How Tejas Achieved Financial Independence By Early 30s and Moved Back to India

3:49 But then I decided to go to my masters in computer science and then decided to stay there for work I had I didn't plan anything while going like until when I'm going to leave leave there or when I'm going to come back to India I was just going with the flow but but after going there I realized like it's fine I mean I was I think I was the life was okay I mean I it was not like there was always pros and cons for both sides so I decided so over the time I decided to like retire early and then do something which which which intrigues me yeah got it so went for Masters

4:34 Worked there for quite a few years so how was the life in general in us and when did the idea of moving back to India occur because you said you didn't had any plans while going there so how is life going and then when this thought even occurred to you yeah I mean life was good in general no complaints I mean life was pretty easy work life balance was good everything was fine it's just in general I I didn't like the H1B trap I I felt like first of all like I didn't even like the 925 gig I I think I'm a free bird I wanted to I don't like to be in a contract with any entity in general so 925 job was I realized that it's not for me I want to reti anyways and then on top of that H1B was restricting lot of my freedom in in general like even if I was in tech I couldn't like explore

5:34 Opportunities by taking risk I always want had to like play safe and I didn't like that because it's just I felt I couldn't use the potential as much as I could if I didn't have this visa restrictions so I I just did thought like I this is not a place for me I mean I was I was hoping for like maybe in 10 years years I will get a green card or citizenship or something like that and then I'll have more freedom that's why that's that's what my Hope was but for me I mean that even if I get green card in next next five to 10 years I'll again have to live for five more years in order to get the citizenship and and I didn't feel that it was worth it so but life in general was

6:35 Good but it was monotonous it was restrictive the traveling was a hard part because every time the stamping and then you just end up not doing any plans it's not that it's not it's not like a prison that you are trapped but it's just the choice you make is in in general like because it's just so much hassle even if you want to go to the Europe then you're going to get the shenen visa which is going to be then another city like the embassy is going to be another city you have to fly there then you have to Visa then you have to come to India then go to stamping and again again and then there are not many vacations in Us in general I used to take UNP leaves anyway because I thought it was important but it's just the traveling restrictions wasn't so I couldn't even use that money as I could right so I think over the time of felt like this H1B thing is not going to work out for me so so if you're okay again

7:36 You know just to confirm from immigration side you have your i140 upov but again you don't want it to wait for your green card to come available like in 5 years 10 years whatever it like I mean you just don't want to have that restricted you want the flexibility to choose what you want what you want to do and I think that's the motivation for you to you know kind of think about moving out of us if you're relocating to India after years abroad listen up I have created something that will absolutely save you precious time that most nris waste while Googling this is based on my interaction with hundreds of people about their move back Journeys and uncover the biggest frustrations nris face when planning their return so I came up with something that can help a 15 we email series a free stepbystep road map to address these challenges and make your move back smoother and stressfree whether you're moving back for family retirement or VISA related reasons we got you covered here is what

8:36 You will get each week actionable tips to decide if moving back is the right choice strategies to plan your move back whether it's from Logistics career Financial tax planning how to choose the best school for your kids and we also have several checklist that help you with the move from a financial Logistics and much more this isn't just an advice it's carefully crafted road map to save you time reduce stress and help you make better decisions ready to plan your move with the confidence click the link below in the description to join for free and start receiving actionable strategies right in your inbox yes that was primary reason and also like U even though if so I wanted to all come back to India in general anyways for to pursue my creative Fields that's that's talk about later but U I think even if I get the even if I got the citizenship in us I think the Double taxation part was something I wasn't

9:39 Like comfortable with so I would rather go for citizenship with some other country where I don't have the double taxation thing if you're aware of that whereever you live in the world you had to pay taxes in us and whereever you live right so by the time you're 50s and 60s your income racket is going to be more and then you're going to end up paying taxes on the both sides that then again you going to rethink about the citizenship right so that was another reason that I wasn't that Keen towards living back in us just for that reason yeah okay just to maybe one you know key information there I think even if you become an US citizen you have to pile your taxes on the global income but you know if you pay taxes you will get credited because of the double taxation avoidance treaty that's there between India and us but for sure to your point yeah whichever taxes is higher you have to pay those taxes you know IR respect to even if

