Malaysia's 2022/2023 Belanjawanku Guide for families & individuals: How to make the most of it

The Guide details minimum expenses by household category and provides recommendations on expenses allocation for necessities, optional spending, and personal savings.

Malaysia's Minister of Economy Rafizi Ramli recently launched the Belanjawanku Expenditure Guide for Malaysian Individuals and Families 2022/2023, as well as the Belanjawanku mobile application, to provide estimations of minimum monthly expenditures on various types of goods and services for different households.

Developed by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), in collaboration with the Social Wellbeing Research Centre (SWRC) of Universiti Malaya, the Belanjawanku Guide details minimum expenses by household category (single, family or seniors) and provides recommendations on expenses allocation for necessities, optional spending, and personal savings. First introduced in 2019 for Klang Valley residents, it has been improved to cover another 11 major cities across the country.

For instance, it has data comparing the monthly expenditures of single people owning a car in different cities. While a single person owning a car in Klang Valley can budget for RM2,600, an individual of the same profile in Alor Setar can spend as little as RM2,060.

View the full guide here. 

Meanwhile, the Belanjawanku mobile application was made available in all app stores from August 2022. The app contains interactive features for users to track their expenses and users can opt to use the Belanjawanku Guide or the “Rule of Thumb” to monitor monthly expenses. As of May 2023, the Belanjawanku App has recorded almost 12,000 downloads.

Commenting on this, EPF Chairman Tan Sri Ahmad Badri Mohd Zahir said: "According to the National Financial Literacy Strategy 2019-2023, developed by the Financial Education Network (FEN), of which the EPF is a member, a total of 76% of Malaysians have a budget, but not all adhere to the budget. The data also shows that 47% find it difficult to set aside RM1,000 for emergency use. These data suggest the need for Malaysians to improve financial literacy as one of the prerequisites to strengthen their financial and future retirement wellbeing.

"Hence, we developed the Belanjawanku Guide so Malaysians can become savvier in managing their finances."

The Belanjawanku project was commissioned by the EPF as part of its financial literacy programme, and the detailed research was done by the team at SWRC. The research involved a survey and focus group discussions comprising of researchers from local universities, representatives from the EPF, Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK), Economic Planning Unit, the National Wage Council, NGOs, Bank Negara Malaysia, and experts from industries.It has also been used by EPF’s Retirement Advisory Service (RAS) officers in providing members financial guidance and advice.

Thank you for reading our story! Please leave us a comment if you enjoy our content — take our 2023 Readers' Survey here.

Lead image / Belanjawanku Guide