterparts recognized this and asked me to take breaks and go off-camera, which helped me work until the day I left for leave.

I also built my network and spoke to women who are managers in other teams in the company. Women who have been outperformers shared their experiences crying secretly after they became parents, and nobody said they had it all sorted out. Now, I share my journey with others.

4. Taking it one day at a time

During the wave of tech layoffs in 2022, I had at least three close friends who were laid off from Google, Microsoft, and Meta, which lingered on my mind and made me paranoid about my own situation.

The stress and postpartum depression is not behind me, but I decided to take it one day at a time.

I decided to be laser-focused and do things as they come up. There have been times I feel like delaying a reply but do it anyway, because I know it could lead to more tasks that I can add to my annual review.

Do you work in Big Tech and have a tip or story to share? Please reach out at [email protected].

Around the world, public healthcare systems have struggled to reset post-pandemic, and in particular, the increasingly aged populations in Western countries are putting pressure on services, not least in the UK where ‘NHS in crisis’ is a regular headline in the media. As a result, private companies, many powered with technology, see a gap in […]

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Denise Richards has money on one of her former costars being able to pass Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.

“Well, actually, I just interviewed with him and he is my very first costar on Saved by the Bell, Mario Lopez,” Richards, 53, told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published on Saturday, January 11.

Richards revealed that she had a conversation with Lopez, 51, about him appearing on Special Forces. “And I asked him, ‘When are you going to do it?’” she said. “He would do awesome on it. He’d make it to the end, I’m sure.”

The pair appeared alongside each other during a 1991 episode of Saved by the Bell, where Cynthia (Richards) attempts to meet A.C. Slater (Lopez). (The series, which aired for four seasons from 1989 to 1993, followed a group of teens — including Lopez — navigating the highs and lows of high school.)

‘Special Forces’ Soldiers Break Down Denise Richards Revealing Past Assault

While appearing on Special Forces, Richards attempted to jump from a speeding boat to a speeding helicopter and jumped off a bridge before claiming she hurt her back. (She also later revealed she ruptured her breast implants.) As the contestants participated in a punishing Navy SEAL exercise known as surf immersion in the second episode, Richards initially asked to sit out. She ultimately went on to take off her armband, signaling her withdrawal from the competition.

Despite her early exit from the series, Richards said that she’s “very proud” of herself. “I had the guts to jump off a bridge and that I jumped off. I was so happy. Even though I couldn’t climb in that helicopter, I was very happy,” she told the outlet. “I was able to at least grab on and hang from there. I never in a million years thought I could do that.”

Richards was also the first contestant on the show to get vulnerable about her past, revealing that she has frozen in certain situations because she is “completely overcome by fear.” Richards shared during a conversation with the staff that the first time she experienced a “freeze” like that was at age 15.

“I noticed a man following me. He came up from behind me, put his hand around my mouth, grabbed my vagina and started dragging me,” she said. “And I froze, like, I couldn’t even scream for help.”

Denise Richards Teases Her ‘Special Forces’ Experience: 'Never' Again

Before sharing her story on Special Forces, she had previously only told husband Aaron Phypers about the incident. “It’s so scary to have that situation, you know, [at] that age and be so vulnerable,” she continued. “And I have three daughters, and I want them to be able to never go through that. And also, if something, God forbid, happen to be strong enough.”

While recalling Richards’ candidness, Directing Staff instructor Billy Billingham said in a joint interview with fellow soldier Rudy Reyes gave insight into why contestants share their stories.

“Before we do the mirror room, even [if it’s only been 12 hours], you’ve already put through a phase of deprivation,” he said at Us Weekly’s NYC studio on Thursday, January 9. “When you’re tired, you’re hungry, you don’t care anymore. You’re more open. Now there’s something about that, what we call the mirror room. I don’t know why it is — and we are not psychologists and we have no idea what that story’s gonna be right out of that person’s mouth.”

Special Forces: The World’s Toughest Test airs on Fox Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Macy Gray made quite the exit during the UK version of The Masked Singer.

After the audience voted to save other artists, Gray, 57, who was Toad in the Hole in the show, performed against Bear. The judges ultimately chose to save Bear, sending Gray home — and leading her to walk off the stage.

Gray later returned in the Saturday, January 11, episode to unveil her identity and was interviewed by host Joel Dommett. After the episode aired, Dommett, 39, shared a clip of his conversation with Gray. “Lol,” he captioned his Instagram post.

Dommett went on to recall the events during an appearance on BBC Radio 2. “This is why The Masked Singer is so good, it doesn’t matter if you’re a good singer or if you’re not, the show doesn’t sit in either camp,” Dommett said during the Sunday, January 12, episode, per the Daily Mail. “The case with Macy is she is a legend, she has a recognisable voice and she might as well go because we all know it is her, and they put the other person through because we still don’t know who they are.”

