PETALING JAYA, Feb 15 — The “sandwich group” has the unenviable task of juggling the financial responsibilities  of their children and parents, a financial planner said.

Whitman’s Yap Ming Hui, 46, said this generation had to contend with rising educational costs for their children while spending on their parents’ medical bills.

“They are in a tough spot having two heavy responsibilities. As far as children are concerned, it is always challenging to bring them up as the cost of living is already high and steadily increasing.

“On the other hand, the life expectancy of the older generation has been extended and you end up spending a lot more on their medical expenses as well.”

Yap said when this happened, the financial burden of the sandwich group escalated making it more difficult for them to make ends meet.

“Your burden will increase and it will get harder to sustain the lives of everyone involved,” he added.

He said household would need at least RM5,000 a month — after EPF and Socso reductions — for a reasonably comfortable life.

He said the three per cent cut in employee EPF contribution will come in handy in this respect with more money in hand every month to spend.

“This is better than using credit cards and spending more than they can control as most of them usually end up in debt that will accumulate over time due to high interest rates.”

Yap said Malaysians should start re-examining their monthly budget to identify luxury items that could be cut out.

“Many people are treating luxury items like expensive mobile phones, data plans, and fitness centre or recreational club memberships as necessities. If you cut on these, you can minimise costs,” he said.

He added that it would be better if people chose jobs they actually liked and worked towards upgrading their performance in their career.

“This will be more useful in resolving the long-term aspect of this problem than taking on part-time jobs which will only help in the short-term,” he said.