Retiring in Malaysia Question

I guess you are a US citizen, I'm not 100% sure here because i got a bit confused after reading the information from the following 2 gov't sites:

Immigration:
http://www.imi.gov.my/index.php/en/main … by-country

Doesn't mention US under the "no visa required for less than 90 days", but rather as "no visa required". Which sounds a little too good to be true to me, that you could just stay as long as you like.

Ministry of foreign affairs however say 90 days for US citizens:
http://www.kln.gov.my/web/guest/require … -foreigner

From my own experience I got a 90 days tourist visa when i first arrived in KL but only a 30 day visa when went to Borneo. Even though I already had a 2 years employment pass for peninsular Malaysia at that time.

I used my (non-Malaysian bank) visa and mastercard (debit) here and never had any problem with that, however if you were to settle down for years to come why not open a local bank account. Sounds more convenient to me.

I'm no expert on Kuching since i never lived there but of course it is cheaper than KL. I searched for some condo now in Kuching and the cheapest i found was RM1300 monthly (minimum 1y contract), probably you can negotiate that to RM1100-1200 if you sign up for a 2+ years contract to begin with.

That's 1/3 of the budget, then comes the rest. Electricity, TV, Internet, transportation, entertainment, food, etc. I don't think it's possible on that budget. But I don't mind if you prove me wrong.