10:33 You're not living in that country so that sounds great so I know you moved early this year like it's been about an year so when did the thought of moving occur to you like was it like four years five years or is it just like something that you planned quickly anything that you can talk about your planning and when this thought occurred and how did you go about it so over the time I always knew that I want to at some point move here like like I said like probably get a citizenship and then have some Freedom then move around like 40s of my age or something like that but the last year I was like just running some numbers and I think the fire number I had in my mind was crazy like I don't know why I had that it was like crazy in multi-million or something and then I because of that I thought like oh maybe until 40 I'll probably reach there and then that's why I was like working towards it but then I started following the fire Community online on the Reddit and the YouTube and there's bunch of resources

11:34 Online right now and then the formula was like just made it easy to calculate like annual expense into 25 and then I thought like that is achievable like I mean u i yeah last year when I made the number I was closely towards it but now I'm comfortably I can say achiev that number so I thought I was just overthinking and I was you don't need a crazy number to retire in general so when I realized that and then I realized while I'm single I can move around I have the freedom to do anything and I have energy and excitement to go around places and do things and I just decided to do it within a year so makes sense so it's the idea of like when is the right time to move is the realization of that happen in last year and then you just executed on that so

12:32 Let's talk a little bit on this fire thing so if you're open you can talk about like you know maybe a calculation from an expenses on how how much it would cost to live in a city in India and you know the multiple so if you can talk through that like you know what is that you went through in your thought process on seeing like what is that number where you are comfortable to make that plunge to move to India you know where that fire number would work yeah and again with that I think I was overestimating numbers before coming here after moving here I realized that the number are highly flexible you can take a control of it and it's easy to cut down on numbers if you really want to so cost wise I'm I'm living in Mumbai which is probably the most expensive city in in India even in the world probably one of the but but I think that's why the number are little bit little bit higher but I love the fact that I even if I

13:33 Move like 20 minutes from here then I can cut that number in half so I had which kind of U it wasn't the case when I was in us the bare minimum was pretty high wherever I lived so and also like having a family house in India helps that you have that mental Security in your head that even if something goes wrong you always have a place to go to so that's another aspect that gives you a peace of mind the cost wise u i mean talking about cost I think i w i I keep my budget around like two lakh a month but I later realize however I spend it I don't reach that number like I I I spent my like I spent on like lot of leg things fine dining a month in in single month to just see like how can I stretch it but it's fine it's it barely touches that number the rent is

14:34 Probably the major part in it so apart from rent I think within a lack you can easily for a single person you can easily like enjoy things and eat out and everything and if you want to if you want to cut down and expense just eating at home is pretty inexpensive in general so yeah but I think my calculation was in general was the monthly expense in 25 U but also I wanted to keep one lakh budget each month just for the travel so that I can travel around the world where I want to because one thing I wanted to do before coming moving to India was I didn't want to have any regrets like oh if I was in us I would have spend on this I would have gone to this place or I would ate at this place so I just wanted that peace of mind that I I don't it doesn't really matter I'm still living the same life of course you can't

15:35 Compare life like exact to exact like you can't have a single family home in Mumbai but you can live in a really Prime area U with the tiny apartment but it's still the access to things is going to be still better so but it the cost varies significantly throughout the cities tier to C here City my mom dad lives in Pune and the cost and the standard of living is completely different it's probably like one third of what I'm spending here so it it depends so it depends on where you want to live and I because of I wanted to be close to the creative field I think I chose Mumbai and I grew up around here so I I was more familiar with it that's why I I had some higher fire number in my mind otherwise just moving to India in some other city is fairly easier if you're working in US

