Investment and Financial Discussion

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Originally Posted by samada

Friends, I have been a long term follower of this forum. I bookmarked this thread for over 8 years now and followed pretty much every single post/discussion here. First of all, thank you everyone for the analysis, debate, advise, and motivational stories. You all have inspired me to stay focused and not to lose the confidence in GC process.
Like many of you, I came to this country 16 years ago and on GC path for over 13 years now. Finally, I have received that magic email from USCIS yesterday. Both me and my wife's 485 got approved.

Thank you everyone of you who made tremendous contribution to this community. I used to call this thread is "Bible of GC process". I stick to my words.

I am not going to miss you all as I will continue to read these messages. I am not good at analyzing GC process but I will try to contribute back to the community if I could or else I will learn something out of it.

Last but not least, I wish everyone all the luck and get greened sooner.

Here is the timeline:
EB2 I - PD 09/11/2009
Applied in 2012. Since then on EAD (No H1). We have decided to stay on EAD only and go back to India if rejected.
RFE in 2014 and 2016.
Current again in November 2020.
Congressional inquiry on 3rd week of November. Response received within a week - Waiting for an adjudicating officer.
RFE received on Jan 5th 2021 (Medicals, 485J, Geographical information)
Paper copy received on Jan 14th 2021. Medicals done next day.
Response for RFE sent back on 1/22/2021. USCIS received on 1/28/2021.
Received receipt number for 485J on 2/3/2021
Approval notice for both 485j and 485 (both me and my wife) on 2/11/2021.

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Congratulations friend! Feels good that one more in the waits for long has finally crossed the line.

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Originally Posted by Turbulent_Dragonfly

Since we are all anonymous here (hopefully), I can safely tell my story hopefully without sounding like an insufferable braggart! My wife who is also back from India but I met here, was adopted into an extremely prosperous family from her own original family who did not want another girl as they had two already. But due to different circumstances, she has lost both set of parents and left with literally uncountable fixed assets, mainly land. Neither she nor our children or our great grand children will need to work a single day to be honest. The few times that we have gone down as a family to visit that really famous richest temple in India down South :-) her influence without even having lived in India for more than two decades basically used to part the ocean of people there so that we can go in and out quickly. Sometimes I used to feel like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill walking around with her :-D.

But you know the downside? She literally cannot set foot in India because of all the death threats against her as a sole heir. Her original father was very high up in the state police and she has been able to survive just because of their protection during the two weeks she sometimes is forced to visit every few years for some formalities. When we had our wedding, there was a police cordon around and my friends and family were wondering wtf was going on as I have never told them the complete story and don't plan to. It's six years since my parents have seen their grandchildren in person because they are too old to travel and I no longer wished to put her life at risk traveling alone.

In any case, we live a very normal, happy and blissfully anonymous life here in a very medium sized home with no frills, growing our own vegetables and teaching our children the value of family and friends over anything else. Money ain't everything or the the only thing, but the only place where I am pragmatic is saying yes money, if you have it and properly manage does help. It takes out a lot of stress in everyday life but don't make it a pursuit. We both earn enough here to support ourselves, so we plan to anonymously write off my wife's holdings in India to various charities that we know are legit, especially those that look out for the welfare of destitute children.

Alright, that's about it, I will get back to predictions in my next post ;-)

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That's a heck of a story dude! And I do agree with your thoughts. There is only so much money you need to live off of. After that it becomes a game!

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Originally Posted by Prabhas

"I never got the logic of why people are upset at EB1C getting their GC quicker. In fact the time lines taken for EB1 should be the timelines we should have for EB2 and Eb3. I don't want another person after me to wait for 10 years. Having said that, I can safely say that waiting for my GC made me determined to focus on the work front much more than a person who had a GC (safe net)." - That has been the fundamental wisdom and mantra ..of this group..all along...Focus on your Career and personal life events more than this GC... And I am totally onboard with people getting GC in EB1 or whatever opportunities come their way to get GC faster...I sometimes feel sad that this whole process is pitting battles within us...

You made a pretty good buck out of the deal... Happy for you... I thought you applied for AOS with these recent date changes. No? If you are fresh looking out for new houses and if you have a chance...I would suggest an investment in Austin...Again this will become a distraction from our predictions ...perhaps a separate thread for investment opportunities/suggestions thread wouldnt be bad idea....

Happy Friday all!

V

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Since you mention Austin, I had to comment about my experience during this wait for greencard.

