Save yourself the grief. I'm telling you right now, there is no class more expensive to gear out than a monk. My gear isn't even that "great" but even to get where I am costs $$$$$.
B.net isn't updated with my paragon level, but the gear is still the same that I use right now at 45.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/harkamus-1584/hero/2619523
What's missing is a bit of vita and more resists, but vita costs a lot and is secondary to resists/armor/dex. Nothing will save you if you have 50k hitpoints but take 4x the damage since you have no mitigation.
I'm at 126k unbuffed/145k self buffed. My DH friend spent <5 million and broke 150k unbuffed. Sure he's squishy, but he's supposed to light stuff up from afar. In that respect he's doing great. Monks are supposed to take a licking and keep on ticking. To dish it and still be able to live is expensive.
OK fine, I exaggerated a bit. If you are on a tight budget, you can spend 3 mill and still clear mp2. It may take a while, but it's possible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Obv47i7GP3M
i dont think monks are that expensive to gear because you dont need alot of resist all gear like most classes.
you can get poison or cold gear aslong as you pick one and then also get some resist all on a couple pieces it will give you enough resists to handle anything. around 600 resist is all you need with one with everything passive.
prob the most expensive part of gearing a monk comes down to the weapons but prices have dropped so much lately you can gear out really well cheaply.
i have little issue in mp8 with the right skill setup but tend to do key runs around mp7 its fast and pretty much no deaths. but farming i just do mp1-3 like everyone else cause its so fast ect.
monks have skill advantage when it comes to survival if you are under geared. make sure you have damage delt converted to life on your weapons and you are golden even with mediocre damage using mantra of evasion with the backlash rune = near invicibility in large groups of mobs and shreds them at the same time. also sweeping wind, cyclone rune is is a ton a damage which heals you also combine that with backlash its pretty amazing what you can do with subpar gear.
heres my paragon 65 monk atm
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/WildAce-1546/hero/1001208
my dps is 133k unbuffed 218k self buffed not counting the 48% from the mantra.