Cost of living

As the time to relocate gets closer and closer I have been trying to establish some rough living costs as some kind of baseline in terms of budgeting but also in terms of trying to establish if the 'deal' I may get offered on any given service is reasonable or not. In this regard I am very grateful to my friend who posts with the user name of Steveso on the MM2H Forums for much of the current detail. Everyone's costs will be different of course and, in particular, car insurance costs will vary dramatically as will the costs of some domestic services/utilities depending on how much you use them. As a rough guide though the below is what I'm roughly planning for (all prices in RM per month):

• Electricity: 150
• Gas: 10-20
• Water: 2-3
• Internet: 150
• Astro TV (premium package with movies etc): 135
• Mobile phone (iPhone): 60
• Service Charge (condo): 100-120

Added to that will be the cost of car insurance (figure around RM 2,500 - 4,000 per year) and fuel (maybe RM 150 pm for me I suspect) of course whatever you need to spend each month on food and provisions (little) and/or socially (lots) and eating out. Car insurance will vary on the size of engine (see vehicle related posts) and can be brought down by as much as 55% if you can prove a no claims bonus from certain countries (again see later post on car insurance).