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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read on for a sample of what I found shocking<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was beyond imagination in the 1970’s, 80’s or 90’s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So the real estate deals have been shockingly beneficial to people in big cities!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I liked this shock although this has some unfavorable consequences in the cities!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MORE Coming Soon<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today’s rambling date: September 23, 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 … <\/p>\n