[antz.bin]

Originally Posted by adithya.kp

Where do they dump their stuff ?

Answer: https://m.timesofindia.com/city/beng...w/76902949.cms

After spending 4 months in Pune staying 3km from my office but visiting the office zero times, I am contemplating doing something similar. Pune in the meantime has progressed to the 2nd best in terms of Corona Active cases. Mumbai was overtaken yesterday.

With MIT saying that the peak daily cases will increase 10x by mid 2021 in India, moving back to hometown is starting to make a lot of sense. Both financially and Corona wise. Just the rent saved by staying in my parents' house will be a substantial saving. The pricing at JioMart is now comparable to groceries in DMart. And Nashik currently has 1/8 Active cases as compared to Pune.

Any recommendations on storage units in Pune? Or do I create a separate thread on this?

[warrioraks]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

The current WFH situation cannot be used as true use case ... Plus, they don't have anything else to do, in terms of going out or socializing. Once the situation improves, it is left to be seen how many of these people show the same level of dedication when working remotely. Many youngsters might not have the maturity even.

I think you have hit the nail right on the head.
Work from home is functioning right now because there is not much to distract the junta. Once things get back to normal, this will no longer be the case.

A WFH model only works when employees are self-disciplined and self-motivated. Organizations that are able to solve this problem will be the ones reaping benefits (lower infra cost, wider talent pool, etc etc) of remote working.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by Samurai

I have always insisted on the close connection between cost of living (COL) and salaries. The demand/supply ratio can influence it to some extent, but not entirely. Right now, COVID19 has completely disrupted the job market by reducing demand. That means COL reigns supreme again. On one hand, there is pandemic induced inflation, everything is more expensive. On the other hand, employees are hardly commuting, reducing their transportation and food expenses.

In fact, employees can work from their home towns rather than at the expensively metros where their employer is located. That means even rents will go down, along with plethora of living expenses, bringing the COL significantly down.

What about demand/suppy you ask? Suddenly, thanks to work for home, the employers have access to huge employee base, who just require a good broadband connection and ready to work from anywhere. Demand has gone down, supply has jumped 100 fold.

The cost of living in India doesn't vary significantly for things other than wage goods and rent across different parts of the country compared to say the US. This is primarily because:

a) Uniform personal tax rate across the country unlike the state vs federal tax rates applicable in the US which change the take home pay significantly based on where you stay.

b) US has state consumption (sales) tax which also varies based on region from 0-10%. In India, we have uniform GST now across the country making 99% of things cost the same everywhere.

c) Rent is an extremely large portion of your take home pay and rental rates are almost the same as mortgage costs for houses. Here it is not so - rental yields are significantly lower and are a quarter or less than the mortgage emi for a house.

In essence yes some minor variations might happen. But overall, I do not see this affecting India much.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

The cost of living in India doesn't vary significantly for things other than wage goods and rent across different parts of the country compared to say the US.

You are telling this to the guy who has maintained two houses (Bangalore & Udupi) since 10 years, and who even moved his company from Bangalore to Manipal over a decade ago, to reap the benefits of reduced COL?

BTW, why are you giving all US examples? I am talking from my experiences of living in two Karnataka locations at 50:50 of my time since 10 years. I have found the Udupi COL to be about 70% of Bangalore, while having better lifestyle in Udupi.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Samurai

I have found the Udupi COL to be about 70% of Bangalore, while having better life in Udupi.

Forget Udupi/Bangalore, I was in Hyderabad for a year for work and even that was cheaper than Bangalore! It was a few years ago and I'm sure Hyderabad has gotten more expensive compared to what it was, but Bangalore is certainly an expensive city to live in!

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by am1m

Forget Udupi/Bangalore, I was in Hyderabad for a year for work and even that was cheaper than Bangalore! It was a few years ago and I'm sure Hyderabad has gotten more expensive compared to what it was, but Bangalore is certainly an expensive city to live in!

At the risk of going off-topic, let me add. I moved to Bangalore 3 months ago after living in Hyderabad for good five years. The COL in Hyderabad is much lower than Bangalore. This includes factors such as house rent and cost of regular services. Coming to consumables, cost of non-standard products such as vegetables, fruits, meat, etc are also much lower in Hyderabad when compared to a similar market in Bangalore.

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by Samurai

In fact, employees can work from their home towns rather than at the expensively metros where their employer is located. That means even rents will go down, along with plethora of living expenses, bringing the COL significantly down.

....So if you are an employee working from your home town of Davanagere, but in a Bangalore based company, you will get salary based on Davangere cost of living.

..... Demand has gone down, supply has jumped 100 fold.

The current situation cannot extrapolated to a long term impact. Agreed that most of the current IT workforce has temporarily moved back to their hometowns, but here's why, I think, this is not a long-term feasible option:

1. For a faster career growth it is any day better to be closer to HQ and be 'seen by the higher management'. I don't like this or endorse this but this is reality.

2. Schools! Parents won't be willing be continue to support 'online' classes for ever; And neither should they.

3. Both spouses getting online work in their hometown. For e.g. one spouse working in IT, and the other in health care. Other than IT a lot of work is still 'offline'.

