An Indian-origin man returning to India after spending 15 years in the US has sparked a discussion on Reddit after sharing a detailed monthly budget for his planned move to Bengaluru. The man said he is set to start a job with ₹85 lakh fixed pay and wanted to understand whether his calculations for living expenses in North Bengaluru were realistic.
Taking to Reddit, he wrote, “Hello, I’m returning to India after 15 years in the USA. I will start a job with ₹85 lakh fixed pay. I’ve been informed by HR that I will have to pay 12% of my base pay towards EPF, which is 50% of fixed, as I am an OCI card holder.”
He said that after taxes and surcharge, his cost to company exceeding ₹1 crore would leave him with an estimated monthly in hand salary of around ₹4.6 lakh. However, he clarified that his post was not about whether the salary would be enough.
“This is not one of those ‘will this be enough’ posts. I want to know if my budget is accurate or if I have missed something major in my calculations,” he wrote.
Rent, school and daily expenses
The man listed rent between ₹70,000 and ₹90,000 per month for a 3 to 4 BHK apartment in North Bengaluru. He also added a villa mortgage of ₹35,000 per month, utilities of about ₹10,000, a car lease estimate of ₹25,000 to ₹35,000, domestic help at ₹25,000, school and activities at ₹20,000, groceries at ₹30,000 and eating out at ₹30,000 per month.
He also budgeted ₹40,000 for shopping and miscellaneous expenses, ₹25,000 for travel, and ₹20,000 for his child’s college savings. “This budget leaves me with just over ₹1 lakh for regular savings and investments. Is this a realistic or even a good budget?” he asked.
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The man said he was surprised that “it costs almost ₹1.5 lakh a month to just exist, including rent, help, school and groceries.”
Take a look here at the post:
Reddit users react
The post, titled “Is my budget realistic or am I way off base?”, received limited reactions. One user wrote, “The budget is realistic for North Bangalore, but the rent and eating out estimates are on the higher side.” Another said, “ ₹30,000 for groceries for a vegetarian family of four is comfortable unless you buy a lot of imported items.” A third user commented, “Your savings may look low only because you have included travel, college fund and shopping separately.” Another added, “The bigger issue will not be money, but adjusting to Bengaluru traffic.”
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)
