Watch: Why India's Best for Early Retirement: Insights & Strategies for NRIs

3:31 And which which prohibits them from taking certain amount of risks that they would have taken otherwise and I feel 40 years is the Golden Age where you have health on your side relatively Better Health than what you what otherwise would have at 60. and you are also you would have saved some money by them so you're not like running paycheck to paycheck so I would certainly suggest anybody who can do this to be able to Target mid 40s or 40s to be financially independent to do lots of things maybe I can I can give you details around what I aspire to do but that is a primary goal amongst the many reasons that we have for moving to India okay so I think you kind of

4:21 Touched about this there should be like several reasons and not one reason you know for making this big move you know after living for 14 years so based on what I heard fire you know Financial independent literally is one of the thing and I'm assuming it's something to do with maybe the cost of living of US versus India could be the factor of retiring early and living there I I'm just guessing based on what I heard and what are the other other reasons that motivated or you know made the decision to relocate or move back to India it is financial Independence and I feel even standard of living so if you can like it's just pure math in my sense like if you live in a country and you save let's say 20 of a paycheck the standard of living that you accumulated by Saving 20 of paycheck will continue to remain the same if you continue to live in that country like you know but then if you switch from a

5:22 High income country to low you know expensive living Cost of Living Country then the 20 paycheck that you saved will will be much more your style of living much more because you can you're able to do that switch so that was one reason we we lived East Coast we lived in Northeast we'll finally we moved to West Coast in Cupertino I we felt the even how much ever we earned the standard of living that we were living you know without health or two jobs both of us have to work to maintain even a decent standard of living and the real estate review the the the daycare expenses we were not saving much and our standard living I think has been much better after moving back to India because of the freedom that we got compared to the other so freedom of freedom of I mean raising a standard of living is one fire is second third I feel is again future thinking because we

6:24 We have no hopes of getting green card in the near term we're always in the risk of getting laid off you never know how the economy behaves so we felt like instead of having to run in the last minute and then if you're laid off you're proactively you're thinking you're positioning yourself in a in a place where your your de-risking yourself from that event it could happen to anybody right so that's the third one and then we wanted to be closer to our Roots like after living 14 years we never felt like that is our home it always felt like we were there temporarily I mean we were enjoying the environment but it never felt home and moving back to India fell into like especially Hyderabad where we grew up this is a language we speak home to us and I thought from now onwards we closer to our roots and be at home okay yeah make sense I

7:23 Mean yeah definitely not to you know fall with what happens with the immigration just taking the proactive approach and you know defining your own path and you know being close to the family the roots and all this makes sense so so when did this process start like you know for how long have you been planning and versus you know what were the steps that you have taken to you know make the move so very early on as I said like I was really fascinated with fire I never wanted to work nine to five till 60 years I wanted to take risks in my life so so I would say about from the past seven eight years we had this thought of moving back and we made all our investments similarly like we started investing in real estate of in India Hyderabad at a very early age that way it helped us you know so even if it

8:23 Appreciated with inflation it helped us we were on the positive side and then like even in U.S when we bought a house we always with a motivation that we knew that we could sell the house if we needed to so we bought a highly you know what should I say easily sellable house and then any plan that we can we have we always kept this long-term goal in mind and then incrementally work towards it got it so it's almost like a plan in motion for almost seven years yeah you know a long-term View and making the financial decisions accordingly so anything that concerned you like are there any concerns when you are when you made the decision you know just just like it's always it's a big decision so anything that's in the back of your mind like you know hey have you thought about this or is everything you know considered you know because this is a big move anything that that was

9:24 Going in your mind you know that's kind of like you know stopping you to make the move and the second one is

9:31 Your expectations before the move and after the move I know it's been only two months but just maybe living here is a different versus you know visiting here right I mean you know you've been like you know staying here for two months but anything that you can shed light on those two topics yeah so the first one I guess people who return back to India are still in minority I would say it's like hardly a few percentage of people that I know have moved back so doing something that is in a minority would always put you in in doubt but I would say that should not stop you from making that decision if you're a minority think once or twice ensure all your reasons are in place but don't let the majority dictate you because their life is their life your life is your life and then the other aspect is like you when you hear negative news while you're in U.S somehow I feel like the Western media has always negative news about

10:32 India so if you read such news you'll feel like wait a minute I mean it's so much negativity about India and you want to move there is that is that a violent is that a wise station but again I feel like if you know more about your hometown you know more about the actual things on the ground than anybody else so let that not again influence your dish for the second part as you said so sorry can you repeat me this is the

11:13 Second part yeah it's more about your expectations before the move and you know the reality of living here I know it's been couple of months but it's good to do a quick check you know how was your expectations worse like you know your experience giving here I think I think we were expecting whatever we are experiencing now and that's because we before we moved finally over the last two years we did spend three months each year so to get acclimatized to this environment so so far I think like everything we're experiencing is what we have expected sounds like you have a good plan in place so you know it's almost like something in in in progress or in motion for seven years with the financials and even for the last couple of years you made sure you spend enough time to get the feel for the real life so there are no surprises so I think you seemed like a like a planner with long-term vision and making sure