Moved to US in 2008 as a student, and graduated during the financial crisis of 2010 and it was tough to get a job as no one was hiring back then. Finally landed a job after struggling for 3 months but did not feel this job was for me. I kept looking while taking up this job and within 2 months found the job at the company where I am still working at. I completed 10 years with the company yesterday. They filed for my H1 and PERM before I joined them and was able to get the Feb 2011 PD under EB-2. I felt lucky as I had not heard of a company filing for green card this quick. Fast forward a few years and moving to Austin but with the same company progressed as a Senior Consultant>Program Manager>Practice Manager and hoping to land into the Director role fairly soon.
In these years bought our primary residence in a good neighborhood in Austin, and after much hesitation with no GC in sight, took the risk and accumulated 4 investment properties over the years as we saw tech jobs moving here. They now turn out to be decent investments.
Wife lucked out with H4 EAD coming to life, landed a job as UI/UX Designer and has been happily working. She plans to stop working at 40 and focus on our now two toddlers and following her passion of teaching art. Greencard will come at its pace, every year we hoped it would be coming in 2-3 years and I am now 10 years and waiting and just recently filed 485. Now expecting to be greened by end of 2021 or 2022.
Do not let the green card get over your life, do as you feel is wise for you, you cannot go wrong.

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Originally Posted by bikenlalan

Since you mention Austin, I had to comment about my experience during this wait for greencard.

Moved to US in 2008 as a student, and graduated during the financial crisis of 2010 and it was tough to get a job as no one was hiring back then. Finally landed a job after struggling for 3 months but did not feel this job was for me. I kept looking while taking up this job and within 2 months found the job at the company where I am still working at. I completed 10 years with the company yesterday. They filed for my H1 and PERM before I joined them and was able to get the Feb 2011 PD under EB-2. I felt lucky as I had not heard of a company filing for green card this quick. Fast forward a few years and moving to Austin but with the same company progressed as a Senior Consultant>Program Manager>Practice Manager and hoping to land into the Director role fairly soon.
In these years bought our primary residence in a good neighborhood in Austin, and after much hesitation with no GC in sight, took the risk and accumulated 4 investment properties over the years as we saw tech jobs moving here. They now turn out to be decent investments.
Wife lucked out with H4 EAD coming to life, landed a job as UI/UX Designer and has been happily working. She plans to stop working at 40 and focus on our now two toddlers and following her passion of teaching art. Greencard will come at its pace, every year we hoped it would be coming in 2-3 years and I am now 10 years and waiting and just recently filed 485. Now expecting to be greened by end of 2021 or 2022.
Do not let the green card get over your life, do as you feel is wise for you, you cannot go wrong.

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Great to know other people having 4,5 properties on H1b. I hav 3 in US and 2 in india. once i gc this yr i will sell 2 in india and add 2 more in US. anyways it is getting difficult to manage prop in india from US and parents aging out.

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Originally Posted by Zenzone

I don't think you should still downplay someone who made a self made first million either. Remember this country has only less than 5% overall who make to that definition and to get there as a first generation immigrant against all odds is not minor league. I remember when I reached that milestone sometime (several years) back. That's as far I'm comfortable disclosing to your question on deca millionaires ;)

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Zenzone,

No, I am not downplaying anybody who is a self-made millionaire. First hundred thousand, first million mark...all these milestones are praiseworthy because they become the seeds for the next milestone.

You do make logical points about the use of debt in your posts. I would rather not use debt at all than to use it foolishly. It is like when I bought my first car more than a decade ago, I was offered a very low interest debt. I was not very financially savvy at the time. So, I decided to pay in full upfront and not have anything to do with borrowing money. That was a good decision at the time because it gave me peace of mind. But today if I am in the car buying market, and if the car company offers me 0% interest loan without me losing my bargaining power on the initial purchase price, and not being forced into purchasing some special insurance, etc. as a condition for that loan, then I will grab that opportunity. And what do I do with that capital? For the sake of argument, say if I don't want to gamble it in the market (as such I don't consider it gambling), I will buy short-to-medium term US Treasury Bills which may give me 1/2% interest. But as we can already see, you have to apply a lot of thinking even to such a small decision making problem, and many times trying to play smart can bring your downfall if you miss one or two variables. So for an average person with a lot of in-built emotional biases, it can be best to stay away from leverage as much as possible!

You seem to be somebody who is a conservative investor and can eventually make it to that deca status. Congratulations on your prior achievements and good luck with future milestones. Do share with us when you get there!!!

The simplest investment advice I ever got was the following:

1. Save 5% of your salary every year atleast. Don?t look at it. As a matter of principle, take out 5% of your paycheck and Just put it away in a savings or IRA account. In 5 years, you?d have saved atleast 25% of your salary.

