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New Delhi (NCR), India Typical monthly wage for a programmer / designer: $300 to $500 Monthly Expenses: $860 Apartment Rent + Utilities: $500 Internet (2

New Delhi (NCR), India Typical monthly wage for a programmer / designer: $300 to $500 Monthly Expenses: $860 Apartment Rent + Utilities: $500 Internet (2 Mbps): $50 Food: $100 Public Transport (Taxi+Bus+Metro): $100 (Higher if you mostly use taxi, and $300/mo for car) Coffee at a coffee shop: $60 ($2*30) Entertainment: $50

nileshtrivedi 16y ago
So you would lose money by staying a programmer? :) Expenses seem to be on the higher side. 400$ is okay for a simple lifestyle.
- RealGeek 16y ago
  Most programmers in India live in their parents house. So they save $500 on rent and are able to live on $400 per month. Programmers who move of parents house, share a 1 bed room apartment with 3 friends to save on rent and cover up their cost of living. Few of them make over $1000 per month and live independently, with a better lifestyle. You actually need at least $1000 per month for decent living in India. The $500 apartment I mentioned, is nothing fancy. Just a 1 bed room unfurnished apartment with bare minimum utilities and 12 hrs of daily electricity power cuts.
  - pbhjpbhj 16y ago
    >You actually need at least $1000 per month for decent living in India. $1000 USD is £630 GBP. Our family of 4 (2 young children) live on about £1000, ie $1600 - we have a private home with a bedroom each, run a car (necessary for work otherwise it we'd ditch it and use mass transit) and eat a moderately varied diet with meat/fish twice a day. I would say ours is probably unsustainable long term (clothing, building maintenance, increasing costs for the children) but a couple of hundred £GBP a month would be enough to change that (sadly the poverty trap probably means that we'd have to go to both being in full-time paid employment requiring full-time childcare just to get that £200 extra; poll tax mounts, allowances decline). Anyway, my point was I'm surprised by your figures for India. Cost of living seems a lot higher that I'd expect. But here's the rub - "decent living" has vastly different interpretations. I'd say we live decently despite living well below the official poverty line in our country. OT: we still pay taxes (but not lots) in part to help people on as much as 8+ times our per-person income to look after their kids.
    - RealGeek 16y ago
      $1000 is not poverty in India, its middle class. Officially, poverty is less than $1/day in India. But realistically, anything below $100 per month is extreme poverty. Most people with income of $1000 per month in India can afford a 2 bedroom apartment, a small car and good diet.
      - pbhjpbhj 16y ago
        >Most people with income of $1000 per month in India can afford a 2 bedroom apartment, a small car and good diet. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm surprised that it would be this much as I'm pretty sure that a couple in the UK can do a 2bed apartment, small car and good diet on the same amount; it would be hard and a little more would make it vastly easier. Maybe we're just doing austerity better than I thought we were.
    - blrgeek 16y ago
      His estimates are 2x what my wife and I spend. Our 2BHK was INR10K ~ USD200 pm. This is by far our biggest expense. Our monthly petrol bill is INR2K ~ USD50. Groceries (we eat 4/5 meals at home weekly) is INR4K ~ USD100. Utilities ~ USD100. Total ~ USD500 for a couple. And we live a good life! On the plus side, we're now saving nearly 55% of our monthly gross :) (incl mortgages)
      - RealGeek 16y ago
        Do you pay for electricity, internet, mobile bills, car EMI, entertainment, eating out, shopping and thousand other expenses? All these things can cost upward of $500 per month.
        FraaJad 16y ago
        The difference between him and you, if I can make the generalization, you spend like a north-Indian, he spends like a south Indian.
    - blntechie 16y ago
solutionyogi 16y ago
This breakdown doesn't seem right to me. From my other comment (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1773273 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1773273), you can easily live on 250$/month in Surat, India. My friend runs an outsourcing company in Surat and he pays his programmers around 300-500$/month. When I started my IT career, I was in Mangalore (worked at Infosys) and my expenses were similar to what I listed above. [Except for the higher rent] I rented a two bedroom apartment with another guy and my share of rent was 4000 INR (approx 100$ USD). I think in Bangalore, you can expect to pay around 10 to 12k INR in Rent if you share a 2 bedroom apartment. Also, 4500 INR/month for Food and 2400 INR /month for coffee? That's really really high. In India, people mostly drink tea, which you can get for 5 to 10 rupees. Cafe Coffee Day (dare I say 'Starbucks' of India) charges 1$ for Cappuccino (http://www.foodiebay.com/menus/1/593/menu-photo-for-cafe-coffee-day-1.jpg http://www.foodiebay.com/menus/1/593/menu-photo-for-cafe-cof...), though I don't think someone making 500 USD a month will spend 30$/month (one coffee a day) on coffee.
- RealGeek 16y ago
  How many years ago was that? The rents were low until few years ago. The $500 rent I mentioned includes electricity and other utilities. When I moved to New Delhi, my rent was $100. These days a livable apartment in New Delhi will cost around Rs. 15,000 ($330) + add cost of electricity($100), water and maintenance. In summer, electricity bill shoots up to $200 to $300. The estimate of rent is very modest, a good two bedroom house can cost $2000 per month in Delhi or Mumbai. India tops the most expensive real estate market in the world. A coffee at Barista or Cafe Coffee Day will cost between $1 to $3. Most hackers will require at least one coffee day if not beer. $100 per month will get you only two modest meals a day. Food could cost more than $200 depending upon what you eat. Yes, most of the Indian population survives on less than $1 a day. They live on streets and barely get a single meal a day.
  - boundlessdreamz 16y ago
    Dude, $2000 for a two bedroom? That's not true. I live in a Raheja Apartment, for 25K ($600) /month. Two bedroom , 1100 sq. ft. Comes with 24/7 security, car park etc etc.
blntechie 16y ago
Your figures are unbelievable.Just check below. Chennai, India (live in the centre of the city) My typical expenses: Rent (Room + Bath + Kitchen) - 66$. Single. From next month it's shared by a friend and going to be 33$ for me. In a safe and good residential area. Electricity - 5$ Water - Included in Rent Internet (BSNL 512kbps unlimited) + Cable TV - 17$ + 3$ Food - 70$ (eat at my parent's home in weekends) Mobile - 9$ (600 mins local voice calls free + 5000 free text + 200MB EDGE usage) Transport - Train ticket.7$ for 3 months. Travel up to 30 km within city and unlimited. Entertainment & other expenses - 25$ ----------------------------------------- Avg income - 600$ My Expenses (Current) - 197$ My Expenses (from next month) - 164$ Savings (approx) - 400$ (a decent amount here) BTW, I'm not the least spender around. I can easily save 10-20$ still.