12:14 Everything goes smoothly there I do have a lot of weaknesses but planning is my strength okay cool

12:24 Are there some things that you miss in US well I mean pretty obvious one is the access to Nature and like the sightseeing places that you get in U.S I guess you cannot do a weekly trip here it has to be more planned and a quarterly or a yearly trip whereas in U.S a 10 minute drive would have given you access to a park for example that's something you missed yeah I mean that's about it I guess cool

13:01 So I know I think your plan is to retire early which is different again it's also another minority group of people right so I think it would be interesting to know your aspirations and how you plan to how you plan about it like you know staying in living in India anything that you can share to the team like you know your aspirations on what you're doing right now because people move to India either as a career progression or career change or being in the professional some people try to get into businesses some people try to retire or you know maybe whatever it could be like a family business or you know you know different things so it definitely would be interesting to the audience on your aspirations you are planning on what you would love to do after moving back to India with this flexibility that you have anything that you can share with the with the audience sure I would say the part of this is

14:01 Successful because my wife is continuing to work so she's she's she has become the the foundation for our finances now that freed me up to first of all spend more time with my kids because they are at young age they need that time from parents so I'm going to use that time a lot and then I'm going to when I say fire it doesn't mean like you just switch on a TV and then watch movies it means you use your time more valuably than than working from a nine to five job so I plan to take more risks in my life like in terms of businesses that I plan to like you know establish or maybe connect to some other team join another team I don't intend to work nine to five for at least a few years I want to do like

15:02 Like part-time things like for example I want to do udemy courses I want to be a trainer in udemy I want to explore how how I can help the community and also financially earn as well and then I have like I want to explore like supply chain industry in India I want to use this time to completely understand how the network works and use this time to like figure out where there's an opportunity and where I can like when I move when I start working again I want to be working for myself and this will be my groundwork that I'm doing so I don't know how successful I'll be but I think it's worth the risk that I'm gonna take yeah make sense good luck with everything it sounds exciting you know following your passion and you know ability to spend time with the family and I definitely Echo with that right

16:03 I mean especially you know there is this graph like when you are in you have time but no money when you're you know in the middle like you know in the 40 to 50 or 60 years you have money and you have health but no time and as you grow old you have time and money but no help so definitely having the flexibility to be able to Define your time in the middle age like you know in the 40s and 50s you know definitely I would do a lot of freedom and flexibility to a lot of things you know spending time with the family going with your passions and doing what you really would love to do correct yeah and Switching gears a little bit I

16:43 Know you mentioned that you have an 80 year old and a two and a half year old maybe how how has the kids adjusted how has their schooling been going on you know anything that you can share on that side sure I mean my son went to school for three weeks in the last Academic Year so he has adjusted really well and partly it's because of the of the type of school we picked as well so there's a lot of research that goes into picking a school we picked a school that is not too far away from our house so that way I was able to drop and pick him for the first few weeks and I picked an IB syllabus school so what he tells me is that the way the teachers teach him is very similar to what we learned in the US so that transition has not been tough and then language is something that we started slowly training him in the US

17:44 Itself because we knew he would come here so I would say maybe we should have done a little bit more he still can just understand Telugu can't speak but that's something we're going to work on pretty seriously and He adjusted very well liked it online I know yeah how about your toddler the two and a half everything good you know grandparents happy and with so many people yeah because I mean there it just it was just three of us that was giving a company you know my grand two sets of grandparents and the weather is much better here so she's able to go out play yeah and I I mean she's too young to even know that she's moved to a different country she's like oh this sounds to be much better than what it was earlier yeah cool so in terms of the physical move

18:40 Was there any challenges that you have encountered or anything that you wanted to explain from the logistics side like you know like a physical move of relocating from one country to the other country yeah so this also was again something we learned from looking at other people it's like if you own a house selling the house and moving to India would put tremendous stress on you so what I would suggest everybody is to if you own a house sell the house move to a rented apartment that way you don't have any hard-bound real estate in your name getting rid of your personal belongings and finally like have only that much that you're going to ship to India so that way then once the shipment to India goes then you have a pretty clean house that you where you can just easily clean up leave leave yeah without having

19:41 To think about all the logistics of handle it over and all that stuff correct correct I feel people who attempt to sell the house and move directly to India is going to be very stressful to them because the the buyers will have certain terms as to when you want to work in the house and then it's not in your control so you don't even know when your house will get sold so yeah that's the first thing you should do yeah cool

