Twixy

If there is a difference in experience, education, or something else of value to a company, I think a pay difference is justified. But if you are trying to justify a significant skill difference based on citizenship alone with the presumption that Westerners are just more deserving, well your line of thought is borderline racist and probably not sustainable (hence the need to hound Westerners to hold out).

Anyways we are getting a bit off-topic. If locals are averaging 8,500 RM per month, almost double the median salary is a good place to start to say the least.

lacmac

Not all expats need rm25k + pm to live and work here.

I have been working and living in Malaysia for 3 yrs. Half of which was in KL. My salary is less than Haggis and I lived quite comfortably.
In KL I had rented a beautiful 3 bedroom 2 bathroom, 1500sqm condo. 15 min drive (of peak times) from city center.2 x car park bays. With a great view of Petronas towers.
My rent was rm1500pm.(I believe now it has gone up to rm2000)
water,electric, gas came to about rm300pm.
I had plenty of cash left over and even more so now since moving to Ipoh.
The above proves, you don't need a vast amount of money to live comfortably in Malaysia, it all depends on the individuals taste and lifestyle and I for one do not feel insulted by my salary.

Hovite

I make a pitch to include Sabah and Sarawak in the list of choice spots. Lots to do in Sabah and you won't have to worry about changing currency.

nonthaburi

I would of thought 15K a month would be plenty. I didn't think Malaysia was that expensive. Maybe cost are more in KL, but not that much more surely.

kingoflostfools

Agreed. I can only think that anyone who NEEDS more than that (as opposed to just greedy), needs to review their outgoings.

Hovite

Interesting that the MM2H requirement is now a minimum of RM10K/month

Davita

@lacmac post #32
Are you sure 1500sqm...that's huge. My apartment in Jakarta is 98sqm and it's 2 beds/2 baths and big enough.
Maybe you meant 1500 sq.ft.
and Rm 300pm for energy sounds cheap....
Can anyone advise the KWH rate for electricity in Malaysia? My rate here in Bali has been going up and up as they reduce subsidy...currently around Rm 0.5 per KWH.

lacmac

Your correct Davita , Sorry my mistake,predictive text again.

Rm300 is when I use just 2 aircon units,Bedroom and sitting room which was fine for me.

kingoflostfools

Has been for several years as far as I recall.

Equally, there has been argument among MM2H'ers how excessive this is given cost of living in Malaysia (more so previously before the current bout of GST madness), but Tourism Malaysia based its decision not on actual costs, but on the sort of people they want to attract - so it is what it is.

Actually it is very difficult to pass the 10,000 MYR per month test due to the sort of documentation that they expect. Presumably this is why most MM2H'ers don't go down this route, but rather the FD route.

Gunnar45

Here are the present electricity rates in Malaysia for domestic users:

kWh RM/kWh
</= 200 0.218
201-300 0.334
301-600 0.516
601-900 0.546
901 - 0.571

We rarely come over RM 100:- per month since we installed inverter type A/C's in our bedroom and in the guest room.
But we run A/C only at nights in the bedroom, set to 25 or 26C which we find is enough to keep the air dry.
The rest we manage with open windows and electric fans.
Other major electricity consumers are washing machine (water heating type), storage tank type water heater for showers (switched on 10-15 min per day) and an inverter type refrigerator.

Hovite

It looks like the min monthly increased in 2010 from 7k to 10k

Britmal

@Twixy: I deeply resent that statement. I have been married to a Malaysian for 20 years and my daughter is of mixed race.

@lacmac: Well you did extremely well then! A 1,400 square foot apartment in Ampang is going to cost you RM5k per month minimum.

How did you manage that then? My old (Malaysian) mother-in-law lives in a kampong house without any air-con or any other major power consuming appliances and her electricity bill averages RM150 per month! Plus water charges of around RM60 per month.

Are you or your condo manager fiddling the meters or what?!

Haggis68

Bakedbean - you there?

i think this thread has served its purpose, i am happy with the discussion to date and have been well informed by all posters.

I think the slide into racial territory and other areas has fractured the thread and if could request it be deleted or in least stopped.

Lastly thanks to all who posted.

regards

lacmac

I wasn't lucky, just researched the area.
My condo was right next to jalan kuching. It was 5min drive to Solaris dutamas and 15min to the Curve/Ikea.
By being 15 mins out of the centre, prices drop dramatically.

Before we had a baby my electric bill was about rm150 it has increased because the baby has several naps and we have the aircon in her room.

As gunnar45 does, we use our Inverter aircon only at night and fans during the day . likewise our fridge is an Inverter type.

InVinoVeritas

When I said that your tread had inadvertently trodden on a landmine it wasn't because of the questions you asked but because of a certain poster who started joining in! If you look at someone's post history before taking the trouble to answer them it can avoid a lot of trouble. Although they may eventually get banned they can always come back under another name so best just to take precautions.

I don't know if BB can delete a thread but there is nothing of great value here and it does give a bad image of BE, so let's hope she can.