2. Max out your retirement contribution. Save for retirement the day you start working.

3. Pay your debts. Retire as much debt as possible as soon as you can. No investments provide you consistent 18% returns. Debt leverage is a myth.

4. Invest in typical passive index funds regularly. In drip investment mode. Not essential to buy in tranches but rather regularly without timing the markets and regardless of market conditions. Buy the company, not it?s price. Reinvest all dividends back.

5. Invest in 529 if you cannot create a portfolio for your kids. My state(IL) gives me a tax break of upto $20,000 that?s invested in IL 529.

Hello ,

I wanted some advice about overcoming the inertia to invest in US on a temp visa. I am on H1B (PD May 2011 under EB2), applied for AOS in Oct 2020.I have been in the same company and the core function is also the same ( software eng).I am really uneasy when it comes to buying a house in US as I am still on a temp visa and I am wary of the uncertainty. I have heard about many cases where the primary's H1B extension didn't go through and they have to leave US after making huge financial investments here. My question is how are /have you overcome such concerns?

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Originally Posted by may2011

Hello ,

I wanted some advice about overcoming the inertia to invest in US on a temp visa. I am on H1B (PD May 2011 under EB2), applied for AOS in Oct 2020.I have been in the same company and the core function is also the same ( software eng).I am really uneasy when it comes to buying a house in US as I am still on a temp visa and I am wary of the uncertainty. I have heard about many cases where the primary's H1B extension didn't go through and they have to leave US after making huge financial investments here. My question is how are /have you overcome such concerns?

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Everyone's case is different. In my case, I had a windfall and I saw house ownership as a way to save on taxes. The tax savings are not much anymore after the Trump tax reforms. I also had a working spouse so the H1B risk was reduced by 50%.

It really depends on what percentage of your savings you are putting in as the downpayment for the house. You should be okay to lose it as the worst case scenario.

One mind trick that may help you is to think of all the American citizens that buy houses in California even though there is an earthquake risk.

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Originally Posted by may2011

Hello ,

I wanted some advice about overcoming the inertia to invest in US on a temp visa. I am on H1B (PD May 2011 under EB2), applied for AOS in Oct 2020.I have been in the same company and the core function is also the same ( software eng).I am really uneasy when it comes to buying a house in US as I am still on a temp visa and I am wary of the uncertainty. I have heard about many cases where the primary's H1B extension didn't go through and they have to leave US after making huge financial investments here. My question is how are /have you overcome such concerns?

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Don't agonize, you have waited far too long and I think you should be greened by October. Then buy a house that is not just an investment but is a home.

Home ownership is expensive. Anybody who tells you otherwise is wrong. Most of us go from 1000 sq ft 2 bedrooms to 3000 sq ft 4-5 bed. The monthly literally will triple. So if I were you, I would simply wait out few months remaining.

But as per other people with later PDs - I'd say - the worst downside is 50K hit should you have to sell the house. But if you have growing kids (5+ age) - nothing is more joyful to them than living in your own house with backyard and may be a dog. So don't worry about too many things. Who knows if you live in Phoenix or Austin your house could appreciate more than the hit you might be taking - just in case.

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Originally Posted by qesehmk

Don't agonize, you have waited far too long and I think you should be greened by October. Then buy a house that is not just an investment but is a home.

Home ownership is expensive. Anybody who tells you otherwise is wrong. Most of us go from 1000 sq ft 2 bedrooms to 3000 sq ft 4-5 bed. The monthly literally will triple. So if I were you, I would simply wait out few months remaining.

But as per other people with later PDs - I'd say - the worst downside is 50K hit should you have to sell the house. But if you have growing kids (5+ age) - nothing is more joyful to them than living in your own house with backyard and may be a dog. So don't worry about too many things. Who knows if you live in Phoenix or Austin your house could appreciate more than the hit you might be taking - just in case.

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Thanks for the encouraging words.The plan is to wait for a few months at-least till I get the EAD in hand.I have been reading the the blog posts on the advantages of having an EAD and pending AOS.With that as a backup, I feel more comfortable.You said it righ..a house should be a home :)

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Originally Posted by rocketfast

Everyone's case is different. In my case, I had a windfall and I saw house ownership as a way to save on taxes. The tax savings are not much anymore after the Trump tax reforms. I also had a working spouse so the H1B risk was reduced by 50%.

It really depends on what percentage of your savings you are putting in as the downpayment for the house. You should be okay to lose it as the worst case scenario.

One mind trick that may help you is to think of all the American citizens that buy houses in California even though there is an earthquake risk.

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that makes sense.Risk is always there :) thanks