* Pollution in cities like Bangalore, Delhi
* Water scarcity issues which cities like Bangalore are already affected by and might get more severe.
* Overpoppulation and over competetion. I have no fucking clue whether my Children would be able to goto a decent college because of the over population and competetion.
* Corruption. You life is is valueless if you are not pwerful
* Global warming and rising temparature in the sub continent.
* If robots take over and more people become jobless Canada sounds like a better option than a country with 1.4 Billion people and counting.
>> with equivalent quality of life
I seriously doubt that.Visiting is different, it is not as rosy when you have to go through it everyday. Regular travel to India is expensive, may be you need to ease up on it.
Lot of things that are easily available in the US/Canada like good public parks/library, national parks, outdoors, simply do not exist in these cities or are not easily accessible. If you value those things.
>> but if I lived a good healthy (mental and physical) life the amount of money saved will drop.
I think there is some disconnect here. If you are healthy, you will be more productive, less medical expenses - how will it result in less savings ?
Can you elaborate on the weather, what is so brutal about it ?
I wanted to live in a western country and command a higher salary. US was a no-go because of obvious visa issues, so went to the closest place which was Canada. I've been employed here for 5 years now, and definitely earned and saved a lot more than I used to back in India. But, as the years went by, I the downsides of living here started taking a toll like the brutal weather and lack of interesting opportunities. I continued traveling to India to visit family and was updated with the tech there. I now realize the job market in India has grown significantly and given the cost of living, you could effectively save the same amount at a good senior-level job position in Bangalore, Hyderabad etc. I have friends there who save more than I do in Toronto on a 200k CAD salary, with equivalent quality of life.
Sure, I could apply for citizenship, then go to the US on a TN but that's not going to make things easy either. For financial independence, what matters most to me are two things: absolute amount of money I can save/invest TODAY; and my physical health so that once I retire early I'm still in good health to do the things I want to. I could work in Silicon Valley, but if I lived a good healthy (mental and physical) life the amount of money saved will drop. I'd have to live like a miser given the CoL, something I'm not willing to do. I can live frugal but not like a miser. I must also mention that I'm married now and planning kids in the next year or two. The cost of childcare will significantly affect my CoL if continued in Canada. This may not apply to you now, but could in the future. One more point: most of our vacation days are spent in traveling to India visiting family and we haven't actually had a vacation in 4 years.
I feel the tech scene in India is really booming and lots of interesting startups are coming up in Bangalore, Pune. Companies like Amazon are also expanding operations and hiring massively in Hyderabad while paying well.
I have already done the calculations and given my current offer in Hyderabad, it'll take me about 6-7 years to retire and 10-12 years if done in Canada.