Financial Lessons for an R2I-er

Most of the Indian folks in USA have come to this country with just a couple of suitcases (but unlike S.Ve.Sekhar's hero they did not come with dollars stashed in it). Some of us came here directly on work visa and some came here to study and then work.

Fast forward 10 years, we own a couple of cars, a house, various investments on our private account, 401k etc etc. When you want to go back to India, it's now not an easy task. As they say it's not how much you earn, it's how much you save.

In case of India bound returnees, it's actually how much of the saved that u take back with minimum tax consequences. There are some excellent resources on the web. Ofcourse trust Indians to have figured it out all before anybody else. We know the tax laws, the loopholes, the limitations and their get-arounds.

Some Reminiscences:
This is Mufasa's blog and he reserves his right to look back. So a short tortoise mosquito coil type reminiscence....

When I arrived in this country as a fresh out of college 21-year old, in December 1996, I had no idea on how to manage my finances and even now I have many many things to learn in the world of finance. But I am standing example of Rod Stewart's immortal lines "I wish I knew all I know now, when I was younger...."

I had just witnessed the stock market collapse in Dalal St and had a very dim view of shares and share brokers. In Salt Lake City, Ut. I was a young programmer at American Stores Company and one of my colleague was a wise man of chinese descent. He always urged me to buy MSFT (Microsoft) and DELL stock with whatever penny I had to spare. Did I listen to him ? Obviously no.

Neither had I any inkling of banks that pay interest on checking/savings. C'mon I've never heard of these terms. All I knew was Current account and fixed deposit. Not to mention the total obliviousness about mutual funds.

To be continued....