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Comment by RealGeek | Hacker News Reader

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

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This breakdown doesn't seem right to me.

From my other comment (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-cof...), though I don't think someone making 500 USD a month will spend 30$/month (one coffee a day) on coffee.

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.

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.

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.

So you would lose money by staying a programmer? :)

Expenses seem to be on the higher side. 400$ is okay for a simple lifestyle.

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.

>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.

$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.

>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.

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)

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.

The difference between him and you, if I can make the generalization, you spend like a north-Indian, he spends like a south Indian.

His expenses are in my opinion at the high/upper middle side. You can check my expenses here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1785105

I'm not living in the same city as he is so the rent may differ a bit but not so drastic. I too live in a metropolitan city (4th largest in India) and I can get you a posh 3 bedroom apartment/house for the rent he specified.

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