Hey guys, Born and brought up in NCR, moved to Bangalore for my first job and later to US around 7 years back. 44yo, wife is homemaker 42yo, we are having 2 kids (3rd / 9th grader) both are doing fine with studies and quite adjustable in nature. My wife and I are inclined that we can’t bear the expenses of US, rents are skyrocketing and groceries, Health ( we have the highest coverage for dental/medical) still out of pocket pay is killing. All four of us are healthy and parents are also fine (70/73 yo), no health issues. Our current finances are as following: ———————————————————————— INDIA Assets & Loan: Total: 4.1Cr, Loan: 79L, NW: 3.35Cr, breakup is as below: Property: 3.37Cr, payment due: 79L, split is below NCR Commercial property Shop: 1.5 CR (paid half, half due), rent expected in mid of 2026 about 70k INR NCR Commercial office: 28L (Fully paid), rent 15k Bangalore apartment: 87L (Fully paid), rent 31k Bangalore Studio apartment: 15L (fully paid), no rent empty Bangalore Office space: 56L (paid 80%, 10L due), leased for 3 years and maintenance is for 15 years Others: about 68L, split is below Elder kid PPF: 13L Younger one Sukanya: 3L ULIP: 5L Gold/Silver: 20L Stocks: 1L Cash given to parents (father shows in his books): 25L Cash in India account: 1L *Apart from all above I have some more generational properties which are all under litigation (close to 2-3cr) I didn’t count them in as my parents and uncles are not coming on an sort of deuce. ——————————————————————— USA Assets & Loan: Total: 212k USD, Loan: 119k USD, Net: 103k USD, breakup is as below Net Assets: 212k USD, split is as below 401k: 145k USD Car: 11k USD kbb value Elder Kid Brokerage: 5k USD Younger kid brokerage: 11k USD Startup: 20k USD Misc (furnitures, phone, macbook etc): 20k USD Loan: 119k USD split is as below Credit cards: 41k USD (24% for about 30k, rest is at 4% for about an year) Personal loan: 46k USD (15%) 401k Loan: 32k USD (0%) ———————————————————————— Few things: 1) 30k USD of the loan I had a to take to send money to my parents over the covid period as my sibling and parent ran out of all any sort of income, I am sending close to 30k INR for their survival. 2) I am very confused about the move as I wanna go back only to NCR region to re-live my life with friends and relatives but I am not sure if there any companies who will take almost 2 decades experience person as programmer or some senior tech role? I am in Full Stack (MERN) and switched to mobile couple of years back (SwiftUI/Expresso). Most importantly can I apply through Naukri, LinkedIn, indeed, monster in India and give interviews from here? Will they be Leetcode style for pure SWE roles? 3) even after spending many years here in US we don’t have a single friend and complete family is also back in India, tired of fake laughter and call to meet (never happens). I don’t wanna die for a wild goose chase. 4) How’s it looking in India these days for an older experience guy, I mean are they suppose to be holding off managerial positions only or they can be in Senior dev roles? 5) Folks who moved back did you put your kids in international schools or joined them in CBSE/ICSE schools and let them figure with tuitions? I am able to teach All subject to my 9th grader so far (Algebra 2 etc). With some studies at my side I can teach him Physics and Chemistry too when he comes in higher grade. 6) Understood financially I have obligations and might not be in a very good position to pay back when I am in India but think about it I will not pay the gigantic rents of 3000$ for a good school district neither I will deprive of my family. I am also hiring a financial planner to help me plan out better. I will be collecting close to 1.5L/month as rental income starting 2026 and will continue working till 60 to provide for family. Plus I may withdraw complete 401k amount and pay off the loans and start from the on job savings back in India. 7) most of the time we don’t have anywhere else to go rather than going to a temple, sitting at home watching a movie or eating out at a desi restaurant. No one literally No one call us apart from family members in India. If you were in my shoe what will you do for next 3-5 years. We plan to go back by June 2025 and literally don’t want to delay that move. 8) My childhood friends are also suggesting that when I move back I can talk to my uncles and resolve the issues amicably and everyone can move with their shares in the properties and gradually sell it and live a happy life. Thank you giving me the time and reading my post 😊🙏🏼🙏🏼 TC: 150k USD Yoe: 7yr in US and 11yr in INDIA Past Roles: SDE, SSE, SDET, SDM (I prefer any role around coding, not very efficient coder but I feel I am at my best when i am able to deliver something tangible) #India #tech #parent #r2india
TLDR, but Godspeed my friend. Won’t regret, just came back from India trip and I feel more hopeful (atleast for techies)
Thank you Buddy 😍💐
Agreed. India is a much better place than it was 5 years ago. Tech pay is really good nowadays
Take your chances with India! I feel you already have good bunch of assets in India. As long as you think your kids can adjust, go for it! All the best!