20:10 Other than the handling of the house any other advice or suggestions for the audience you know when they're planning with planning the move no I think I think you have published a good checklist just follow the checklist like ensure you have trimmed all your credit cards you take one credit card that is that has zero transaction fee so you can use it in India or in your travel and sure you have done all the necessary Financial steps move your 401ks to IRAs as needed certainly ensure that you have a Us phone number when you move to India either through Google Voice we have used the Google file we pay monthly but I think it gives a lot of peace that I have a US member yeah I mean selling car says was a breeze using I used carvana and I also sold one Car locally yes so

21:12 Phones was very easy experiences coming and then I've used Universal relocations and they have been pretty good so far both in the US and in India I didn't receive my stuff yet but the experience so far has been pretty good and have a plan of where you're going to save any movement to India and yeah no thanks for that advice I think you know especially it's an overwhelming to move from one country to the other country right and especially after you live there for a long duration and there are so many things that you have to take care of and get it done

21:54 Other than like you know the things that we talked about from a logistics side is there any other advice or any anything that you would suggest aspiring individuals who are thinking about moving back to India you know like maybe the framework of thinking or you know or maybe the approach or like maybe you know suggestions on how they should even consider that aspiration or that idea yeah great question I would say you should you should not try to find America and India then you would then you are setting yourself for failure you should put your frame of mind so you you realize that it is a different country with a different set of rules different Dynamics and you should be comfortable with what you're coming to because I've seen many questions where people ask like hey

22:54 Do I get parts do I get national parks in India do I get outdoor space as in U.S no you're not going to get any of that you cannot come up with come with those set of expectations then you will fail the traffic is going to be bad so hopefully you either are expecting that you're going to you're going to deal with the traffic or you find a job where you don't have to travel yeah and then you have some kind of plan for not having to like like on weekends you should be comfortable staying at home within your community those are your pastimes but then there but you gain a lot more you lose because you're gaining that yeah is there anything that we haven't discussed that you would like to bring up I mean before we go to the rapid four anything that that any topic or any anything that you want to bring up to the audience

23:58 I I think we should have long-term planning but at the same time we should be we should be our plan should be dynamic enough to consider things might change like today us is at a certain level India is at a different level but going forward we don't know where the Dynamics of U.S and India would be so thinking always that today not how today are are things are if you expect the same for like next 25 30 years remember we're talking about the rest of our lives here right so take that into account that what you see today might not always be there yeah so I would say take that into account when you plan and many people will will say that I don't have time to plan for r2i but whether you plan for r2i or not you're by whether you're making that decision or not even staying back in US is also a

24:59 Dish I hope you are making that as a conscious decision that this is where I want to stay and I feel many people they're so busy in their day-to-day lives that then that it's not their decision to be in U.S they just don't have time to change their life and I feel that is a major mistake if you continue to be involved in the day-to-day stuff and you don't have time for these big decisions then you there is a greater chance that you might regret what you have spent the last few years I agree I think it's sometimes you know taking a step back and looking at what you really want to do versus having the life dictate what you are going to do right I think it's a conscious decision this is what I'm going to lead my life versus living the life I mean again you know there's a slight difference of like things make your life happen in such a way versus like you are trying to make the life happen

26:01 Absolutely yes yes you need to be always in control of your life not the other way around obviously and then being flexible as things pop up right and still you are the one who is making the decisions on how you would handle those circumstances or how you would you know navigate through these you know navigate through these situations as they come up versus just let the life go as it as it is or you know absolutely absolutely yes cool

26:33 Thanks for sharing that I think I know it's irrespective of whether somebody's aspiring to move back to India or not but it's it's definitely a way to think about leading a life I think it's a great advice so Switching gears to a rapid four so what's your surprise thing after returning to India KTM I have never used it after using it it's amazing digital payments man everyone I think you know you just need your phone no longer no need to bring your wallet or anything I know it's just amazing yeah so what's your favorite travel destination in India I will travel much but I think like somewhere in the in Himalayas like uttarakhand I'm going to pick a spot and go there but I I don't know the exact spot here favorite Indian restaurant or dish

27:35 I love idli sambar oh and the favorite part of living in India is the best part freedom great yeah so I think that's all for you know today I really appreciate you know for taking the time and sharing your valuable you know journey and your planning I mean you know it's such a big planner that you plan for almost seven years beforehand and how to approach like you know not from a emotional way but from a conscious decision whether living in U.S or living in India so I really appreciate sharing your thoughts to the audience and thanks again for your time today thank you so much pleasure pleasure talking to you today great thanks thank you all for joining us on this insightful journey of Desi Return if you enjoyed this episode and want to explore more stories and expert advice

28:35 Make sure to subscribe and hit the notification Bell don't forget to leave a comment below with your thoughts and experiences by the way check out the links in the description below for our Facebook group and social media for updates and engaging discussions as well as connecting videos thank you once again and until next time journey be filled with joy growth and endless possibilities