Salary of RM3,000 Is Considered Low Income

Thursday, July 17, 2008
Salary of RM3,000 Is Considered Low Income
With the recent high increase in fuel prices and inflation setting into the life of every single person in the world, Malaysians were not spared either.

The Malaysian government still said that inflation rate in Malaysia is less than 5%. But when you go out for a meal or to buy some simple household stuff, prices have shot up more than 10%. What were they measuring? Maybe the government statistic's was comparison made between today and few months back without them telling us which month or year they were using to say that inflation in Malaysia is well under control.

FOMCA has done a survey to see how a salaried man could survive life in the city with just RM3,000 in his pocket. He also needs to feed his one wife and four kids.

By looking at the survey results, one could see that he will have more months left after finishing his RM3,000.

If you are earning RM3,000 per month, you are considered a low income earner now as RM3,000 couldn't get you a lifestyle but just living modestly. Yes, you won't die but no luxuries, no entertainment, no mamak, no extras, no holidays or no pampering. Unless you are single and not thinking of getting married, then RM3,000 is more than enough. That also not on excessive spending.

Those with families, the way to survive nowadays is to cut down on excesses, lavish spending, unnecessary purchases and by budget by deleting non-essentials from the list.

Household monthly in come range (Percentage range of families):-
* < RM 1000 (8.6%)
* RM 1001 – 2000 (29.4%)
* RM 2001 – 3000 (19.8%)
* RM 3001 – 4000 (12.9%)
* RM 4001 – 5000 (8.6%)
* RM 5001 – 10,000 (15.8%)
* > RM 10,000 (4.9%)
Source: Figures presented by Senator Amirsham A Aziz, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, in response to a query in Parliament by Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj, MP for Sungai Siput

From the above statistic, an approximate 57.8% of Malaysians are earning RM3,000 or less. More than half of the nation's population are considered low income earners. My my ........ and the government has time to play around with politics instead of concentrating on improving the economy.

From the last general election, we have heard that some Malaysians voted for the oppositions because the citizens were fed up with the non-sensible stuff that the government was dealing in. The talk was the voters were teaching the government a lesson. Looks like the lesson has not been understood yet.

With the pricing of every single goods and services rising up like mad, soon, the Malaysian citizens will compromise. If the compromise was to have lesser luxuries, that should be alright but I would say that many has compromised to live a life of lower grade.

Kindergarten fees are increasing due to increased expenses. Therefore, parents may forego sending their children to the kindergartens. Maybe one year in kindergarten, at the age of six, will be sufficient for most low income earners. In this way, the low income earners won't die but they have sacrificed their kids' future livelihood.

Cereals and oats are essential for a growing child. Do you think the low income earner will sacrifice this sort of food just to survive? Yes, they will and at the detriment of the child's health this time.

The government has produced the above statistics and knowing that inflation is hitting the nation hard, what are they doing about it?

Reading: Fomca: Help families cope - Star
Reading: Malaysians brace themselves for higher cost of living - Straits Times

Related post - How to Survive With Your Salary?
Tags: RM3,000, Low Income Earner, Low Income, Low Salary, Lifestyle, Inflation, Malaysia, Higher Cost Of Living
Labels: Economics

Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Just How Much is 500 Million Dollars?
Zimbabwe, which has an 165,000% inflation rate, is trying to ensure that their citizens do not need to carry tons of money while going out to buy their stuff.

When I was in Sudan, I have to carry a bulk of of their 1,000 Sudanese Dinar wherever I go so that I would have enough to pay for stuff that I wanted. A simple meal at a restaurant would cost me easily 3,000 Sudanese Dinar (equivalent to US$15). At this point of time, Sudan has made their currency becoming smaller denomination where 100 Sudanese Dinar is equivalent to 1 Sudanese Pound, which is still at the same exchange rate of 2 Sudanese Pound = US$1.00. Sudan is not linked to any international currency exchange rate and they change their denomination as they like.

Wherelse in Zimbabwe, the value of their money has dropped even further. When I blogged about the new issuance of the 10,000,000 (Ten Million) Zimbabwe Dollars in January 2008, the situation was already bad enough. In January, their 10,000,000 Zimbabwe Dollar was equivalent to US$3.90 at the height of the 165,000% inflation rate.

Today, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (tried to find their link but to no avail) has done something that nobody has done before which is to issue a 500,000,000 (Five Hundred Million) Zimbabwe Dollar note. Today, their 500,000,000 Zimbabwe Dollar is worthed US$2.00.

What's the percentage of increase like? 10,000% on top of 165,000%???
Which works out to 1,650,000,000% inflation rate right now? One Billion???????

Going back to history, in 1980, one Zimbabwe dollar was worth more than US$1.00.
Reading: Zimbabwe bank issues $500m note - BBC News/Africa
Tags: Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Dollar, Economics, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
Labels: Economics