My Geoarbitrage: Texas to Kerala
- RittyTheresa
- 6 minutes ago
- 3 min read
It’s been a year since I’ve written a blog post, and what better way to start again than by sharing a big part of my journey. It’s been about 5 months since I moved to Kerala from Texas, and one of the most common questions I hear is, “When are you going back to the U.S.?” My current plan is to stay in India for 2 years.
I took a bold decision to quit my amazing 9-5 corporate job with a six-figure salary and flight benefits. Yes, I traded my corporate for coconut life. You might think that I am coco"nuts" but let me paint the picture.
Kevin and I were working from home with 3 kids under the age of 5. The burnout was real and we needed a hard reset. We never planned on moving to Kerala until we had our third kid. So we decided to take a break from our fast paced life to relax and spend more time with family. And that's when we booked a one-way ticket to Kochi, Kerala.
While we might go back someday, for now… this feels exactly right. And this is why...
Difference in the cost of living "per month"
Category | Texas | Kerala |
Mortgage/Rent | $3,500 | $1030 (this is a bit higher than average because we opted for a villa) |
Groceries | $600–$800 | $150 |
Childcare | $1,500 (for 2 kids) | $90 (for 2 kids) |
Electricity | $250 | $100 |
Water | $40 | $3 |
Gas | $70 | $10 |
HOA | $119 | $57 |
Car Insurance | $500 | No Car |
Transportation | $60 ( this is less because we had 2 hybrid cars) | $100 (Uber) |
Home Cleaning | $140 | NIL |
Full Time Maid | NIL | $250 (including agency fees) |
Health Insurance | $500+ | $10 (doctor visit without insurance) |
Internet | $100 | $12 |
1 hour Spa | $100 | $30 |
Total Monthly expense (In dollars) | $7,079 | $1,832 |
Total Monthly expense (In Rupees) | 6,18,832.02 | 1,60,149.78 |
Full-time Help
This deserves its own section. We hired a full-time helper who cooks, cleans, does the dishes, does the laundry and helps with the kids. Her monthly salary is $230~ ( 20,000 rupees). My fellow Americans, this is not a typo. It's the monthly salary, not daily wage.
Healthcare
Here is a real example for a 90 day medication. Same medicine, same dosage but see the price difference. We currently do not have Health Insurance but a doctor visit is less than $10.
The process is very easy here. Go to a walk in clinic --> See doctor in 10 mins --> Get medicines on your way out--> Go home.
Car
We decided not to purchase a new car after seeing the condition of the Indian roads and the traffic. It is not economical. Uber is affordable and here we have Uber Autos which is even cheaper. For emergencies, we borrowed my dad's 15 year old car and his Electric Scooter.
Subscriptions
All subscriptions like Amazon prime, Netflix, Youtube are affordable in India. Time to turn on your VPN...teehee
Subscriptions | USA | India | |
|---|---|---|---|
Amazon Prime | $14.99/month | $1.43/month | |
Netflix (Standard) | $17.99/month | $5.73/month | |
Youtube | $13.99/month | $1.7/month |
$1 = 87 rupees when writing this
Financing
Of course, the cost of living in India is less. For those wondering how I am surviving without a job, I had invested some money in U.S. stocks, and now the monthly dividends cover our living expenses in India. More information on my Stocks will be shared on my next blog.
Kids
Let's talk about my kids now. They LOVE it here. They learned Malayalam very quickly but their Texan accent is slowly fading. They had a lot of friends to play with so no more screen time.
They had to take extra vaccinations (BCG and Typhoid) in India.
My kids are going to a school that follows the CBSE curriculum and it's been a bit hard on them. CBSE tends to focus on memorizing information rather than helping kids apply what they learnt in real situations, so practical knowledge often takes a backseat. I am thinking of moving them to the IB curriculum soon.
Semi-retired life
Do I miss my job? Honestly, sometimes yes. I miss the schedules, working on big projects, the flight benefit (ouch that hurts), and I miss my amazing co-workers.
But for now, I am enjoying the slow morning, home-cooked meals, watching my kids grow up and spending more time with my family!
Both Texas and Kerala have their own beauty and struggles. In many ways, I carry a piece of both with me and if you have any suggestions for places I should explore more or things to do in Kerala, please drop them in the comments!
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