r2i forum

oasis138;263439Venkat,

I guess I am curious to know what's your basis of $3000/ month in total expenses in an IT city? I from an Bangalore and have been close touch with bulk of my friends with whom i grew. I see them managing fairly well with salaries in the range 8-12 lakhs/annum which is what one would expect with 5-7 years of experience (of course this is average am sure some people make 20+). Housing in Bangalore (even in areas which are 8-10 kms around city center - MG road) for a 3 bed are in the 20-25k range. Schooling depends but decent schools such as NPS/ viday mandir etc dont charge >3-4k on average/child/month. maids 2-3k, driver 5-6k, electricity 3-4k, petrol 2-3k, misc say 20k. What I am trying to get at is with some readjustments mentally one can manage a family with 60-70k /month....now ofcourse if one wanted their child to go to an Intl school...learn horse riding etc then sure costs will and should escalate.... sure if one wanted a sedan (10-15 lakhs) versus a economically/traffic compliant car such as santro etc (5-7lakhs) then emi's would be double....I am just very surprised to hear a number such as 3k/month = ~36k a year = ~17 lakhs after taxes...which implies around 20-25 lakhs salary...Is that the average salary in bangalore in IT? Not so sure....maybe you guys can comment...im not in IT

Hi All, I have R2Ied recently for 8 years in US. So I believe I qualify myself to compare US and India. I Just wanted to let everyone know about India being expensive now a days. In my view Indian IT cities have become very expensive...but in a certain way...Here are my points
1. Real state is really expensive which is the case with all major cities in world like LA, Bay area, NYC. It is the demand that drives real state prices. So in BLR where I am right now, a decent 2 BHK apartment in a good society with all amenities like children play area, swimming pool, gym etc may cost you something around 17k to 22k. If you want to go for society with basic amenities like security, water, you may get it between 13-17K. If you want to buy apartment, it is 75-90 lacs for 3 BHK for with all amenities. So i consider real estate to be expensive. So if you are R2Ieing, search about real estate before coming in your cities. but i think after living long in USA, you would have bought one or two apartments and should be ok. if not, please plan on real estate.
2. Kids education- since our IT friends have become very sensitive to their kids education, and lot of IT friends in IT cities, schools are taking advantage of it. charging too much money for education. as per my recent research, school might cost something around one lacs to 1.5 lacs in a year. off-course if you go higher on international school, they will burn your pocket. money is one thing, they will also demand too much involvement from parents as well.

Apart from these things, there many things have become very expensive, like movie, restaurant, auto wallas, taxi etc. but at the same time many things are still the same or reasonable, like cars, bike, you get good cars, and bikes with very reasonable price as compare to before, i mean they are not cheaper but at the same time they are better with not too much hike on the price. Air ticket have become cheaper. I remember in 2001-2002 one ticket from BLR to DEL used to cost something around 8000 rs, which now cost 3000 to 4000 rs.
Grocery - still very much ok. At least BLR has started getting a concept of super market like Hyper city (Instead of mall) where you get good deals. Rs 15000-17000 in a month on grocery including milk is good amount for couple with one kid. here i am talking about fully loaded grocery.
Clothes - off course you cannot imaging buying Banana republic, calvin klien here. but you get decent deals on clothes on indian and famous US brands. Like i bought Van Huesan pants and shirts both for Rs 1800 on deal. and most of us buy Good stuff in US as well in deal.
my point is if you talk about basic stuff in life, one couple with one kid can live easily for 30k excluding real-estate and kids education. Definitely this amount depends on how much you go out. And definitely there are places where you can spent 5k in one night like expensive pub/club where you get one drink for 700 rs. So think about the way you live your life and then think whether India is expensive or not.
Also above calculation for monthly expense is made with the assumption that your house is completely setup. and i think if you have stayed in US for long time, you would have the sufficient money to do initial set up of your home.

My Assumption is, people who find India to be super expensive then USA are those who want to live and use the same kind of stuff that they have been using in US. That is definitely super expensive. for example, sofa, a very good sofa in USA will be $1500 but the same sofa will cost about 1 to 1.5 lacs in india as it was direct imported. For example camping tent which cost you 70 bucks in usa would cost you rs 8000 in India. off-course cars are the biggest example, toyota camry is 24k in US which is 18 lacs in india. I know eveyone knows about it.
I know many of my friends who are living very good life in blr with 40k including rent with no kids. And they use all good stuff.
Conclusion is – real estate and kids education is really an expensive things india which are unavoidable. And other things depend on your life style.

rajram123,

Can you please update this thread with your experience about R2A. How were your first few months and also how and when you were able to find job after R2A.

