Cost of living in Bangalore

vishwa777 · Post by **vishwa777** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 1:34 pm

Hi All,

I am trying to make realistic estimate of cost of living in Bangalore. A person with an annual package of Rs.12 lakhs a year would need to pay about 3.6 lakhs in tax and would be left with 8.4 lakhs which is Rs.70000 per month at his disposal.

Would below expenses be realistic for a family of three?

Rent:15000
Electicity Bill: 5,000
Phone Bill(Landline+Cell): 2,000
Petrol: 4,000 (Avg - including office commute)
Servant: 2,000
School Fees: 5,000 (per month per kid - Avg)
Regular Groceries: 5,000
Weekend Outings: 4,000
Water Bill: 1,000 (Avg)
Insurance Premiums like
Life, Home, Health, Car: 5,000 (Avg, but this varies per person)
Car Maintenance: 2,000

Total = Rs 55,000 + Rs 5,000 (additional expenses) = Rs 60,000

Savings: Rs.10000 per month.

If my calculation is realistic, the situation is pretty scarry for a family with a single earning member.

best regards,
Vishwanath

taan ta taan · Post by **taan ta taan** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:21 pm

I think this needs slight modification. Because you have to show expenses based on what you earn.
12L per annum is not a very big salary.

House rent max. 10,000 /- (you can get 2BHK apt./house for 10k if you search)
Electricity max. 3000 (I know people of 4 doing very much within this limit)
Phone/mobile 2000
Petrol 3000 (stay near to office it?s good for health/mind)
Servant 1000. Rest of the work we do it.
School fee 5000
Regular groceries 5000
Week end outing 2000 (spend less on outing and be healthy)
Water 1000
Insurance (s ) 5000
Car maintenance 1000 (keep worthy car)
Additional exp. 3000
Total = 41000

Saving= 70000-41000=29,000 (and you will have some money in PF as well for future)

Higher expenses can be shown if earning is >= 15L per annum. But we need to find the comfort with the above when we earn less.

taan ta taan · Post by **taan ta taan** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:03 pm

Could others throw some light on expenses in Bangalore please. We may be right/wrong above.
It would be helpful if members who are already in Banaglore post their experince. We get some idea and can plan better.
Thanks

csvirus · Post by **csvirus** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:06 pm

vishwa777;66615Hi All,

I am trying to make realistic estimate of cost of living in Bangalore. A person with an annual package of Rs.12 lakhs a year would need to pay about 3.6 lakhs in tax and would be left with 8.4 lakhs which is Rs.70000 per month at his disposal.

Would below expenses be realistic for a family of three?

Rent:15000
Electicity Bill: 5,000
Phone Bill(Landline+Cell): 2,000
Petrol: 4,000 (Avg - including office commute)
Servant: 2,000
School Fees: 5,000 (per month per kid - Avg)
Regular Groceries: 5,000
Weekend Outings: 4,000
Water Bill: 1,000 (Avg)
Insurance Premiums like
Life, Home, Health, Car: 5,000 (Avg, but this varies per person)
Car Maintenance: 2,000

Total = Rs 55,000 + Rs 5,000 (additional expenses) = Rs 60,000

Savings: Rs.10000 per month.

If my calculation is realistic, the situation is pretty scarry for a family with a single earning member.

best regards,
Vishwanath[/quote]

This is how I see it:

Rent:15000 (perfect)
Electicity Bill: 2K approx ( for 2 bedroom)
Phone Bill(Landline+Cell): 2,000 (ok)
Petrol: depends on car. 2K for compact cars
Servant: 750 ( at least ours)
School Fees: 5,000 (per month per kid - Avg) YUP YUP YUP :emcry::emcry:
Regular Groceries: 5,000-7K
Weekend Outings: I stay at home and sleep.
Water Bill: not separate for apartments
Insurance Premiums like
Life, Home, Health, Car: Avg, but this varies per person
Car Maintenance: varies. not like US.

-----------

You can easily gobble up 30K/mo. If you are liberal you could touch 50K/mo. And yes, cost of living is very very high in India. Like I have been shouting in my earlier posts on other threads. You get paid 50% of your US salary. You work 200% more. And the margin of savings is greatly reduced as goods and services can cost more than in the US. Add all kinds of taxes and cesses that the govt. imposes on the citizens of "emerging india". So think very very carefully before accepting that deceptive 24Lac/annum package from HR folks from India :emangry:. It doesn't get you anywhere. We aren't even talking EMI payments for skyrocketing real-estate in India. Then the outgo could be close to 1Lac/month. Throw in a sports utility vehicle EMI, and you are in serious debt! ... even if you were a single earning premium member in some much ballyhooed MNC in India!!!!

