A Bengaluru couple sought a better quality of life and relocated to a tiny European nation. In 2020, Prateek Gupta and Neha Maheshwari moved to Luxembourg and began living the kind of life that many people only dream about. However, the couple is still dedicated to making all of their investments in Indian stocks. This dream lifestyle, complete with expensive vehicles and frequent trips to Europe, is the result of careful financial preparation.
Prateek is employed as a senior analyst at Amazon, while Neha manages finances for a German real estate firm. Although they might have made more money by relocating to the US or Dubai, the NRI couple admits that residing in India would have led to larger increases.
So why did they move to Luxembourg?
“Continuing in India or moving to the US would have given us more career and earning opportunities. But we wanted to taste the superior quality of life, which Europe offers,” Prateek stated to Live Mint.
According to Prateek, working-class Indian immigrants to Europe do not come to Europe for financial gain. Nevertheless, they could potentially effortlessly earn 1.5–2 times as much money if they migrate to the US or Dubai. “Of course, there would also be more net savings,” he said.
The news outlet reports that Prateek and Neha spend approximately 28% of their income on tax, which means they pay slightly less than what they would have paid in India, 2-3% to be precise. Still, even the average of 28% seems reasonable as they are compensated with a range of services in return.
In the interview with the business news portal, Neha disclosed that they are legally required to fund government-sponsored health insurance by 3% of their personal earnings. For as little as 3% cost, healthcare is absolutely free to them with the exception of dental services. One more aspect of Luxembourg taxation that they like is the unemployment fund to which they are both obliged to pay 2% of their earnings.
According to Neha, if one is fired under this scheme, the government will award the fired individual up to 80% of the previously drawn wage for two years while the individual looks for another job. Neha figures that at a mere 5% of her overall annual salary, she is sufficiently covered for two significant emergencies: health and unemployment, negating the need for her to establish a separate emergency fund.
Moreover, for Neha and Prateek, another benefit of living in Luxembourg is cheap travelling within Europe and the use of luxury cars. They own a Mercedes Benz A-class which they bought for about 43,000 euros. At the purchasing power parity rate, 43,000 euros is roughly equivalent to Rs 10.3 lakh. But a similar car from the same manufacturing company in Bengaluru costs Rs 55 lakh.
During the conversation, Prateek said that they would not freely purchase a luxury car costing more than Rs 50 lakh in India but German luxury cars were considerably cheaper in Luxembourg and relatively affordable relative to the income from euros.
Why do they invest in Indian stocks?
The couple invests 20–25% of their monthly income, with India being their only investment focus. Approximately, 70% goes towards direct stock, 20% goes towards mutual funds and the other 10% is distributed among gold bonds, digital gold, provident funds and the National Pension Scheme.
Prateek told the publication that since they are more knowledgeable about the Indian stock market, they specialise in it. He continued by saying that in the US they only know about blue chips and are unable to select value-oriented businesses since they don’t pay close attention to the stock market or the economy. Prateek thinks there are currently better investment prospects in the Indian stock market.
Comments
0 comment