Thank you Google, can you please help me with prep work for Google interview too. Recently HR from Google reached out to me for scheduling an interview but they mentioned that I shall be doing 80-90% coding, I am actually not doing that much my day is like 50% of code and rest is approval for PRs etc. Can you suggest if I do google tagged questions in Leetcode + system design + data structures + pramp interview mock ups will that suffice. I have good grasp over OS/networking in my CSE but DSA Concepts are not that good so I am reviewing that in deep. Many Thanks 😊
You'll make much more in india if you play your cards right
At least not in NCR
Any prep work ideas, what about market dynamics, is it still inclined towards management for older folks?
Good luck man! I keep traveling back and forth for work and feel that the tech sector is poised for upwards growth. Bunch of my friends from high school are making 70-90 LPA in SDE roles at top companies, not startups. In hand is like 4-5 LPA per month. They are living life with so less stress, top healthcare access, family and community support etc. 2 of them have side hustles now and here I can’t even do anything because of these H1B restrictions. Personally, planning a move soon by next year.
Wow that’s great to hear, when I moved back that time the salaries were not that high but now it’s reaching new heights. I am really happy to hear that, is it IIT tag, experience, Leetcode style prep? I am trying to differentiate and start prepping it up. Plus does that work if I apply through LinkedIn, indeed, naukri & monster? Thank you Buddy 😊💐
All of them are non IIT/NIT/BITS. 4-5 years of total experience. Yes, they did practice Leetcode. If you perform well in interviews, you get such offers as that’s what I have learnt from them. 2 of my friends got their offers from Naukri as recruiters reached out to them. Definitely try all the job search websites and tap into your network in India.
Better to summarize or create tldr version. 1. Do you have gc? If not, returning back can be very difficult. 2. India has high levels of pollution, politics, corruption and unsafe driving/accidents , poor insurance structure.. make sure you weigh all things before you move
What is NCR?
I am fine with Pollution, honestly it’s overblown as my wife and myself grew up there and it’s much better infra now, Like we have expressways almost everywhere. I have two term insurance in INDIA with payout ratio as per IRDA >95%. My health insurance as per age will come around 30k for family and will also get the insurance from my future employer. I never have a bad experience in India for health issues neither my family members. Back in US my son had to undergo an extra tooth removal and they asked to put braces it costed us 10k USD (7k usd for braces and 3k usd for removing and putting the metal chain) on the other hand my wife undergone a dental surgery by a senior dentist surgeon and he charged 15k INR (200USD) for surgery and gave support afterwards over the phone to her for several months. 3) Corruption is prevalent everywhere but I am use to that as that’s the way for life, while growing up nothing can’t move without paying a bribe but now things are changing for good. 4) My I-140 PD is May 2018 that’s also one of the main reason that we will go back as my country is changing for good and I don’t need other country citizenship anymore to make better money or good lifestyle. 5) Yeah accidents and road common sense will take ages to come up in India that’s something concern for me too.
NCR has limited opportunities. When I say limited, it is very limited. With 2 children, you will AT LEAST need 50 LPA to live a comfortable average life in Gurgaon. Now, for senior dev roles, there are a handful of companies that would afford you. ( Excluding Indian companies and startups) Some of those are Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe, Agoda, and Expedia. Feel free to DM. I can reply in IST comfortable hours.
You are so good my man 😊💐🙏🏼 I will be in touch with you 🙏🏼
50 lacs? For family of 4 ? That’s expensive
What’s your job title at Schwab? Associate, Sr Specialist, Mgr?
I am specialist and going for manager in next promo cycle, but pay change may not be that large 🙂 I am looking for change definitely
I have only one question: how do you manage commercial properties in India while sitting in the US? Even people living in India are afraid of these...
I actually went for big names and sizes will be smaller only and checked back their track record + I studied all about RERA and checked how actively they updated info on the projects they executed in past (can search with RERA Number) plus checked back if they deflated in any timelines. Next I went in most of the social forums read their reviews and dropped if I hear back in series of comments about payments, layout etc. importantly I take a bet not with my full money so i splitter across several, I also see that property shall have an active management for commercial units and they shall have. An agreement in place to manage the property for long. I also calculate the ROI on the properties by actively looking into data from 99acres / SquareYards. And I used NoBroker services for renting out the properties. There are risk but so far I am able to control them.
Wow okay. That's a lot of effort. Thanks for the patient response.
Keep the options open.in case things dont work out you can always come back.
Yea please, my I-140 is with PD May 2018 so I am keeping it open in case we have to come back. So far apart from online assets no. Offline buyings in US.
Aint reading all that but happy for you
Thank you Buddy 💐😊
Without reading, I am either Happy for you OR Sorry you are going through this.