Are We Living a Fake Life? A Brutal Reality Check for Malaysia’s Youth

By Amarjeet Singh @ AJ

Picture this. A 27-year-old executive in Kuala Lumpur earning RM3,500 a month. On paper, it’s a decent starting income. But here’s the reality of the life he’s trying to live:

• RM9,000 flagship phone on instalment
• RM1,000+ monthly car instalment to “look standard”
• Café hopping every weekend — because “self-care”
• Branded shoes, branded watch, branded perfume
• Restaurant dinners, “short trip” holidays, online shopping

On Instagram? He looks successful. In his bank account? Zero savings, zero buffer, only instalments.

Hard Question #1:

Are we actually living life — or just performing for other people’s screens?

The “I Deserve It” Trap

We love telling ourselves:

• “I work hard, I deserve nice things.”
• “Life is short, enjoy lah.”
• “Later only I think about savings.”
• “Everyone also doing the same what.”

But if we are honest, another set of questions must follow:

• If I deserve it so much, why must I swipe credit card for everything?
• Why is my phone worth almost 3 months of my salary?
• Why do I drive a car that impresses strangers but stresses my wallet?

This is not “enjoying life”. This is quietly digging a financial hole with a smile.

Welcome to the Fake Life Economy

We are living in a time where:

• Followers > Savings
• Outfit-of-the-day > State of the bank account
• “Vibes” > Long-term plans

Credit cards, easy hire purchase, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), personal loans — all of them make luxury look “normal” and “reachable”, even when our income clearly cannot support it.

The system whispers, “Don’t worry about the full price, just focus on the small monthly instalment.”

But when you stack all those “small” instalments together — phone, car, personal loan, BNPL, credit cards — suddenly your whole life is one big countdown to the next due date.

Hard Question #2:

Do we still own our lifestyle — or does our lifestyle own us?

Bankruptcy Is No Longer Just a “Uncle and Aunty” Problem

This is not just an older generation complaining about “budak zaman sekarang”. The numbers in Malaysia are already flashing red.

Between 2020 and 2025, a total of 5,272 youths below the age of 34 were declared bankrupt in Malaysia. The majority — 5,189 of them — were aged between 25 and 34. Youth bankruptcy cases jumped from 727 in 2023 to 877 in 2024, and the trend is still rising.

From 2021 to May 2025, 25,578 Malaysians in total were declared bankrupt, across all age groups. This is not a small side issue; it’s a national financial health warning.

And what is pushing people over the edge?

• Personal financing/loans – the single biggest cause of bankruptcy cases
• Vehicle loans – car instalments becoming a silent time bomb

Put simply: we are borrowing to live a lifestyle that our income cannot sustain, and the bill is finally arriving.

Who Are We Really Trying to Impress?

Strip away the filters for a moment and ask yourself:

• Would I still buy this RM9,000 phone if nobody ever saw it?
• Would I still choose this car if nobody cared what I drive?
• Would I still spend this much on cafés and restaurant “aesthetic” food if there was no Instagram Story?

If the honest answer is “no”, then the truth is painful but simple: we are not buying products — we are buying approval.

Hard Question #3:

If social media disappeared tomorrow, how many things in your life would suddenly feel unnecessary?

Debt First, Mental Health Crisis Next

A fake lifestyle may look good from the outside, but the stress is very real on the inside.

Living like this means:

• Making minimum payments and never seeing the principal amount drop
• Feeling your chest tighten whenever an unknown number calls
• Hiding statements from family, pretending everything is okay
• Constantly counting down to payday — not with excitement, but with relief

We talk about “self-care” as spa days and short trips, but the deepest form of self-care is this: not putting your future self in chains because your current self wants to look rich.

Are We Really Just Victims?

Yes, cost of living is high. Yes, property is expensive. Yes, wages move slower than prices. These are real structural problems.

But we also need to own our part of the story:

• We sign loans we don’t fully understand.
• We trust influencers more than financial planners.
• We study for exams, but not for financial literacy.
• We chase the “soft life” at 25, then drag hard debt until 45.

Hard Question #4:

Are we victims of the system, or victims of our own ego — or both?

What If “Simple” Becomes the New Flex?

Imagine a different kind of youth in Malaysia:

• RM3,500 income, but a sensible RM1,500–RM2,000 phone paid in full
• A car or bike chosen based on budget, not ego
• Mostly home-cooked food, cafés as an occasional treat
• No credit card debt, no sleepless nights over instalments
• Some savings every month — maybe small, but consistent

On social media, this person looks “average”. In real life, this person is free.

So who is truly richer — the one with branded lifestyle and zero savings, or the one with simple lifestyle and zero debt?

7 Questions to Ask Yourself Tonight

No bank officer, no minister, and no parent can do this inner work for you. Sit down, quietly, and be brutally honest:

1. If my salary stopped for 3 months, can I survive without borrowing money?
2. How many things in my room were bought to impress others, not to serve a real need?
3. Do I know my true total debt — every loan, card, and instalment?
4. Am I spending more to “feel included” than to build my future?
5. If I continue this lifestyle for the next 5 years, what does my life look like?
6. Would my parents be proud of how I manage money — or secretly worried?
7. Do I want to be part of the thousands of youths already bankrupt — or the ones who woke up early and changed?

Malaysia, It’s Time to Wake Up

We love to say, “budak zaman sekarang manja”, but we must also admit:

• We gave phones before we gave discipline.
• We pushed lifestyle before we taught literacy (especially financial).
• We exposed youth to everything, but did not anchor them in values.

The result? Young, stylish, connected — and financially fragile.

If nothing changes, the numbers will keep going up. More quiet bankruptcies, more secret stress, more lives that look perfect online but are crumbling offline.

Maybe it’s time we stop chasing the fake life — and start building a real one that doesn’t disappear when the Wi-Fi is off.

Don’t just flex your lifestyle. Learn to flex your discipline, your skills, your savings, your values. That is the real power — and nobody can repossess that.