Kindly advice on my monthly expenses

Working for 1 year 3 months already now. Only have about 14k in my saving account. No other account such as ASB etc

Salary : 4400
eBay :300 (just play around not doing it seriously)
Car loan : 823 (Owning a MyVi SE still have another 4 years to clear the loan. Paying 10k for the downpayment and now regret it since I can put that
10k into ASB and get ~7% annually which can beat the 3.5% interest on car)(I know it already too late but what you all think more
smart to do?Put 10k for downpayment or put that 10k in ASB and buy car with RM0 downpayment?)
Rental :600 (I know you all think why so high..I work at Sabah and recently got transfer to district hospital. Took me 2 months to find a room
but cannot find then I decided to just take a 900 permonth house and find other housemate. Thank god just 2 days ago able to
rent 1 room for 300. So hopefully I can find another 1 housemate)
Food :450 (Food stall here so expensive and cant figure out why)
Family :300
Streamyx & Astro : 200
Petrol :200
Phone Bill :80
Utilities :50
Entertainment: 100 (less entertainment here compared to Peninsular)


Balance: 2007 (But did not included the flight ticket, car services, other unexpected event)

Still do not purchase any health insurans, do not have investment planning.

Am I doing good financially?

hi thanks for your reply..
for Astro i know i can survive without it but working as store keeper in hospital really cost me physically and mentally..so Astro d only entertainment i can have here in sabah..
my car is use for go to work 120km perday.sharing it with my gf.i will drive 20 km to my working place and she will continue drive anothet 40km to her work place..to avoid jam we wake up 5.30 am every day and go to work 6.30.and by 6.30pm will arrive home..so it is very2 tired to cook for work..

so what i think i can do is just hold on like this until we both transfer back to peninsular...

Hello you guys. My head is really mess up now thinking bout our future (me and my sweetheart).
I just wrote a post few pages behind and now I will post another info about my financial planning and I do need the expert's advices here.

This will be an update. Here we go

My salary: 4375 (after EPF deduction and etc)


My expenses>>>

1. Car loan: 823
2. Rental: 530 (I just found 2 housemates last 2 weeks and only need to pay for my rental RM230 but to cut the story short, 1 of my housemate moved out today so the rent will be covered by me for the time being until I can find another renter. Hope so )
3. Family: 300
4. Phone: 70
5. Streamyx: 55 (sharing)
6. Astro: 60 (sharing)
7. Utility: 25 (estimated only)
8. Petrol: 200
9. Food: 200 (trying to cook at home. Already buy the kitchen and all the stuff for cooking)
10. Others (flight ticket, futsal, movies): 200 (again estimated only as I don't buy flight ticket every month)
11. Insurans: 150

Total expenses: 2613
Saving: 4375-2613=1762

Already have RM 9k in my saving account. Planning to open ASB and put 4k from my saving account into ASB so I only have RM5k for emergency purposes. And will put my monthly saving=1762 into ASB.

So my problems are:

1. Planning to get married by the end of this year. Total budget would be around 25k. But now only have 9k cash in hand and need about 16k more. If calculate roughly, if I can save 1.7k monthly, in about 10 months it would be 17k so add up to the 9k I have it would be sufficient. But I would have no money at all after the wedding. The reason I want to get married faster is because me and my gf working at Sabah but her working place so far and the road condition to her place is not so good (road lubang2, many hills, many big lorries and "jalan kampung"). If we get married the chances of her transfers to area KK is high. You have no idea how I feel everyday I let my gf drive 2 hours (both ways) on those road conditions..
So my question is it ok to go with this plan?

2. If we want to buy house at Peninsular, how many we gonna need roughly?60k?


Thank you. This thread have give me many valuable advices and infos. Any comment from forumers are very much appreciated.

The amount of 25k is my estimation since I go around ask my friends and families, they say should have around that figure if want to get married. Well I don't quite sure about it. Maybe 15-20k will do it. Or any forumers here who had been married can enlighten me?


It not 'serba salah' feeling but more toward worry bout her safety since my car is Myvi only.
Em you means like 'akad nikah' first then the ceremony postpone to another time is it? Ya I got what you mean. I guess I did not think deep enough about this..

For the house we think want to buy area Shah Alam since it is in between our hometown (I from north, she from south )
And when we buy that house we have reason to apply transfer back to peninsular. Well you know if we get married and stay here in Sabah we got no reason at all to transfer back peninsular. One other way I can think of is either one of us further study. Sorry a little bit run off the topic.

Hi recently this thought has come in my mind. How is monthly installment bad to us?

For example someone with salary RM 5000 per month bought Honda Civic with RM10k down payment and monthly payment about RM1200 for 9 years. The car loan doesn't exceed 30% of his salary.

Another gentleman with same salary RM 5000 per month bought Myvi with RM10k down payment and monthly payment about RM 800 for 5 years. The car loan also doesn't exceed 30% of his salary. But this fella only can enjoys a Myvi while his friend can enjoy a Civic. Of course he will settle his car loan first but when he want to buy his second car, maybe a decent one such a Civic, the situation will be the other way around then.

I'm just thinking this monthly installment idea can make people have things that once is financially a burden to them but now it is not. Now people can have iPhone, iPad, nice furniture, tv set without put a massive burden in their financial status.

It just the same with having credit card or not. With the bonus point and cash rebate they provide, having credit card is much better because it add more value to the money we spend.

So is debt really that bad? What your opinion?

But can we justify buying more expensive cars because it is more safe?

Thank you for the constructive comments!

I myself 25, owning a Myvi with 5 years loan, 3 years more to go. (that Myvi example in my previous comment is referring to me. hehe) No other debts except PTPTN about RM 5.00. Gonna get married next year

It just that when I see all my friends with the same income bracket with mine, the way they spend their money always make me jealous somewhere deeeep inside me.

Happy to know that they are people out there who are in the same boat as mine. (which refer to you all!!)

This post has been edited by kazekage_09: Nov 11 2011, 06:49 PM