After more than a decade in the workforce, Nupur Dave decided to bid farewell to her role at Google. However, as she embarked on this new chapter, she found herself grappling with regret.
In 2022, Nupur Dave, a 40-year-old woman from Bengaluru, made the bold decision to resign from her position at Google. With 11 years of experience working in the United States, she felt financially secure and opted for an early retirement. Despite earning approximately Rs 82 lakh per year during her tenure in San Francisco, she began to second-guess her choice just two days after leaving her job.
“I quit my job on a Friday,” Dave told Business Insider. “By Monday evening, I was just bawling,” she continued. “I was crying my eyes out because I realized that I need to be with people,” she explained, emphasizing the sudden realisation of her need for human connection.
Dave had big plans for her retirement like writing her third book, catching up with old coworkers, and interacting with entrepreneurs and artists at co-working spaces. But things didn’t go as expected. Nupur Dave soon realised she wouldn’t have the same connection with her ex-colleagues anymore.
“The loneliness of the co-working space actually hit me when I physically went in there and sat down — it was completely empty,” Dave said.
For the following weeks, Nupur Dave found herself moving between different co-working spaces. Some were fully occupied, while others were nearly empty, serving mainly as placeholders for remote companies.
“I was not making friends, and I didn’t feel inspired by the physical surroundings of the coworking space,” she explained.
Nupur then decided to move back to India where she joined FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) community.
“The whole idea of FIREing was possible because I’m in India,” she told Business Insider. “There’s no way I could have FIREd in the US. Everything is much more doable in India, and you can still maintain a life of luxury.”
She also mentioned having hired household help for cooking and cleaning, which cost from Rs 8,000 to Rs 16,000 per month.
Within four months, Nupur Dave found herself stepping away from the FIRE community as she assumed the position of Head of Special Projects at an electric vehicle infrastructure company in Bengaluru.
“I am in corporate right now, but my goals are different,” Dave said. “It is not to build a career or make wealth out of this, but to see people every day and make sort of a predictable routine for myself,” she added.
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