Salary vs Living Expenses

Let’s take the persona of a software developer with 10 years of experience. We will take a tier-2 city in the USA [Albany, New York] vs a tier-2 city in India [Bhubaneswar, Odisha]. His average salary in the USA will be $120K and that in India will be ₹18L. Let’s compare the living expenses and savings per month.

Numbers in “per month”	USA	India	Notes
Salary PER YEAR	$120,000	₹18 lakhs
Taxes and health insurance	$5200	₹19,750	[USA] Federal tax per year around $14K,NY state tax around $6K, Social security and medicare around $9K. Total tax per year around $29K Health insurance cost per month is around $2700 [India] Income tax per year is around 2.15L. Health insurance around 20K per year.
In-hand payment	$4800	₹130,250	You get a lot more in hand after taxes in India than in USA. In India, income is taxed progressively, not at a flat rate. Only the portion of your income that falls within a particular slab is taxed at that slab’s rate. Therefore, when you hear "25% tax" in India, it's very misleading (in a good way). The effective tax rate becomes around 18%.
Rent (2 BHK)	$2000	₹30000
School fees (1 kid)	$0	₹20000	[USA] Government schools are great in the USA, and they are free.  [India] A myth is that schools are expensive in India. It’s partly true. 20K per month is very expensive by Indian standards. It’s also partly false. 20K per month includes a meal (lunch) and transportation from home to school. Just that, if done separately (lunch and transportation) would be around 20K.
Groceries	$400	₹1000
Restaurants/movies/going out	$500	₹8000	[USA] Average restaurant bill for 3 people would be around ₹100.  [India] Average restaurant bill for 3 people would be around ₹2000. You would go out less as you have a maid.
Car insurance (1 car)	$100	₹1500
Utilities (Electricity/Gas/Heat/AC)	$150	₹3000
Utilities (Internet)	$50	₹500
Utilities (Mobile)	$50	₹5000
Maid (1)	N/A	₹5000
Total Expense	$3200	₹74000
Total Savings	$1600	₹56,250

Comparing the living expenses in the USA and India, there is hardly any difference in the total savings per month. If you compare the living expenses in Albany and Bhubaneswar, $1600 monthly savings is actually less than ₹56K

So, why are people dying (literally) to go to the USA, why do they never come back? Read the blog https://www.25yearsinusa.com/post/myths-about-why-people-move-to-usa-and-don-t-return