Thanks

deshvidesh;402203Hi All, I have R2Ied recently for 8 years in US. So I believe I qualify myself to compare US and India. I Just wanted to let everyone know about India being expensive now a days. In my view Indian IT cities have become very expensive...but in a certain way...Here are my points
1. Real state is really expensive which is the case with all major cities in world like LA, Bay area, NYC. It is the demand that drives real state prices. So in BLR where I am right now, a decent 2 BHK apartment in a good society with all amenities like children play area, swimming pool, gym etc may cost you something around 17k to 22k. If you want to go for society with basic amenities like security, water, you may get it between 13-17K. If you want to buy apartment, it is 75-90 lacs for 3 BHK for with all amenities. So i consider real estate to be expensive. So if you are R2Ieing, search about real estate before coming in your cities. but i think after living long in USA, you would have bought one or two apartments and should be ok. if not, please plan on real estate.
2. Kids education- since our IT friends have become very sensitive to their kids education, and lot of IT friends in IT cities, schools are taking advantage of it. charging too much money for education. as per my recent research, school might cost something around one lacs to 1.5 lacs in a year. off-course if you go higher on international school, they will burn your pocket. money is one thing, they will also demand too much involvement from parents as well.

Apart from these things, there many things have become very expensive, like movie, restaurant, auto wallas, taxi etc. but at the same time many things are still the same or reasonable, like cars, bike, you get good cars, and bikes with very reasonable price as compare to before, i mean they are not cheaper but at the same time they are better with not too much hike on the price. Air ticket have become cheaper. I remember in 2001-2002 one ticket from BLR to DEL used to cost something around 8000 rs, which now cost 3000 to 4000 rs.
Grocery - still very much ok. At least BLR has started getting a concept of super market like Hyper city (Instead of mall) where you get good deals. Rs 15000-17000 in a month on grocery including milk is good amount for couple with one kid. here i am talking about fully loaded grocery.
Clothes - off course you cannot imaging buying Banana republic, calvin klien here. but you get decent deals on clothes on indian and famous US brands. Like i bought Van Huesan pants and shirts both for Rs 1800 on deal. and most of us buy Good stuff in US as well in deal.
my point is if you talk about basic stuff in life, one couple with one kid can live easily for 30k excluding real-estate and kids education. Definitely this amount depends on how much you go out. And definitely there are places where you can spent 5k in one night like expensive pub/club where you get one drink for 700 rs. So think about the way you live your life and then think whether India is expensive or not.
Also above calculation for monthly expense is made with the assumption that your house is completely setup. and i think if you have stayed in US for long time, you would have the sufficient money to do initial set up of your home.

My Assumption is, people who find India to be super expensive then USA are those who want to live and use the same kind of stuff that they have been using in US. That is definitely super expensive. for example, sofa, a very good sofa in USA will be $1500 but the same sofa will cost about 1 to 1.5 lacs in india as it was direct imported. For example camping tent which cost you 70 bucks in usa would cost you rs 8000 in India. off-course cars are the biggest example, toyota camry is 24k in US which is 18 lacs in india. I know eveyone knows about it.
I know many of my friends who are living very good life in blr with 40k including rent with no kids. And they use all good stuff.
Conclusion is – real estate and kids education is really an expensive things india which are unavoidable. And other things depend on your life style.

Thanks for a detailed account.
Fact you mentioned in the last paragraph is probably the most imp for us ( at least me ) who are thinking of R2Iing.

Stop wanting to ct same life-style....it will be very very expensive.

When in India, live like common indians....in other words...live better than how we grew up living under our parents ....
but...not like we lived in USA or many Indians with a lot of Black money to burn live today.
Stay away from that bunch and we will be just fine.

thanks lot deshvidesh

sunnyr;404923rajram123,

Can you please update this thread with your experience about R2A. How were your first few months and also how and when you were able to find job after R2A.

Thanks

Wow! I almost forgot I opened this thread and it is nearly 15 months since I came back.

I returned in May 2010 through a service company in an onsite role to the east coast, didn't like North East and the role very much, so decided to move back to California. I remotely interviewed from east coast, got a contract job and moved with my family to Bay Area in August 2010. Wife got a job and we are settled now! Not as bad as I thought!

Settling down meant finding an apartment and shopping spree at Walmart, Costco, Bestbuy, local auto dealers, furniture shops, buying everything from floor mats to sofa sets to new cars. The initial cost of settlement buying all this stuff was close to $12000 (down payment for car, furniture, electronics etc).

rajram123;404998Wow! I almost forgot I opened this thread and it is nearly 15 months since I came back.

I returned in May 2010 through a service company in an onsite role to the east coast, didn't like North East and the role very much, so decided to move back to California. I remotely interviewed from east coast, got a contract job and moved with my family to Bay Area in August 2010. Wife got a job and we are settled now! Not as bad as I thought!

Settling down meant finding an apartment and shopping spree at Walmart, Costco, Bestbuy, local auto dealers, furniture shops, buying everything from floor mats to sofa sets to new cars. The initial cost of settlement buying all this stuff was close to $12000 (down payment for car, furniture, electronics etc).

I am glad you moved back to CA. That is the best place in the US.

rajram123, Can you update the transition for your kids? How old were they when you r2ied?

ne12;405014rajram123, Can you update the transition for your kids? How old were they when you r2ied?

Son was 4 years old when we R2Ied. He was able to adjust very well both during R2I and R2A.

hayagreeva;263690 If you want to ride comfortably in a decent mid size car like in US, you will have to shell out 8L and pay 10 K for the driver . SO ALL OF THIS WHICH YOU GET AS AS STANDARD IN US, it is all OPTIONS WITH A HUGE PRICE TAG in India. Cheers-

Driver comes standard in US? Really?