left India in 1975, came back to live here after retirement in 2019. As I settled down, a lot of things shocked me. No, it is not noisy streets, or religious zealots – I already knew about these.
Read on for a sample of what I found shocking
Many of my friends (age 60+) in India have become affluent, and some of them and their children have become really rich! How did it happen?
Real-estate deals – some people became rich by doing nothing. They inherited a house from their parents – sold it to a promoter who gave them cash and and new apartments. The original house has been demolished and replaced by a multi-story apartment building. Some people had several properties ( husband’s father’s apartment in Kolkata, wife’s father’s house in Delhi, her grandma’s house in the suburbs of Kolkata that has become part of the city now). These people have become seriously affluent.
How affluent? The range goes from an Asset value of 20 lakhs to 5 or 8 crores of rupees or even more in some cases (which is from a modest 30K to about one million dollars) and sometimes an additional income stream or monthly cash flow of 25000 to 1 lakh rupees (from $350 to $1500). This now provides a solid cushion to middle-class and lower middle class people that never existed in India before. In USA, the median net worth of a household today is about 73 lakhs of rupees (about $100K). So most of those people in India are better off, asset-wise, than the median household in USA (cost of living in India is much lower than in USA!). Please note that most of these people are debt-free, so they can spend their entire income on their living expenses, whereas in USA where most households pay a high percentage of their income in mortgage or consumer debts.
This was beyond imagination in the 1970’s, 80’s or 90’s.
Please keep in mind that India is still a very poor country, with 75% of the rural population (which is 70% of the country’s population) has an annual income of about $1000 or less!
So the real estate deals have been shockingly beneficial to people in big cities!!
I liked this shock although this has some unfavorable consequences in the cities!!
MORE Coming Soon
Today’s rambling date: September 23, 2020