NRIWallah team
Updated
October 2026
· 2 min read
Every NRI runs two sets of finances, whether they plan to or not. One is where you live: a salary, a pension, an ISA or a 401(k), in a currency that buys Indian goods and services cheaply. The other is in India: an NRE deposit, a flat, mutual funds bought before you left, in a rupee that has tended to weaken against the currencies NRIs earn in.
Most money questions an NRI faces are really about how those two connect. Should the next ₹50,000 go into an Indian fund or a tracker where you live? Is an Indian deposit at 7% better than one abroad at 4%, once the rupee has moved? What is a job offer in Bengaluru worth against one in Manchester? A calculator built for one currency cannot answer any of them.
Start with the decision
The tools above are grouped by the question you are trying to answer rather than by product.
Long-term decisions come first, because they compound. Retiring in India is the largest: you save in one currency for decades and spend in another, with Indian inflation, and medical inflation especially, running faster than you are used to. Funding a degree competes for the same savings on a shorter timescale. If the question is whether to move at all, salary comparison and cost of living cover the earning and spending sides.
Then the mechanics: where to hold cash, which deposits are worth the paperwork, which fund houses will accept you, and what a transfer really costs once the exchange rate is counted.
How our comparisons work
We do not convert at the market exchange rate and call it a comparison. Money goes much further in India than the market rate suggests, and a tool that ignores that makes an Indian salary look far worse, and a foreign one far better, than they really are.
Where the underlying data is patchy, we show a range rather than a precise-looking figure, and each figure carries a confidence rating.
For the tax side of these decisions, see the tax section; for property, housing.
Rules and prices change, and the right choice depends on your own circumstances. Check your position with a qualified adviser before you act. NRIWallah publishes general information, not personal advice, and is not authorised or regulated by the FCA, the SEC, SEBI, IRDAI or any other financial regulator.