nileshtrivedi 16y ago

So you would lose money by staying a programmer? :) Expenses seem to be on the higher side. 400$ is okay for a simple lifestyle.

RealGeek 16y ago
Most programmers in India live in their parents house. So they save $500 on rent and are able to live on $400 per month. Programmers who move of parents house, share a 1 bed room apartment with 3 friends to save on rent and cover up their cost of living. Few of them make over $1000 per month and live independently, with a better lifestyle. You actually need at least $1000 per month for decent living in India. The $500 apartment I mentioned, is nothing fancy. Just a 1 bed room unfurnished apartment with bare minimum utilities and 12 hrs of daily electricity power cuts.
- pbhjpbhj 16y ago
  >You actually need at least $1000 per month for decent living in India. $1000 USD is £630 GBP. Our family of 4 (2 young children) live on about £1000, ie $1600 - we have a private home with a bedroom each, run a car (necessary for work otherwise it we'd ditch it and use mass transit) and eat a moderately varied diet with meat/fish twice a day. I would say ours is probably unsustainable long term (clothing, building maintenance, increasing costs for the children) but a couple of hundred £GBP a month would be enough to change that (sadly the poverty trap probably means that we'd have to go to both being in full-time paid employment requiring full-time childcare just to get that £200 extra; poll tax mounts, allowances decline). Anyway, my point was I'm surprised by your figures for India. Cost of living seems a lot higher that I'd expect. But here's the rub - "decent living" has vastly different interpretations. I'd say we live decently despite living well below the official poverty line in our country. OT: we still pay taxes (but not lots) in part to help people on as much as 8+ times our per-person income to look after their kids.
  - RealGeek 16y ago
    $1000 is not poverty in India, its middle class. Officially, poverty is less than $1/day in India. But realistically, anything below $100 per month is extreme poverty. Most people with income of $1000 per month in India can afford a 2 bedroom apartment, a small car and good diet.
    - pbhjpbhj 16y ago
      >Most people with income of $1000 per month in India can afford a 2 bedroom apartment, a small car and good diet. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm surprised that it would be this much as I'm pretty sure that a couple in the UK can do a 2bed apartment, small car and good diet on the same amount; it would be hard and a little more would make it vastly easier. Maybe we're just doing austerity better than I thought we were.
  - blrgeek 16y ago
    His estimates are 2x what my wife and I spend. Our 2BHK was INR10K ~ USD200 pm. This is by far our biggest expense. Our monthly petrol bill is INR2K ~ USD50. Groceries (we eat 4/5 meals at home weekly) is INR4K ~ USD100. Utilities ~ USD100. Total ~ USD500 for a couple. And we live a good life! On the plus side, we're now saving nearly 55% of our monthly gross :) (incl mortgages)
    - RealGeek 16y ago
      Do you pay for electricity, internet, mobile bills, car EMI, entertainment, eating out, shopping and thousand other expenses? All these things can cost upward of $500 per month.
      - FraaJad 16y ago
        The difference between him and you, if I can make the generalization, you spend like a north-Indian, he spends like a south Indian.
  - blntechie 16y ago

