Forever Indian Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 Lol, seems like the inflation rate has gone through the roof in last few years. This is just ridiculous, and I don't know when the boom is going to bust into some sort of economic crisis. Something has to give away. There is a tamil film 'Katradhu Tamizh' which shows this economic imbalance between the IT/professional services workers and other traditional services workers. One gets salary in terms of lakhs and the other in thousands. This can be sustained for some time but when the imbalance becomes too big something is gotta give. There is a dialogue in the film - If growth is there it should be for the whole body and not just one part of the body, if that's the case then it is a disease (like Elephantiasis) and not growth.
randomGuy Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 Lol, seems like the inflation rate has gone through the roof in last few years. This is just ridiculous, and I don't know when the boom is going to bust into some sort of economic crisis. Something has to give away. There is a tamil film 'Katradhu Tamizh' which shows this economic imbalance between the IT/professional services workers and other traditional services workers. One gets salary in terms of lakhs and the other in thousands. This can be sustained for some time but when the imbalance becomes too big something is gotta give. There is a dialogue in the film - If growth is there it should be for the whole body and not just one part of the body, if that's the case then it is a disease (like Elephantiasis) and not growth. Due to low oil Price, more technology,more competition, more productivity, cleaner governance the long term average future CPI should be 5% or less IMO.
mishra Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 ^ one of the root cause of this inflations is pay commission review from GoI which mostly increased the salaries of Government employees several fold. It was done on grounds of controlling corruption among government babus and parity with private sector. It actually helped them to justify their black earnings
jusarrived Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 Lol, seems like the inflation rate has gone through the roof in last few years. This is just ridiculous, and I don't know when the boom is going to bust into some sort of economic crisis. Something has to give away. There is a tamil film 'Katradhu Tamizh' which shows this economic imbalance between the IT/professional services workers and other traditional services workers. One gets salary in terms of lakhs and the other in thousands. This can be sustained for some time but when the imbalance becomes too big something is gotta give. There is a dialogue in the film - If growth is there it should be for the whole body and not just one part of the body, if that's the case then it is a disease (like Elephantiasis) and not growth. IT professionals are just large in numbers , but salaries in other sectors has gone up considerably . Infact paid much better
Laaloo Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 God damn those are crazy prices. how the heck is the middle class still surviving?
swatpulla Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 God damn those are crazy prices. how the heck is the middle class still surviving? A lot of them are exaggerating. Given OP's requirements, there is no way you need 2-3 Lakhs per month. Half that amount will be sufficient if you spend intelligently.
Kalia_Test Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 God damn those are crazy prices. how the heck is the middle class still surviving? These crazy prices are the middle class in cities ( they will be upper middle in tier 2 towns ) :giggle: I would not call a family living in a 2 BHK Apt and owning a mid-size car and sending kids to a 'decent' school in NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Blore,Hyd, Ahmedabad,Pune,etc as even upper-middle class. The upper middle class will have an independent house ( maybe not a luxurious gated villa but certainly not an Apt ), Honda Civic + and will take a luxurious domestic vacation every year or an international vacation every 2-3 yrs. These are purely my observations as classifications are subjective. I will add to these calculations later but one thumb rule is to look at annual expenses and not monthly. Many important things like Health insurance, premium, life insurance premium, auto insurance, cable TV subscription ( for people that go for semi-annual or annual packs ) get missed if our mindset is monthly. Also - emergency funds, repairs and renovation ( dont tell me there wont be leaks walls or need for repainting, refurnishing,etc) , gifts for social occasions, regular maintenance of white goods, invertors,etc - many things. I have been replacing my invertor batteries at home on an average once every 18 months ( 16 K each time ) and these will never figure if I just look at a given month's expenses. Nice thread :nice:
jusarrived Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 A lot of them are exaggerating. Given OP's requirements, there is no way you need 2-3 Lakhs per month. Half that amount will be sufficient if you spend intelligently. Who said 2-3 Lack per month ? Pretty much everyone has said half of it
