Below is roughly the expenses every month for the three of us (married with one newborn). Both of us are working, and we are still young (between 25 and 30). It's quite detailed because we keep track of our expenses every month for over a year already.

Rent: RM800 (single storey terrace house in Seri Kembangan; this will increase to RM900 next year)
Car Loan: RM700 (2014 Proton Preve Exec, which my wife bought before I even knew her, so don't judge me )
Eating Out: RM400 (quite low because we bring lunchbox almost everyday)
Groceries: RM400 (including non-food items like shampoo, tissue, etc.)
Petrol: RM400 (our car's average fuel efficiency is 9.3 l/100km, so this translates to roughly 2100km per month)
Toll: RM100
Clothing/Appliances/Furnitures: RM50 – RM100 (once every 2 – 3 months)
Parking: RM10 (mostly for parking in shopping malls)
Service charge: RM10 (misc charges, such as RM0.53 charged when doing instant transfer)
Giving/Gifts: RM100 – RM150 (occasional donations to charity, buying friends/relatives small gifts, etc.)
Movies: RM30 (we watch one movie every month, and we usually take advantage of promotion from CC)
TNB: RM50 – RM70
Internet: RM187 (Unifi 50mbps)
Phone bill: RM100 (Umobile P70 + Share 20)
Software subscriptions: RM37.99 (Office 365 for my whole family)
Parents: RM1,165 (We give RM250 to each parent, and help my wife's parents pay their Unifi 10mbps bill)
Siblings: RM200 (We give our non-working siblings RM50 each)
Health + Life insurance: RM484
Blow money: RM50 – RM100 (this is my wife's off-budget money)
PTPTN: RM400
Mortgage: RM450++ (partial payment for our undercon apartment)
Child: RM500 – RM700 (newborn; mostly for diapers and nursery)
IWK saving: RM8 (RM25.44 every 3 months)
Auto insurance + road tax saving: RM75 (roughly RM900 every year)
Car maintenance saving: RM170 (for minor service, major service, change battery, and change tyres)
Vacation saving: RM100 – RM150 (we go on a budget vacation every 3 – 4 months)

There are still areas for improvement which we will work on over time:

- Our health and life insurance is overpriced. I'm planning to switch to standalone health insurance + term life insurance, instead of the current whole life insurance with health insurance as riders. We can probably shave RM200 by doing so, and we will be investing the difference.
- Our car loan is quite expensive. Not much we can do but continue paying it. Still 6 years to go. After it is paid off, we will never purchase another new car. We will only purchase second hand car with cash.
- Petrol and toll can be reduced. Currently I travel 70km to and from work everyday. I probably can cut this down by renting near my workplace, or get a remote job.
- Phone bill can be reduced further by RM20 – RM30 by switching to Umobile P38/P48 + P28. Our current plan is overkill, as we usually end up using less than 50% of our quota. However, my wife requires a plan with unlimited call, so Umobile is the cheapest, hence why we're with Umobile.
- PTPTN will be paid off in 6 years. It's under my wife's name, and it's already in CCRIS because she did not pay for it before we got married. It's a good thing because that prevents her from asking me to bring her to vacation overseas.
- We are currently paying for both rent and mortgage partial payment, which sucks. Not much we can do other than suck it up until end of 2018.

This post has been edited by imnotabot: Aug 8 2017, 02:24 PM

Damn, that's a lot. Both of you working?

It's not possible to sell the car. Remaining loan is 40k, but based on market it can only be sold for 30k max. If we were to sell it, we'll end up with no car and 10k poorer.

Come on guys, it really depends on your financial goal lah.

Some people accumulate wealth so that they get to live like millionaires, live in huge houses, drive expensive cars, eat at expensive restaurants, send their kids to private international school, etc.

Some other people accumulate wealth just to achieve financial independence: not having to work to live. So they accumulate wealth up to a point, stop working, and continue living the same lifestyle until the end. This can be achieved without relying on debt. In case you're not familiar with this approach, I suggest reading blog posts by a guy famous for it, Mr. Money Mustache.

There's nothing wrong with both approach. To each his own.

This post has been edited by imnotabot: Sep 4 2018, 12:47 PM

Exactly. The different is that for the second approach, you don't need high-risk investment. You save as much as possible and stash it in a low-risk investment. In 10-15 years you can stop working. Of course this only works if you live a cheap lifestyle. So it's up to you.

What I'm trying to say is that there is no right or wrong in personal finance. No need to bash other people who does things differently, because they might have different financial goals.

This post has been edited by imnotabot: Sep 4 2018, 12:52 PM

I agree, this might be true for most people. But for some minority people (people like Ramjade), they live well below their income. They might earn RM50k a month, but they live like they earn RM5k a month. So there is no problem with retirement when the time comes.

It doesn't matter if it's rare, they exist. Not everyone wants to live like millionaires.

Also they're not that rare nowadays. Go visit https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/. It's a community full of these kind of people with the same mindset. If you want a local example, I'm pretty sure Mr Stingy is that kind of person.

This post has been edited by imnotabot: Sep 4 2018, 01:31 PM