Here are my thoughts. Please share yours. If you work in a city like Austin, Seattle, Santa Clara, or New York, you can save more USD per year after living expenses and then travel anywhere in the world you want after FIRE. You can easily move to India whenever you want and have more savings than those who earned less. If you work in Bangalore, Delhi, or Hyderabad, the ratio of earnings to cost of living is better, but it will take years until the infrastructure and catches up to OECD standards and air pollution improves. Because of exchange rates, you're stuck and don't have the flexibility to move elsewhere.
Your savings in USD only matter if you ever return to India, if you end up living in USA those savings won’t last long time.
Why not? Assume after reaching L5 one saves $320k - $120k tax - $50k expenses = $150k/year, then at a stock growth rate of 7%/annum you'll have $2 million after working for 10 years. With 5% ROI x NW (70% stocks + 30% bonds) as passive income, you'd earn $125k/year, which is more than enough to retire in most places in the US. And if you spend less than that amount, your NW will keep growing and have more income over time.
www.levels.fyi has data for comparison - I'll use Google as an example because it pays a moderate amount according to Blind community standards In tier 1 US cities (NYC, SEA, SF) vs India (BLR, HYD), the median TC is: $181k vs. $40k for new grad $255k vs. $63k for mid level $310k vs $79k for senior level As long as you spend less than $100k/year for L3 or $200k as L5 in the US, you'll save more than in India even if you spent nothing there. Most singles spend less than $50k, and even couples fall far below that threshold.
In india L5 gets more than $100k.
How much? Please share a publicly verifiable link, and we can recalculate.