mcb01726

Hello!

I have been offered a 2 year contract as a sports coach in KL, with a monthly income between 11000-15000RM . Is this feasible to live on out there?
I've been told i could get an 1 bed apartment with all expenses costing around 2500RM... is this realistic?
I really fancy moving out there and experiencing a new way of living!
Thanks

OriginalSunshine

Yup. No kids, no spouse, perfectly feasible. Don’t buy a car, just use Grab - more popular than Uber.

Epicurious

You can easily live on that salary. Nice, one bedroom apartment, 2000RM no problem. Utilities maybe 500RM at most. Food, transport cheap, booze expensive.

mcb01726

Great!
i've heard alcohol is expensive.. but how expensive? for example... how much roughly does a beer cost?

Epicurious

In a pub/bar about 25RM for a 'pint', which is actually 500mL. But you have to be careful because many places water down their draught beer/cider, or so I'm told. If you want to be sure it's full strength, a bottle will be around 30RM. Happy hours are of course cheaper, and tend to last up to 7pm or 8pm.

SushiFan

Maybe you will like this website: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Kuala-Lumpur
I assume that your monthly income will be taxed and thus that your take-home-pay will be lower.

stepen

How trustworthy is numbeo?
It says a 500ml draught beer in Penang is rm 13, which is not accurate.

Epicurious

I don't live in Penang, but that sounds like a happy hour price.

SushiFan

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you can see statistics of the contributors. The page about George Town states:
Now, if you would select Penang instead you would get this:
The page about Kuala Lumpur is apparently based on "3033 entries in the past 12 months from 374 different contributors. "

Having said this about the number of data points, I would not judge the small ticket items such as the price of beer, but would first look at larger items such as rent, cost of utilities, or transportation costs, depending on which categories are most important to me.

OriginalSunshine

Indeed. You’re not going to be drinking so much beer that that will be your biggest concern. 25-30 rm for a bottle is normal. You will get drunk easier in the heat, and honestly people don’t go mad for beer. Asians often feel unwell after a couple.... genetics.

stepen

Thanks, good tip to check the amount of entries.

Still, what is the point of all the smaller items on numbeo if you can't trust those values ?

eCdD

You think this question is serious in a city where almost everybody dreams of such a high salary but can never reach it all his life?

Of cause you will live here like a god with this amount.

OriginalSunshine

Well, yes and no. Expat company directors have this amount as a housing allowance. Cleaners have this amount as an annual salary.

A single guy living in a nice 1 bed appt, will be fine and have a great time, but won’t live like a god.

physdude

A lot depends on the area that you live in. I pay RM 2k for a 3 br fully furnished apartment (old furniture and non-renovated apartment though) right next to the train station with a 10 minute ride to KLCC. It is about 1300 sq ft though 300 sq ft of that is a large lanai. A more nicely renovated apartment with new furniture would be a few hundred more.

Living in KLCC itself would be much more expensive - about twice as much for a 3 br or a 1 br with half the area would be about the same cost.

I budgeted about 8-10k when I first came but spend probably only about 5k since I like south Indian and Arabic food which is absurdly cheap here - the Arabic buffet I had next to my apartment for lunch (no need for dinner after) cost the princely sum of RM 15 with south Indian meals generally being even cheaper. It was quite something to have thosais cost RM 3-4 when they cost RM 30-40 in HK. The only problem with the fantastic food here is that I am tending to put on weight.

I satisfy my nightlife cravings with the internations outings which are only about 20 RM each (free drink and snacks usually included).

eCdD

Sure, but this is out of the real market. For "normal people" I guess it is impossible to rent for more the 8000 and this is then a Serviced Apartment with 3 bedrooms that comes with Astro, Internet and everything in KLCC. I you just go a little bit in any direction from there it gets much cheaper immediately.