Divorce - Due to economic reasons in Malaysia?

I read this article about divorce rate and can't help noticing one of the factor was financial issue.

Personally, I can't blame them. Like what is written in the article, today families need double income just to SURVIVE. We are not talking luxury here, just to survive.

If you just graduated, most likely your salary will be in the range of RM 2000 (unless you go work for Petronas or Accenture). Now, typically in Malaysia, you get married when you are about 26-30+. If you choose to get married earlier, great. I am assuming you have a salary of RM 5000 by now.

Fresh out of Uni, you have PTPTN to deal with. That would set you back a few hundred ringgit per month for the next 10 years or so. If you are married, now double that.

I think they have a new system in place, no idea. Let me know.

Next, you will need to get a car because of public transport suxs big time in Msia. But cars in Malaysia is not cheap either. In US, talking about dollar to dollar (no conversion), a brand new spanking Honda is about USD 15K. What can you get for RM 10-20K here? A piece of junk.

We have to sincerely thank Proton and Malaysia's brilliant automotive strategy for this. Say all you want about creating jobs and technology, I say compete in a level playing field instead of ruining the incomes of middle income Malaysian.

Now you are burden with car loan which is easily RM 500-1500 per month for the next 9 years. If you are married, now double that. Ohh yeah, don't forget the loan you took from your dad for the deposit.

Now you need a house. A rental can come about RM 500-1500 for a decent condo. If you plan to buy one it's about RM 200,000-500,000 in KL/PJ. Penang.. any guess?

A house? You're joking right? Prepare to fork out RM 500,000-1,000,000 at least in prime areas. So all in all, it would set you back around RM 1000-5000 per month for the next 30 years of your miserable life.


Of course you have life's little luxury like mobile phone, astro, condo maintenance, fuel, parking, food (yes we do need to eat), grocery, electricity, Internet (can you imagine without it?) and host of things. Lets break it down here:-

Items	Budget (RM)
Car	600
House	1000
Student Loan	200
Electricity	200
Water	100
Internet	199
Condo Maintenance	200
Mobile	200
Fuel	400
Parking	200
Touch n Go	200
Insurance (Car, personal, home & etc)	1000
Food	600
Car maintenance	200
Astro	90
Total	RM 5189

So our expense here has hit more than our income. So where is the savings then? How can one save and live in KL?

The above table doesn't even include spouses's expenses or even if you have child. That will sky rocket your expense. So naturally you will need double income. However (double income = double expense) as well. But there is a better chance savings with 2 incomes. 

Naturally the topic end of the month would be "We need to pay this, pay that, buy this, buy that, pay interest this, pay interest that!". Doesn't take a genius to figure out why couples breakup.

So dear PM. Stop telling us to change our lifestyle. There isn't any room to change the already pathetic lifestyle that we have! Officially your earning RM 25K. Great! I doubt you feel the pinch. What about the lower and middle income Malaysian? Our inflation is going up and thanks to our loans/debts, we have very little to take back home.

We Malaysian have 2 choice. Either try to reach a RM 20K salary per month or migrate. 

Steve Jobs

I love Steve for his iPhone and his words was revolutionary to me.

To be honest, the video that I watch by Steve Jobs a year or 2 ago, woke me up. It gave me sense of reality of what has happened, what is happening and what I need to look forward. You solved one part of my life puzzle. Thank you Steve. RIP.

"Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." - Steve Jobs