16:29 Got it so I think just to summarize I think for a single person living in Mumbai if you keep the rent aside which is a big major factor because of the you know depending on the location and so on it could vary a one lakh is a good number to plan for you know the budget for a monthly expenses with any additional money for your travel and so on I think that that has been your experience and definitely that number changes if you go to tear two tear three City and the standard of living can change you know dynamically I think you know dra was there I know you kind of mentioned about this fire like even when you're going to us right I mean you have always have this like you know if you want to have a house you know how quickly that I can achieve so you are financially Savvy or you know thinking along those lines from a beginning how have you planned your Investments or your things like in us to achieve this fire number you know is there something that you have followed or you split between India and us or primar for focused in us anything that you can

17:31 Share like you know how you planned and achieve this fire in as a journey yeah sure so I think the most most of my like almost all of my investments are in us there was only one investment I did which was buying a flat like a condo in India which didn't really appreciate at all but my mom dad lives there now so I think that's it's probably worth it but that that is a but apart from that most of my investments are in us I think the the one mistake I did huge like a depth for three to four years and then until then I couldn't buy a property in us or I couldn't do any investment because the loan APR was so high in India and I wanted to just pay it off as soon as possible so that is the one mistake I did I'm not

18:31 Saying I I regret it it definitely had lot of Pros about having the mental peace and taking risk after that but I think I could have grow that number way more than what it is right now and then buy the flat after like five years probably down the road so that was one retrospectively mistake I did but after that I once I had a flat in India and I was like okay I I have a a property in India to go to so even if something goes wrong even if my H1B doesn't get picked up I don't have to worry about it and that was another reason I got a flat because I was on OPD and I didn't know that if I would get H1B or not because there was a competition so I wanted some place when I go back to India and so after that like I had some security back in my head and I started taking risk I started investing in Risky assets and and I think I initially started

19:31 Investing heavily and then the like the it during last decade was really a good time for to be in us and I think my investments grew more than way more than average returns after that I think what what we did like we got a property of the money we invested in and then you B basically had to do the 20% down payment but we only did 10% and chose to pay the PMI and I again reinvested that another 10% in Market on the heavy assets like a risk risk heavy assets and I almost double that money within two years then again I put the down payment for second house and that was again 15% because the PMI was so High and then I locked in another a good interest rate back there so

20:33 The one first house is almost like paying for itself and the another house which was a little higher on the mest side but it was fine because I know it was a longer run and the properties were in Seattle so I know the with the tech bubble and Silicon Valley I think if if they call it like Silicon Valley in the forest so the market is always going to be booming in Seattle so that that kind of that is kind of like a major portion of my portfolio where the property property rates grew in Seattle and I was fortunate to be in Seattle at that time now other than that then now that I have that in place I usually just do the risky asset Investments so whenever so and then and and over the time doing this with the discipline I am getting good at it and now I know what to do what not to do I understand the psychology of the market and psychology of each stocks what it does so I think it just took the practice I I didn't plan how I would do

21:35 It but over the time doing that consistently kind of u u like made me better at it so so now in a way the properties are going to be for the long term where I can retire on it probably if it goes well and the other Investments are going to be like for my expenses and what things I want to do in life great no thanks a lot

22:01 For such a detailed overview and how you approached it so am I assuming that the two properties that you have in us are you renting them out through a property management company yes okay yes I I have a really trusted broker in Seattle and yeah they take care of it very well like okay and it's been going fine for you yeah so far yes okay I I made sure like I always chose to buy a property in a really good school district so that you attract the a good tenant you attract the good prices so even though there were if there is a a price plate going on in the market that market always stays good so yeah that was one of my key point I would be I was okay to cut down on other aspects like interior square feet but the lot size and the neighborhood was the most important things for me to buy a property makes sense so yeah let's