4. Family relations. Not sure how many spouses would like to stay with in-laws for a long period of time . They will go nuclear in their hometown itself which will again increase their COL.

This is what I think will happen:

IT service companies like TCS will start opening 100-200 seater offices in district headquarters towns and move their low value/mature/backend processes there. 25-30 year olds would get good opportunities in this space while keeping the COL low. May not change much for IT products companies/start ups.

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by Samurai

I have found the Udupi COL to be about 70% of Bangalore, while having better lifestyle in Udupi.

I'm surprised that the cost of living in Udupi comes to 70% of Bangalore's - but I am way out of touch with the region. And even then, Udupi is way better than Bangalore. Traffic actually moves in Udupi!

Also, Udupi has the earthy feel, sights and smells of a rural countryside while also having pubs, discotheques and malls that Bangalore has. Not to mention the educational institutions and hospitals and almost every amenity that you get in Bangalore.

I'd love to retire there actually. And yes, if I could, I would rather live and work out of there.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by locusjag

I'm surprised that the cost of living in Udupi comes to 70% of Bangalore's - but I am way out of touch with the region. And even then, Udupi is way better than Bangalore. Traffic actually moves in Udupi!

Yeah, I can actually visit between my two homes in Udupi in 15 minutes despite 8Kms distance. That alone delivers big on COL/QOL.

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

This is what I think will happen:

IT service companies like TCS will start opening 100-200 seater offices in district headquarters towns and move their low value/mature/backend processes there.

I predicted something similar in April.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by Samurai

You are telling this to the guy who has maintained two houses (Bangalore & Udupi) since 10 years, and who even moved his company from Bangalore to Manipal over a decade ago, to reap the benefits of reduced COL?

BTW, why are you giving all US examples? I am talking from my experiences of living in two Karnataka locations at 50:50 of my time since 10 years. I have found the Udupi COL to be about 70% of Bangalore, while having better lifestyle in Udupi.

Could you tell me what is cheaper other than tailored and unbranded clothes, food (both wage goods), hired help, services and rent/property?

Everything else are products with a printed price tag and are governed by GST.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Could you tell me what is cheaper other than tailored and unbranded clothes, food (both wage goods), hired help, services and rent/property?

That's most of the expenses... that's how COL is low. Oh, fuel is also cheaper by ₹1-1.5 compared to Bangalore.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Could you tell me what is cheaper other than tailored and unbranded clothes, food (both wage goods), hired help, services and rent/property?

Everything else are products with a printed price tag and are governed by GST.

I think the question should be what percentage of our monthly expenses goes towards such avenues as mentioned by you. For someone who stays on rent and uses frequent hired help/services, the difference in expenses across cities would be significant. I can think of at least 10-15% saving in monthly expenses.

Edit: In cities like Bangalore, the rental deposit is very high. We can also factor in the opportunity cost of this capital blocked with the landlord.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by Samurai

In fact, employees can work from their home towns rather than at the expensively metros where their employer is located. That means even rents will go down, along with plethora of living expenses, bringing the COL significantly down.

In the USA, for many companies, when you take a transfer, you get a salary change. So if you relocate from lets say California to a zero tax state. You get a salary cut which is huge, esp if its Bay area to lets say Idaho. This is due to no tax and also low col.


And yes, the talent pool is going to explode. There is a worry about how this will increase offshoring. But I would say the real competition would now come from people in low COL areas.

Same in India. More talent pool to choose from. That said there is a unique factor in India. Many people "want" to live in a metro where they go through commute hell.
The percentage of "Life in a metro rocks" is much more in India even for people with kids etc., due to factors like rockstar schools, piano lessons, golf lessons, french cooking blah blah which are not available in even tier 2 towns.

Not to mention the sheer quality of life difference for younger women. Small town India has certain perverted peeping tom qualities, and larger cities offer anonymity.

So I doubt there will be a huge number people who would be thrilled from taking their future ceo out of moron international and put it in Tier 2 vidayala

[karan0009]

Originally Posted by adithya.kp

I heard that a lot of people have moved out of bangalore ( so that they dont have to pay rent) and are planning to work from their hometown till things settle down. Any truth to it?. Where do they dump their stuff ?

For bachelors it is easy to dump stuff compared to folks living with family. One of my cousin who stays in Delhi dumped all her stuff at my place & moved back to her hometown. She has no plans to return until situation settles down.

Even I have moved back to my hometown, but still pay rent for my flat in Gurgaon. Since I stay with family and have a lot of stuff, it's not a good option to vacate the flat & save rent.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by karan0009

Even I have moved back to my hometown, but still pay rent for my flat in Gurgaon. Since I stay with family and have a lot of stuff, it's not a good option to vacate the flat & save rent.

Even I have moved to Udupi with family. My wife and kids are witnessing monsoon season at the coast after 10 years. Meanwhile, I am paying the maintenance at the Bangalore flat, and also salaries to the cook and maid who don't have to come.

I know many relatives who are working from here, while their employment is at Bangalore or Mumbai.