What do a Malaysian working in Singapore and a young couple trying to start a family have in common? Cost of living!
Yes, this morning as I was rummaging thru the headline, this 2 articles caught my attention. In fact, it could be an AI run sequence of articles as a person is trying to get thru his browser.
Nevertheless, lets do the math and compare how ‘difficult’ things are these days 2024.
Twenty four years ago, when I was starting out as a senior engineer in this country, 18 % (750) of my monthly income goes to flat rental. That leaves about 5% (200) going to my transportation, 2.5% (100) to my phone bills (no internet, just landline), about 2% (200) to my utilities, 5% (200) to my income tax. Lets assume I peg the groceries to 25% of the income and incidental, misc or entertainment to 2.5% (100), this totals to about 60% of my income on monthly expenses, the balance 40% on savings. Hence I was able to save for a house downpayment in a matter of 3 years. Since I was very young, I dont need so much cloths, nor do so much house maintenance since were renting . Forget about self care since free sports is available out there.
These days, the breakdown is totally different. My car mortgage is around 14% of my income, my tax is about 11%, phone bills at 4%, utilities at 3%, food and groceries at around 30%, gas and car maintenance about 5%. School expenses to about 3%. So this totals to about 70% of my income. Where does the balance 30% go ? Cloths, house maintenance, self care etc.
Whats the big difference?
Lifestyle!
Cost of living = lifestyle.
Bottomline, the simpler the lifestyle, the
Mark Boado Blog 