It is very normal for Malaysians to be very sceptical about working overseas. Everytime they hear you say in Singapore you can earn this much money, first reply from them would be "but the living cost is higher right???? so in the end you cannot save that much" bla bla bla yada yada. So in this post I will try to list out your expected expenses in Sg and make a comparison with expenses in Malaysia.
This is very subjective depending on the spending power of different individuals. But here are the basic breakdowns on rough estimates, and the number inside the bracket is my own expenses.
Room Rental (room, not the whole apartment) : $450-600 ($600)
Foods : $400-500 ($500)
Monthly public transport : $30-80 ($30)
Coach ticket (My-Sg once a month) : $60-100 ($60)
These four things are the most basic things that you will have to spend on monthly. Room rental can be cheaper if you choose to live or work far from the city. can even go as high as $800 if you want a master bedroom. Mine is in queenstown, which is quite close to the city, and comes with AC, inclusive of water and electricity bill. For $600, I consider it to be fairly cheap.
As for food, one meal at a hawker center cost you about $3-$5. For muslims, there is no need to worry about getting Halal food because every hawker center I have been to have a number of Halal (mostly Malays) food sections. On the weekend, usually I splurge a bit dining in a restaurant/fancier places. If you can restraint yourselves from going to restaurants and eat at a hawker center for the whole month, i believe you can cut the expenses to like $300. Haha.
Monthly public transport expenses (MRT and bus) is really depending on how far you live from your workplace. I live like 15minutes walking distance from my workplace. So I save a lot from commuting home-workplace-home. So if you got a job in a city, and thinking about renting far away to get cheaper rent, you might want to consider whether its worth the extra money and TIME on commuting.
So for my case, including the monthly traveling from My-Sg, it will be $1190. Lets assume I am spending $200 on entertainment and shopping etc, and another $400 for my parents allowance. My total expense now is $1790. Now, lets assume again, (keyword : assume) that I am earning $2500. Damn I am saving a whopping $710 a month. At current exchange rate $1=2.41, that is like RM1711.11.
But please remember there will always an urge to buy fancy shit like iphone, galaxy tab, some cigars, etc bla bla bla that can actually reduce that saving amount by a lot. lol
NOW, HOW ABOUT IN MALAYSIA??
average salary for a fresh grad engineer : RM2500
Rental :RM150-300 (free for most cos leeching parents)
Car downpayment : RM400-500 (free for those who drive daddy's car)
Petrol : RM200 (free for those leeching daddy's credit card)
Car service : idk, but i bet its more if you drive a proton. lol
Meals : RM400-500 (free again for those leeching parents)
parents allowance : varies
Yeah this is pretty much the expenses for malaysians that are working in malaysia. You can save a LOT, a whole lot, if you are leeching your parents, I know this because I was one when I was working in Malaysia (although I have my own pimping car, which is not a proton btw. haha). But then again, do you really wanna make a comparison between living your life leeching your parents with living in a foreign country independently?
*For those who don't know, it is very common in Malaysia for a single adult to still live with their parents
I am going to calculate the monthly expenses using the lowest range and the total is RM1150, not including entertainment and parents allowance. And yes, 11%+ of your salary will be deducted for your EPF thing. In the end, working in Singapore allows you to save at least double than what you can in Malaysia. Fact. Anybody says otherwise is in denial or has too much patriotism in them. Don't get me wrong, I too am a patriotic, but I am also a very practical and a bit opportunistic person =)
Cheers!