So you need to understand why you are actually returning to India. If your objectives, whatever they might be, are being met, then you shouldn't worry about getting into debt :rolleyes:

pdev11 · Post by **pdev11** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:43 pm

This is for a family of four and these are actuals, that is diff from OP's.

Electicity Bill: 1,200
Phone Bill(Landline+Cell): 1,200 (Airtel LandLine + DSL = 900, Reliance cell ph 300)
Servant: 1,000
Regular Groceries: 6,000
Water Bill: You don't have to pay this if you live in an apt
Car Driver: 5,500

But, If you have (or buy soon) a place of your own which is fully paid off ....... then it will be much easier.

bobo2000 · Post by **bobo2000** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:33 pm

csvirus;66639This is how I see it:

Rent:15000 (perfect)
Electicity Bill: 2K approx ( for 2 bedroom)
Phone Bill(Landline+Cell): 2,000 (ok)
Petrol: depends on car. 2K for compact cars
Servant: 750 ( at least ours)
School Fees: 5,000 (per month per kid - Avg) YUP YUP YUP :emcry::emcry:
Regular Groceries: 5,000-7K
Weekend Outings: I stay at home and sleep.
Water Bill: not separate for apartments
Insurance Premiums like
Life, Home, Health, Car: Avg, but this varies per person
Car Maintenance: varies. not like US.

-----------

You can easily gobble up 30K/mo. If you are liberal you could touch 50K/mo. And yes, cost of living is very very high in India. Like I have been shouting in my earlier posts on other threads. You get paid 50% of your US salary. You work 200% more. And the margin of savings is greatly reduced as goods and services can cost more than in the US. Add all kinds of taxes and cesses that the govt. imposes on the citizens of "emerging india". So think very very carefully before accepting that deceptive 24Lac/annum package from HR folks from India :emangry:. It doesn't get you anywhere. We aren't even talking EMI payments for skyrocketing real-estate in India. Then the outgo could be close to 1Lac/month. Throw in a sports utility vehicle EMI, and you are in serious debt! ... even if you were a single earning premium member in some much ballyhooed MNC in India!!!!

So you need to understand why you are actually returning to India. If your objectives, whatever they might be, are being met, then you shouldn't worry about getting into debt :rolleyes:[/quote]

cvvirus,

Many people have dreams of returning to India and high expectations

On a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is all your expectations were fulfilled,

what was your level of expectations before you went to india and how much was it satisfied on the scale.

Also, would you R2A if given the chance ?

Old-Spice2 · Post by **Old-Spice2** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:34 pm

>>>And the margin of savings is greatly reduced as goods and services can cost more than in the US. Add all kinds of taxes and cesses that the govt. imposes on the citizens of "emerging india". So think very very carefully before accepting that deceptive 24Lac/annum package from HR folks from India

It was always like that. While working in India in early 90s, I always felt you should live in India only if you are a businessman, politician, bureaucrat with access to #2 income or in a senior management with perks like company housing, car etc. Those days a decent 3BHK used to cost Rs 4L but the income was 1L/year.

If someone has saved decent amount (see how much is enough thread) then r2i makes sense as LIA throws up some challenges in the later phase of your life that have no solution (IMO). So everyone has to balance as per their tolerance level. Who said life was easy?

jn_mohit · Post by **jn_mohit** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 6:44 am

Also if you are a salaried person you should recieve 15% as HRA, so if we take that into account in OP's situation the monthly savings would be closer to 15,000.

I plan to rent a house as close to my HRA as possible to optimize tax savings and save on other places as mentioned in the posts above me to increase my savings.

MadMax · Post by **MadMax** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 6:57 am

Is 5K per month for school the fees at "International" schools or is it norm even for regular schools? What would the fee be in something like Kendriya Vidyalaya?

b2b · Post by **b2b** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 7:37 am

jn_mohit;66732Also if you are a salaried person you should recieve 15% as HRA, so if we take that into account in OP's situation the monthly savings would be closer to 15,000.

I plan to rent a house as close to my HRA as possible to optimize tax savings and save on other places as mentioned in the posts above me to increase my savings.[/quote]

HRA is normally 40% of basic (50% in case of metros) in line with tax provisions....

The exemption is the least of following:

HRA received
Rent paid less 10% of salary.
40% of Salary (50% in case of Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi) Salary here means Basic+dearness Allowance, if dearness allowance is provided by the terms of employment.