Macy Gray Completely Transforms as Soon as She Hits the Stage: Photos 

Dommett claimed that it’s a “win-win situation” if a contestant is eliminated early because they “get the same money and [they] don’t have to do anything else.”

“You can’t be vexed when you’re dressed as a toad. In my professional career — I love Macy, she is incredible, great voice —- but I have never witnessed anything more funny than a 6ft toad storming off,” he said. “It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Prior to Gray’s stint on the UK version of the series, she previously competed on the US show in 2023. During the season 10 finale, Gray — who was the Sea Queen — called herself a “seasoned performer” but noted that The Masked Singer was difficult due to her costume. “It’s hot in there!” she quipped.

The Grammy-winning vocalist previously told Us Weekly that she has struggled with her self-confidence. “I have to step out of myself,” Gray said in September 2023. “I literally put on a cape and transform into the person that is brave and confident enough to get up there.”

While Gray prepares for a show, she told Us she takes a moment to reflect and “transform into the person that is brave and confident” before hitting the stage. Gray gushed to Us that “nothing is better than performing.”

Naomi Watts was 36 when she experienced a turn in her acting career after receiving an Oscar nomination for 21 Grams in 2004. She was also in menopause.

“I’d been warned ever since I started acting that calling attention to your age — when that age was not 23 or younger — would be career suicide. I was told I would never work again if I admitted to being menopausal, or even perimenopausal. Hollywood’s lovely term for such women was ‘unf—able,’” Watts, now 56, writes in an excerpt from her new book, Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause, published by The Sunday Times on Friday, January 10.

The King Kong star goes on to explain that she got her start in Hollywood later than she had originally planned, and was trying to have a baby with her then-partner Liev Schreiber when doctors told her she had entered early menopause.

“I almost fell off the examination table,” she writes in the book, out January 21. “‘What do you mean?’ I said, gasping for air. ‘Close to menopause? That’s for grandmothers. I’m not even a mother yet. And, by the way, that’s what I’m here for, to become a mother. Take it back!’ I was trying to joke, but really I was begging him to make it not be true. I was so scared that this would be the end of my dream to bear children.”

Watts and ex Schreiber, 57, eventually welcomed children Sasha, 17, and Kai, 16, but the news of her early onset menopause affected the actress — both physically and mentally — for years.

Naomi Watts Cuddles Up With Billy Crudup on 2024 Emmys Red Carpet

“As I sat there stunned and full of self-recrimination, I remembered that my mother had once mentioned she’d hit menopause at 45 — but 45 still felt very far away from 36. And, frankly, I didn’t even really know what menopause meant — except very likely the conclusion of my acting career, which got under way far later than most,” she says. “When I’d hit my early thirties, people had started telling me that the time would soon come when I wouldn’t be able to play a leading lady any more. Was this the end that had been foretold?”

Watts has since starred in acclaimed films such as The Impossible (2012) and Birdman (2014) and booked notable roles in TV series like Gyspy (2017), The Watcher (2022) and Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (2024). But she insists it’s likely due to actresses finding the drive to stand up for themselves in an industry that has historically and notoriously demonized or excluded older women.

“I’ve come to realise that we women can assert ourselves. I’ve also come to believe that there is nothing sexier than a woman who knows what she wants,” Watts writes in her book. “All good relationships at work and at home — and at the doctor’s office — require communication.”

Now, she’s a spokeswoman for older actresses who also fear menopause will halt their careers. “I was craving information on menopause, and certainly no one in Hollywood was breathing a word about it,” she writes. “We were all behaving as if between the seductress years and the grandmother roles, women just… I don’t know, vanished?”

She continues: “I’ve always shied away from jumping on the soapbox. But the menopause conversation requires us to get honest, loud and, dare I say it, even a little unladylike,” she says. “One of the funniest things that’s happened as a result: random celebrities now text me regularly to tell me they’re in menopause. It’s like I’m behind the confessional window or I’m Hollywood’s agony aunt. But I enjoy it.”

Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup’s ‘Stress-Free’ Wedding Was ‘Spur of the Moment’

Watts founded her company, Stripes Beauty, in October 2022 “to address various practical needs of women my age” — including being intimate. She opens up about how her budding relationship with now husband Billy Crudup changed her perspective on aging and sex in her book.

“I was able to share with him honestly what I was experiencing even though it didn’t match with what I thought was appropriate for a sexy new girlfriend,” Watts writes, admitting she and Crudup, 56, discussed her hormone patches and the “grey hairs on [his] balls.”

“He was compassionate, not squeamish or awkward,” Watts shares of her Gypsy costar, whom she married in 2023. “That was a great gift. My hormone patches never got in the way of sex again.”