# Moving to KL in April 2013



## PreetiChennai (Feb 20, 2013)

HI ,

My Husband has been offered a job in KL and will be moving by April this year. There are a few queries I had on which I needed guidance . 

1. Home 

Which areas should we look for ? Prefer an area where getting Indian groceries and MRT are very accessible. Currently it will be only him , I will be joining him with our baby in Sept . 

His work area is in Bukit Jalil . Since we will be new parents , I wish our residence is not too far off ( maybe a total of 20-30 mins travel time) 

2. Budgetting 

My husband's is being offered 8250 rm / month . Is our budget allocation sufficient for the following : 

Per month break up

a. Home rent : Rm 1500

b. Transport ( public system + taxi ) : 750
( he has night shift, work gets over at midnight , i assumed he may have to take taxi to get back home .) 

c. food : 2000 

(husband will be eating out all 3 meals - veg indian till sept. ) 

d. Water / Electricity / Cable / newspaper : 300 

e. TAxes : rm 2150 ( read that expats pay 26 % tax) 

f. Misc : 200 rm 

Total expenses : 6900 Rm 

Are there any other expenses I should account for ? 


3. Food - Services 

Are there any monthly food services - that can provide 1-2 packed home cooked vegetarian meals daily ? 

this will be a great help , as my husband is diabetic and vegetarian .


Looking forward to our feedback and suggestion . 
Thank you !


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## Nemo. (Feb 13, 2011)

Hi rent is too low - 2,000 min. Food is too high though for vegetarian Indian food. Basically you want to live in brickfields per what you are saying about food/MRT! There think 2,500 Rm for rent for decent place.

Public transport is a disgrace in KL - taxis are mad and expensive. A car would be better. Budget 1,500 all in for that. Food 1,500 RM for two (max).

Tax is only 26% first 6 months and you can claim back excess later.

Long term that will be 7,250 RM per month net of tax.

Say 2,000 RM rent + 1,500 transport + 1500 food + 500 RM bills (inc internet) + 500 for misc (adds up) = 6,000 pm

Baby means medical bills (HUGE) and expenses. On that basis you prob won't save much. Maybe 500-750 RM a month. The salary is only average for Selangor and for expat below average so saving will be hard. In my experience most people spend a lot more than they budget for!



PreetiChennai said:


> HI ,
> 
> My Husband has been offered a job in KL and will be moving by April this year. There are a few queries I had on which I needed guidance .
> 
> ...


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## WCN (Apr 8, 2013)

I will try to be as detailed as possible for the following breakdown. Bear in mind though, I am only putting it at the minimum I have seen:-

Accommodation: RM1,500 / RM2,000
This rate is possible if you are looking to Bukit Jalil area but you will probably not be in a higher end area and safety may be a concern. Furthermore, you probably will need to furnish the house as this rate usually come non-furnished or part-furnished at best. My suggestion is to budget this at least at RM2000 and you should be able to find a much more decent place.

Food: RM1,200
Food is cheap here. Finding Indian Vegetarian shouldnt be a problem, but try to avoid expensive restaurants that try to milk this niche market. I know of stalls selling vegetarian food as low as RM6 per dish of rice+veges. So lets assume it at RM20 per day average, 30 days, 2 person, RM1,200.

Transport: RM750 - RM1500
Now this is going to be tough. Taxi drivers here are generally dishonest, but lets say your husband can only take taxi to work. Lets assume you stay within 10km from his workplace, the meter will be at about (~RM15 for budget, RM30 for executive per way. Midnight return will have a surcharge of 50%, so RM25 for budget, RM45 for executive). Say your husband works 20 days a week, that will add up to RM750 for budget, RM1,500 for executive. It will be hard finding a budget taxi that is willing to do a trip for you daily but if you rather a safer ride, go for executive taxi or try this company called Swift Limousine & Cab that I usually use.

Water/Electric/Cable/Papers/Etc: RM550
Depending on you usage, even if you were to have one aircond running full day, one refrigerator, your electric plus water should exceed RM300. Papers are about RM1.2 per day, so RM36. Cable, depending on what is your subscription, bear minimum is about RM120 I think. Internet you can get as low as RM80 a month.

Phone: RM80 onwards
Think the lowest plan could even be lower, but lets say a decent plan would cost you at least RM80.



Where to save? Home cooked meals will save you lots of money as groceries here are generally cheaper. Take the minimum package for the cable (satellite TV in this case), only channels that you will watch. Unless you have work to do at home that requires good internet speed, go the lowest option here while keeping it to Broadband. Dont skim on accommodation location and transport as this is your safety. Better still, ask your husband to request for allowance for transportation or get the company to provide.


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## jamesdkearns (Apr 17, 2013)

How much would l need to pay for phone and broadband unlimited min 2mps.

Sent from my GT-S5830 using Expat Forum


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## Sunlight11 (Apr 27, 2013)

In Malaysia ppl dont save much... Probably u will need RM 7K / month to live nicely in paces like subang or PJ...


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