23:00 Talk on the career side the transition so I'm assuming you left your corporate world because you said you have a passion for the creative side and you want to have the financial Independence so you left the corporate world and moved to India is that right yeah okay and how is the career transition I think you know how how how how is this you know going for your passion working out like what progress you made anything that you can share to give some encouragement for people who have these things on what they can do yeah sure so so the thing is like I since I worked for a decade I wanted to take a break like real break and not think about what next because once I have in my mind what I going to do next I'm going to take actions and I'm going to be Restless for it so u i i I took a break entire this year I didn't do anything I just chilled I traveled few places and and yeah I was trying to get settled

24:01 In the new place too so I think but from like last one or two months I started doing the networking just because I I think I'm done with the sabatical now and I want to get to the creative field but that's why I chose to live in Mumbai Mumbai where I could meet people around I could have the people so there are a lot of the creative people lives around here so you tend to meet them around at friends place at the party or you know wherever and that is helpful and then having the exposure of this surrounding motivates you to do things so I I met a couple of people in a brewery on and they told me like what to read what to do in order to get into it then I started reading some books and getting it so right now I'm exploring the screenwriting area but eventually I want to explore the the film making process and how economy works if I could produce something what it is so it is

25:01 Totally new for me so I'm still like getting into it but being closer to the location always helps and I think that's So currently I'm just in like I'm learning some skills so that I can offer something and I'm making a networking so that I can probably like ask for something but yeah I mean depends on what kind of field you want to get into there are always the steps you always go to the guy and or girl and just ask them like how they achieved that and what to get like like like in coding like in the coding world you go with the cracking the coding intervie book and then you start from that then you go to lead code and then you go to the job so it's kind of fairly simple for all other fields so of course there is going to be the money crunch problem so I wanted to make sure that I'm comfortable enough before getting into this SE because there is uncertainty yeah and so so yeah but

26:02 Currently I'm still exploring I am still getting out of my sabatical zone but I'm hoping to start some internship soon and if that works out well then I'll probably like start working somewhere and go and learn things here so how is life in India it's

26:19 Been almost getting close to an year and anything that you miss in US versus like you know some of the challenges or life in India in general like how how has been your experience so far I mean life is good I mean I so far I've been loving it I while moving I was like totally not sure if this is going to be for me or not because everyone keeps on saying that oh you're not going to get used to India once he lived in us for these many years but I I don't like I didn't find that true I mean I am like I like the life here in general so of course you can't expect the exact things that that you had in us but you also have so many other things that you want to get exposed to so I have so much time in my hand I have so much Freedom the weather is pretty good outside and then and then I think the community community based society is is always different than like individualistic

27:20 Society both has its pros and cons but now that I learned how to live individualistic life I think I can Implement those in the community based society life so I think there are like yeah pros and cons on both sides you just had to choose what works for you and how you going to work it out so for example like I that's why I decided to live in Mumbai specifically in bandra which is more exposed to the Western World the people around here are more exposed to that world so there are like lot of like most of the things I used to get in us I get it here within 5 to 10 minutes and then the people I'm going to meet around are going to be in the creative field or in the somewhere some of them are going to be exp so there is a big exper group that has a meetups every month so things like those so I decided to be where I will feel that that this is going to be my community or this is going to where I can make my community so overall like

28:23 That part is good and there are there are of course some challenges when you move to the new place anyways but since I grew up around here I think I I was familiar with it so yeah

28:37 That's good so any advice that you can share for people who are considering to move to India from your perspective yeah I mean if you're specifically you're in us make sure you have i140 approved so that even if you regret even if you feel like oh this is not working out you can easily go back and you can approach any company they will be happy to send you back probably and try to keep don't burn the bridges in the US and just keep those door open if in case you know move that is that is just for us though and another thing for us residents would be like that I saw your post recently on your page about 40 points rule of Social Security so you have to complete those 40 points in order to get the Social Security benefits so I don't think it's a big deal but if you work for eight years and if you are like close to it you might just want to finish those 40 points and then move because it's a big amount to let go