randomGuy Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 God damn those are crazy prices. how the heck is the middle class still surviving? Barely:winky:. Seriously though, people can survive well w/o feeling like missing out of anything with even 1/4 th of the expense mentioned in some posts
jusarrived Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 These crazy prices are the middle class in cities ( they will be upper middle in tier 2 towns ) :giggle: I would not call a family living in a 2 BHK Apt and owning a mid-size car and sending kids to a 'decent' school in NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Blore,Hyd, Ahmedabad,Pune,etc as even upper-middle class. The upper middle class will have an independent house ( maybe not a luxurious gated villa but certainly not an Apt ), Honda Civic + and will take a luxurious domestic vacation every year or an international vacation every 2-3 yrs. These are purely my observations as classifications are subjective. I will add to these calculations later but one thumb rule is to look at annual expenses and not monthly. Many important things like Health insurance, premium, life insurance premium, auto insurance, cable TV subscription ( for people that go for semi-annual or annual packs ) get missed if our mindset is monthly. Also - emergency funds, repairs and renovation ( dont tell me there wont be leaks walls or need for repainting, refurnishing,etc) , gifts for social occasions, regular maintenance of white goods, invertors,etc - many things. I have been replacing my invertor batteries at home on an average once every 18 months ( 16 K each time ) and these will never figure if I just look at a given month's expenses. Nice thread :nice: I dont think upper middle class can afford a independent house in Mumbai and Delhi . Even in Bangalore unless your family owns it there is little chance of owning one
Kalia_Test Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 A lot of them are exaggerating. Given OP's requirements, there is no way you need 2-3 Lakhs per month. Half that amount will be sufficient if you spend intelligently. I would put it this way - the amounts are certainly exaggerated. However, the OP's needs are understated. He said "middle class urban lifestyle " and it includes lot of stuff not just rent and tuition fees and groceries. I tried to put a few in post 28. And they cost a bomb.
swatpulla Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 Here's my breakdown for Delhi - Apartment 2BHK - 20K per month, society charges included. Kids - 20K per month Electricity - 8K-10K per month Car - 10-15K per month So that is 55 thousand for the major expenses. Add 30K for groceries and daily household stuff. That takes the total to 85K. So, 1 Lakh is about enough. In case you have some heavy EMIs going, add another 50K. This is still a very comfortable lifestyle.
randomGuy Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 These crazy prices are the middle class in cities ( they will be upper middle in tier 2 towns ) :giggle: I would not call a family living in a 2 BHK Apt and owning a mid-size car and sending kids to a 'decent' school in NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Blore,Hyd, Ahmedabad,Pune,etc as even upper-middle class. The upper middle class will have an independent house ( maybe not a luxurious gated villa but certainly not an Apt ), Honda Civic + and will take a luxurious domestic vacation every year or an international vacation every 2-3 yrs. These are purely my observations as classifications are subjective. I will add to these calculations later but one thumb rule is to look at annual expenses and not monthly. Many important things like Health insurance, premium, life insurance premium, auto insurance, cable TV subscription ( for people that go for semi-annual or annual packs ) get missed if our mindset is monthly. Also - emergency funds, repairs and renovation ( dont tell me there wont be leaks walls or need for repainting, refurnishing,etc) , gifts for social occasions, regular maintenance of white goods, invertors,etc - many things. I have been replacing my invertor batteries at home on an average once every 18 months ( 16 K each time ) and these will never figure if I just look at a given month's expenses. Nice thread :nice: Hyd is very cheap compared to other cities - great value for money, kudos. The flat I am staying at right now is a 4bhk for 21k . my room mate says in a comparable locality in Bangalore it will easily for 45k per month plus 11 months advance out of which the owner randomly deducts one months rent when u leave. In Hyd, the advance is just 2 months. He has stayed in Chennai Pune Bangalore Hyderabad. Rates Hyd as no. 1 in low cost of living. The quality of houses is first class and per sq ft price in very very affordable. 2000-4000 p sq ft. 4000 per sq ft in gachibowli. BTW u have any thoughts on financial independence?
swatpulla Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 Who said 2-3 Lack per month ? Pretty much everyone has said half of it Going by how taken aback he looked by the expenses, I thought he based his comment on a couple of posts suggesting 2-3 Lakhs as bare minimum. Most other posters are spot on.
