Cost of Living in KL for Family of Four
Cost of Living in KL for Family of Four in 2015
*Updated the cost thanks to the comments
Yesterday, I was traveling back from Thailand after covering a story on social enterprise in Chiang Rai. Instead of taking the ERL Express, I took the budget KLIA taxi from KLIA back to my home.
I had a lengthy conversation with the taxi driver about the cost of living in Kuala Lumpur. The taxi driver is in his 50s and he has six kids in his family. He is the breadwinner and he only drives budget KLIA taxi for living and he said it is getting tougher and tougher for him. He had to pay more for GST and the cost of living is getting higher and higher.
This reminds me about the article we wrote recently about the cost of living in Kuala Lumpur for fresh graduates. For that story, we received many positive comments.
The taxi driver told me his hardship in raising his six kids and he is having headache now as school starts in the upcoming few days.
Thus, this gave me the idea of writing a story of cost of living for young family of four in Kuala Lumpur with working parents and two children. Thus we are working parents with two toddlers so it is quite easy for us to estimate the cost of living for family of four in Kuala Lumpur.
The following cost estimation is not based on our own cost but just a rough guide on how much a young family for four need to survive in Kuala Lumpur.
Cost of Living for Family of Four in Kuala Lumpur (Babies under 4 years old):
House Rental or House Instalments: RM 1000
Utility Bills (Electric, Water, Unifi, Astro, Handphone): RM 400
Personal Insurance for family of four: RM 800
Car loan (Proton Saga FLX Manual 7 years repayment): RM 400
Petrol: RM 400
Toll: RM 150
Parking: RM 150
Food for Parents: (RM 40 per day x 30 days) RM 1200
Babies diapers: (RM 30 x 4 packs x 2 babies) RM 240
Babies Day Care Cost: (RM 800 x 2 babies) RM 1600
Babies Clothing and other expenses: RM 200
Groceries: RM 300
Total: RM 6840
It is scary when we calculated the cost and the basic expenses is already RM 6840 for a family of four. Basically young parents must have salaries (combined) of RM 7500 and above in Kuala Lumpur to survive. Of course, there are many ways to save the rough estimation of above.
Please take note that we are assuming the family is paying a house of RM 200,000 value or rental of a small flat of RM 1000. Using the house loan calculator, for a RM 200,000 house with 35 years of repayment at 4.45% per annum, you need to pay RM 940 per month! New houses in Klang Valley now are at least RM 300,000 (if you lucky to find one) or RM 400,000 and above. The cost excludes “pintu cukai rumah” and car insurance. The above also excludes medical cost as we assumed we will go to government hospitals or 1Malaysia clinics. Thus, this also excludes babies extra classes costs and also things like baby strollers or car seats. Mummy’s make up and beauty product costs are not in the list too as well as vitamins and supplements. Must not forget also the cost excluding monthly payment for parents.
The above is just a rough estimation and calculation of monthly expenses of a family of four in Kuala Lumpur. We hope our article is helpful and thanks for reading our blog. If you have opinion on this story, do comment and hope you share this story. Thanks again.
Cost of Living in KL for Family of Four https://t.co/Suu7gaCMjf
True enough mana is this amount. More den dat
Baby day care is 1600. 800×2
Not 1200
Baby sitter fees is RM 800 × 2= RM1600
So, it should be more than RM 6440
OK. Your calculation had not factor in income tax(if any) and epf contribution. Family of 4 I presume is parents and 2 non working children. This mean averge pay per person is at the range of 3500 which under taxable scale. Mandatory deduction should be factor in for gross pay calculation.
Plus + RM 386.40 GST.
So after all these expenses, we eat grass, meal cost is not included yet, groceries 300 include meal is RM10 per day for family of 4. And, pls dont get sick …
House rental of RM1,000 in KL? The best you can get is properly low medium cost apartment
Already foreseen this 10 years ago. Hence, I made up my mind not to be married nor have any children. I am earning more than enough for me and my two old folks to live a comfortable life. Staying single is the best option when times are bad. After all, spending your hard earned money on yourself and your parents is more worthwhile compared to wasting your money on raising kids who eventually leave the nest without repaying their parents in return.
Don’t blame others when you insist on having babies. Everything comes with a price. Anyone wishes to ‘consume’/enjoy e joy of having their own kids naturally have to forego other aspects of living qualities. Consume less yourself or work ur butt off harder.
Thks for this great article. It shows how much our government screwed up d rakyat livelihood. Too much of corruptions involved – msia being ranked the top.
BTW. …did u quote rm300 for groceries? Where is d daily or mthly est food expenses ?
I have lived in Malaysia between 2007 to 2011 and life was way better than now, i visited Malaysia again the first quarter of 2015 it was still fine and only in October 2015 when i went back everything was up and the prices were insane, the money that i spent for my 2 weeks stay amounted to money that i could have spend in a month in Thailand. This GST is killing a lot of people, im hoping the government is going to see this and try to work out a plan to save many
Never forget the 6% GST and your income tax
So why do you people make babies or buy cars then? I can survive in KL & be happy with a minimum wage w/o having kids or a car. True story.
I think is not wise to have a family, Better being single and less dependent as cost of living is extremely high.
Furthermore care for old folks and pensioners are not being accounted.