I've started my FIRE journey in India! (Part 3: Miscellaneous Odds and Ends Before Leaving US)
Here are links to my other writings around our FIRE journey and returning back to India:
Part 1 (Intro and Net Worth): https://www.teamblind.com/post/sqhzju14
Part 2 (Financials Before Leaving US): https://www.teamblind.com/post/ShzXbLBN
Below is an account of all the miscellaneous stuff I had to attend to before moving back to India:
- While on H-1B, you only have something like 60 days to stay around without a job or to leave the country. After quitting our jobs, we lingered around for three more weeks to wrap up our stuff and spent another week going around hanging out with friends and bidding goodbyes.
- Health coverage needs careful consideration. We lost our family health coverage the day I quit Microsoft. We were without insurance for the four weeks that followed before we departed. However, there's always COBRA self-insurance coverage to fall back to in the event something bad happens. The good thing about COBRA coverage is that it can be back-dated - that is, in the event a bad incident occurs, you can buy coverage after the incident and set the start date to precede the incident (i.e., COBRA coverage is retroactive). So you don't really need to worry about buying coverage until you really need it.
I gave a call to the COBRA administrators out of curiosity to enquire how much premium I would have to pay if I needed family health coverage. I was quoted a premium of $1500 a month, for coverage similar to Microsoft's high deductible plan.
We made good use of our health insurance before losing it and got our annual physical and dental checkups done before I quit Microsoft. I also took my infant son's vaccination schedule into consideration before deciding on the optimal date for leaving Microsoft.
- I also made good use of the Microsoft StayFit/Perks+ benefits and stocked up on all the ebooks I've wanted to read, and a couple gadgets. Reimbursements for these expenses take at least two paychecks, so you cannot do this a few days before leaving your job.
- If you read books a lot, you could get yourself a library membership at a major library. You could then access all their ebooks online, even from India, through services like OverDrive. I frequently borrow ebooks on ncdl.overdrive.com and kcls.overdrive.com.
- Set up USPS mail forwarding to have all our mails forwarded to a trusty, dependable friend. Also signed up for USPS Informed Delivery so I get emails with scanned images of mails sent out to us. As per the IRS residency rules (substantial presence test), we will continue to be considered US residents for tax purposes for 2021, though we were in the country for only three months. So I'm not keen on changing the addresses of our US financial accounts to our Indian address yet.
- Canceled streaming subscriptions like Hulu and HBO but continue to keep our Netflix subscription. I haven't looked into whether canceling US Netflix and getting an Indian Netflix is a smarter idea cost-wise. Also made sure that my Costco subscription doesn't auto renew this year. Scheduled the cancellation of utilities, auto and renters insurance.
- Sold my car at Carmax. It's a delight to experience how effortless the process of selling a car is at Carmax. You get an appointment and take your car in. They appraise your car and make you a written offer. You then have a week to decide if you wanna sell your car for the offered price. There's absolutely no haggling or other trickery involved. You also don't have to suffer through the experience of selling your car through Craigslist. I'm sure going the Craigslist route will help you gain people skills and improve your street-smarts, and you probably might even sell your car for a couple grand more than you would at Carmax. But I had no time or patience to put up with all that inconvenience, so Carmax was the way to go. I bought a brand new Toyota Corolla for $18,000 in 2013 and sold it at Carmax for $7,500 in 2021 with 70,000 miles on it.
- Sold or donated most of our stuff through the OfferUp app. I noticed that activity on Craigslist is slow in the Seattle area. But things go super fast on OfferUp! For stuff that was too big for me to get rid of myself, I got a quote from 1800-JUNK which I felt was pricey and so didn't opt for their service. My apartment took care of removing all the stuff we left behind after we vacated and took a piece out of our security deposit. We did leave behind quite a lot of crap. They said they use the TikTok junk removal company, which is cheaper and more popular in the Redmond area.
- Shipped the rest of our goods to India using Gandhi Shipping. The experience with this International shipping company was smooth. They charge about $100 per 50lb box that you pack and seal yourself. I went out to Lowe's and got some 50lb boxes and Gorilla Glue tape and a tape gun. We boxed up all our remaining stuff in 5 boxes. Gandhi Shipping offers door-to-door pickup and delivery services. It however took nearly 5 months for our stuff to arrive at our doorstep in India. They said the delay was due to COVID and that it otherwise takes three months. We had to additionally pay Rs. 10,000 for customs duty.
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Having written this third part of my series, I don't have much else left to say. I'll maybe put out one more post for this year where I'll talk a little bit about the societal and emotional side of pursuing FIRE in India. As folks familiar with the Indian culture are well aware, not working at the relatively young age of 30-something is gonna raise a lot of eyebrows and attract unwanted curiosity and questioning. It does get a little uncomfortable at times to navigate this societal landscape. You need to have a handful of answers ready for those repetitive questions that people will undoubtedly throw at you on a regular basis.
I'm not very interested in writing about what I "plan" on doing with all my free time. I'd like to maintain a "reporting" style, where I live through it all and then come back and write about how things are going and what I've been up to. I'll definitely make an annual post at the end of every calendar year to let interested folks know how our FIRE journey is progressing, along with all the details on how our net worth changes over time. How the issue of taxation will play out between US and India is an interesting topic, and I'll write about what I learn along the way. I'll interlink all my posts.
Until next time!
Random musings: https://www.teamblind.com/post/CxNu7nwo
#investments #personalfinance #fire
Iβve started my FIRE journey in India! (Part 1: Intro and Net Worth) 
Blind
comments
Do update us on your monthly expenses and how you're planning to withdraw savings once you settled in.
Good luck.
Although I donβt want to / aspire to move back to India, Iβve surely picked a thing or two about being meticulous and to live well below means.
Inspirational, devoid of the end goal.