BabuSoge

We (M 31, F 28) came to the US in 2016 and 2017 and graduated with our PhDs in 2021, and 2022 respectively. Nitin got his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and Sruthi got hers in Applied Physics. We have since then been in the industry working in Fortune 500 companies in engineering/research roles.

Our combined incomes rose sharply as we finished our grad schools and started working full-time jobs. With this steep rise, our lifestyle inflated as well. In 2022, it reached a point where we stopped and decided to take better control of our finances, restrict our budgets, maximize our saving strategy, and live below our means. Growing up in India, we have always been taught to save up for emergencies, and thankfully both of us had a fairly decent chunk of money saved up for that during grad school. But, it took us a good part of 5 years to understand a lot of things about money in the US, and how to be responsible with money.

Our entry into financial independence began when Sruthi had job offers in different locations while Nitin was already working for a company out of the Twin Cities. California is a hub for tech companies but is also extremely expensive (a VHCOL city — Very high Cost of Living ). Given that the technical roles were equally exciting, we spent a considerable time looking at other lifestyle choices we would make such as cost of living, financial decisions such as home ownership, runway available for other savings and investments after meeting all basic necessities, etc, and Sruthi took up a role in the Twin Cities also. Our basic understanding was built via Reddit subs such as r/personalfinance, youtube videos, and books such as The Psychology of Money. What really surprised us was that most of the ideas discussed on all these platforms are common sense, yet they elude(d) most people including us.

We assumed that having no credit card debt, or student loans, and having some emergency savings meant we were great at managing our money. To top this, we were buying stocks on Robinhood — so that must mean we are stellar, isn’t it? While most of the above-mentioned activities are a good first step, we realized financial independence is way more than just this. We look back now and realize how naïve we were and how lucky we were to have stumbled on all the right things at the right time.

Minimizing lifestyle creeping, maximizing retirement savings out of every paycheck, investing sensibly (in low cost index funds, thanks r/bogleheads ! ), having a budget, and having financial goals were some very important strategies that we were missing. As a DINK (dual income no kids) couple, our next few years offer us the best chance at building out a retirement stash quickly with barely any noticeable difference to our current lifestyle. It seemed at first that all these meant we would have to sacrifice comfort and desires — however, we quickly realized that we only needed to be mindful of our expenses. Frugal, not cheap, is the best way to live! We cut costs where we can and splurge where we want to.

Over the course of several posts on this, we will address many financial decisions we make in our everyday lives. For every vacation we take, we hope to provide insights into how we budget and how much we spend for the trip. The purpose of this blog is ultimately to bring together our passion for travel and food, along with being financially responsible (sensible?).