Kalia_Test Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 I dont think upper middle class can afford a independent house in Mumbai and Delhi . Even in Bangalore unless your family owns it there is little chance of owning one What you said is true in some cities. It was just a thumb rule. Maybe they have to move to farther suburbs. What I had in mind ( Bangalore prices ) was 80 lakhs to 1 crore Apt = middle class and assuming you get an independent house of same sft in similar area for double i.e 1.6 crore to 2 crore, then you are upper middle class. Again, purely subjective.
Kalia_Test Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 Hyd is very cheap compared to other cities - great value for money, kudos. The flat I am staying at right now is a 4bhk for 21k . my room mate says in a comparable locality in Bangalore it will easily for 45k per month plus 11 months advance out of which the owner randomly deducts one months rent when u leave. In Hyd, the advance is just 2 months. He has stayed in Chennai Pune Bangalore Hyderabad. Rates Hyd as no. 1 in low cost of living. The quality of houses is first class and per sq ft price in very very affordable. 2000-4000 p sq ft. 4000 per sq ft in gachibowli. BTW u have any thoughts on financial independence? I gave numbers based on my years of stay in Bangalore as Hyderabad prices will skew the picture ( for now. Not sure when Hyd will enter bubble zone. Hopefully never ) On Financial independence, I do have lot of thoughts on how much you need ( or atleast a range ) - right from multiples of annual expenses to a porfolio rebalancing plan, dividend re-investment plan and others ( I used to think about this a lot and had some crazy excel sheets too ) but I am not really sure if the OP was looking at the lumpsum amount he needs to retire with the lifestyle he mentioned or just looking for monthly/annual expenses.
gslv Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 In tire 3 cities 60k is enough if someone is a little bit prudent.
randomGuy Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 I gave numbers based on my years of stay in Bangalore as Hyderabad prices will skew the picture ( for now. Not sure when Hyd will enter bubble zone. Hopefully never ) On Financial independence, I do have lot of thoughts on how much you need ( or atleast a range ) - right from multiples of annual expenses to a porfolio rebalancing plan, dividend re-investment plan and others ( I used to think about this a lot and had some crazy excel sheets too ) but I am not really sure if the OP was looking at the lumpsum amount he needs to retire with the lifestyle he mentioned or just looking for monthly/annual expenses. Physical assets' prices are going down elsewhere. So can't appreciate in just Hyd. And anyways u have abundant cheaper quality supply in say kukatpally chandanagar lingampally etc...so its safe. I know op isn't talking fin. Independence most likely. Just thought of mentioning as its somewhat related.
mishra Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 Here's my breakdown for Delhi - Apartment 2BHK - 20K per month, society charges included. Kids - 20K per month Electricity - 8K-10K per month Car - 10-15K per month So that is 55 thousand for the major expenses. Add 30K for groceries and daily household stuff. That takes the total to 85K. So, 1 Lakh is about enough. In case you have some heavy EMIs going, add another 50K. This is still a very comfortable lifestyle. Recently was in Delhi. 3 people, few whisky pegs and middle class restaurant. Bill came around 5K+. Next day evening, in a middleclass resturant in Noida, Bill came just about 5K. On both occasions we didnt had dinner. Just drinks, that too not much because we were to drive home. Assuming your turn to pay comes twice a week thats 10K per week i.e. 45K per month
maniac Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 Eating out-India has gotten pretty expensive....I visited India in Feb-March,this year...went to an Indian Buffet in may be good restaurant,so it cost me around Rs.2000,which is about $30,I can get similar Indian buffet in U.S at a similar restaurant for about the same price or cheaper...guaranteed the food was better obviously being Indian food in India,but still pretty expensive....obviously you are on vacation you splurge but thinking back yeah pretty expensive. Clothes-Brand names when you convert into $$$ are the same price or more expensive....when I say brand names I don't mean designer wear but regular brands like Nike,Reebok,Dockers etc etc...infact I get it cheaper in the U.S when there is a sale or something....anyways I must admit went absolutely crazy in Reliance trends though :yay:...bought quiet a few formal shorts for dead cheap prices but then again how many upper middle class or executive level Indians shop there??? Entertainment-Watching a movie in a multiplex is only relatively cheaper than it is in the U.S...not much of a difference. So the only thing that is still cheap in India is the manual labor-Like maids,cooks etc. or even your cobbler,tailors and other craftsman.
Recommended Posts