29:40 Or you can but you can also go back to us whenever you want and finish that 40 Point as long as you have I i140 approved and you are in the same field since I was going to leave the tech I I decided to live little bit longer like few months and going to the January until I leave my job so that I can accumate those points those are two things specifically for us folks other than that I think we shouldn't like romanticize idea of living anywhere I did that while going to us and I was disappointed because it's okay the life is good but it's it has pros and cons you have to look at it and a lot of people do that while moving back to India so that's not that's not not really going to work it's going to disappoint you on many ways so always try to like list out pros and cons list compare what are important things to you and what are not and then make the

30:41 Rational decision more than emotional one because both sides has pros and cons and you had to make sure that where you will get frustrated less yes so for me like that H1B trap was a frustration and I was like no it even though if even if I move to India and I don't do anything crazy with my career that's fine but I I won't have regret about what if what if right so that was more than my comfort my single family house or car whatever those so I I had my pros and cons on my list so maybe do that and another thing that helped me a lot that couple of years back I came to India I for three months I took like unpaid leave and I I did a trial run kind of like I mean I just wanted to see like how my life is now now that I have money then it actually like changed my perspective because the

31:42 Life I Lived growing up was very different because I came from the middle class family but when I saw the 1 perent life in India it is way better it's way different and it has a lot things to offer and I think I lived with my friends in different cities and saw how their jobs are and how their lifestyle lifestyles are and I liked it I was like this is good this is not like bad as I was imagining not at all like I mean it was actually better than in lot of Senses so if you really are in doubt maybe just do the trial run take a shortterm leave or whatever and live for like couple of months at least even if you are going to spend money on this trial you can always live three months longer in us to cover that cost but you won't have regret in general that oh I should have probably through this or that but yeah another thing is like if you decide to move to India don't buy a house and

32:43 Move to India because there's so much like possibilities of you living anywhere and the renting Guild is so low that it makes sense to just start with the rental and see where you see yourself in next few years if the city works for you and if the city works for you the neighborhoods are going to be so away from each other then if you end up getting a job in some other neighborhood you g to spend a lot of time on traveling especially if you in city like Bangalore or Mumbai maybe you know so I think probably just start with it until they get the idea of it and once you're comfortable then you can probably think about it in future but but yeah those are the few things I would say yeah no a lot of valid helpful in sites there thanks a lot thees so thank you very much thees for taking the time and sharing your fire story what made you to move how the life has been in India for you and especially giving some insights on the fire numbers right you know how much it would CA to

33:45 Live in India now and also some of the examples that you had from your trial run when you look at your friends Lifestyles you know your lifestyle that's very helpful so thanks a lot and thank you very much for sharing your journey with us on our podcast thanks a lot aash for inviting me on your podcast and yeah I mean I I wish I could find find a resource like this last year when I was deciding it because one of my moved to India and then people thinks that oh that's a crazy idea why would you do that no one does that so I was like but why no one does that I didn't know that and then later like this year I found your page and I was like oh man like I wish I could have someone to validate my decision but it's not a crazy idea it's not a crazy yeah there are a lot of people who are moving but it's a minority but still there are a lot of people who moves and it's not a crazy idea at all yeah yeah and I think the number is growing lately because this year four of my friends decided to move to India and they are actually

34:46 Moving and even after when I moved like some of people some of people in us they called me and like oh we've been thinking about it since years how is it and then once I told them they are actually like considering moving now so it's all about I think that blocker that you had and I think probably the things were different in India maybe 20 or 10 years back definitely that's why like probably Indians back then didn't really move here but now things are changing the entrepreneurship world the startup world you have a lot of problems to solve in general in India so if you want to even if you don't make money same as your job in US you're still going to have lot of fulfillment out of that job because you're going to make an impact going to make a change where you live so those are probably things that matters to me personally so definitely yes once again thank you very much thank you