solutionyogi 16y ago

This breakdown doesn't seem right to me. From my other comment (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1773273 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1773273), you can easily live on 250$/month in Surat, India. My friend runs an outsourcing company in Surat and he pays his programmers around 300-500$/month. When I started my IT career, I was in Mangalore (worked at Infosys) and my expenses were similar to what I listed above. [Except for the higher rent] I rented a two bedroom apartment with another guy and my share of rent was 4000 INR (approx 100$ USD). I think in Bangalore, you can expect to pay around 10 to 12k INR in Rent if you share a 2 bedroom apartment. Also, 4500 INR/month for Food and 2400 INR /month for coffee? That's really really high. In India, people mostly drink tea, which you can get for 5 to 10 rupees. Cafe Coffee Day (dare I say 'Starbucks' of India) charges 1$ for Cappuccino (http://www.foodiebay.com/menus/1/593/menu-photo-for-cafe-coffee-day-1.jpg http://www.foodiebay.com/menus/1/593/menu-photo-for-cafe-cof...), though I don't think someone making 500 USD a month will spend 30$/month (one coffee a day) on coffee.

RealGeek 16y ago
How many years ago was that? The rents were low until few years ago. The $500 rent I mentioned includes electricity and other utilities. When I moved to New Delhi, my rent was $100. These days a livable apartment in New Delhi will cost around Rs. 15,000 ($330) + add cost of electricity($100), water and maintenance. In summer, electricity bill shoots up to $200 to $300. The estimate of rent is very modest, a good two bedroom house can cost $2000 per month in Delhi or Mumbai. India tops the most expensive real estate market in the world. A coffee at Barista or Cafe Coffee Day will cost between $1 to $3. Most hackers will require at least one coffee day if not beer. $100 per month will get you only two modest meals a day. Food could cost more than $200 depending upon what you eat. Yes, most of the Indian population survives on less than $1 a day. They live on streets and barely get a single meal a day.
- boundlessdreamz 16y ago
  Dude, $2000 for a two bedroom? That's not true. I live in a Raheja Apartment, for 25K ($600) /month. Two bedroom , 1100 sq. ft. Comes with 24/7 security, car park etc etc.

blntechie 16y ago

Your figures are unbelievable.Just check below. Chennai, India (live in the centre of the city) My typical expenses: Rent (Room + Bath + Kitchen) - 66$. Single. From next month it's shared by a friend and going to be 33$ for me. In a safe and good residential area. Electricity - 5$ Water - Included in Rent Internet (BSNL 512kbps unlimited) + Cable TV - 17$ + 3$ Food - 70$ (eat at my parent's home in weekends) Mobile - 9$ (600 mins local voice calls free + 5000 free text + 200MB EDGE usage) Transport - Train ticket.7$ for 3 months. Travel up to 30 km within city and unlimited. Entertainment & other expenses - 25$ ----------------------------------------- Avg income - 600$ My Expenses (Current) - 197$ My Expenses (from next month) - 164$ Savings (approx) - 400$ (a decent amount here) BTW, I'm not the least spender around. I can easily save 10-20$ still.