{"id":280956,"date":"2025-11-13T03:47:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/280956\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T03:47:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:47:17","slug":"why-moving-back-home-was-the-smartest-financial-move-i-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/280956\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Moving Back Home Was the Smartest Financial Move I Made"},"content":{"rendered":"

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Amrita Bhasin<\/a>, CEO of Sotira<\/a>, a supply chain AI company. It has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

After I graduated from college<\/a>, I moved to Maine for a year to start my own company in the supply chain AI space. But after living in the Northeast for a year, shelling out over a thousand dollars each month on renting an apartment I often wasn’t at because of the amount I was traveling for work, I decided to move back to my parents’ house in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

It made sense to move back home<\/a> temporarily, from a career and financial perspective.<\/p>\n

I didn’t want to pay astronomical rent<\/p>\n

As a software company founder trying to raise venture capital funding<\/a>, San Francisco was the perfect base, as many investors lived nearby and were easily accessible by train.<\/p>\n

But I didn’t want to move into my own place in San Francisco. Friends of mine who were renting their own place were paying up to $3,500 each month in rent, and I didn’t want to do the same, worrying about how I would afford rent, bills, and a social life, while also trying to build my career<\/a> and startup.<\/p>\n

I travel a lot, and it just didn’t make sense for me to pay this much each month if I wasn’t actually going to use the space, so I decided to move home with my parents.<\/p>\n

I’m saving money and being able to invest in my company<\/p>\n

As a woman from a South Asian culture<\/a>, moving back in with my parents is a common occurrence \u2014 we tend to have tight-knit families that include children over the age of 18. <\/p>\n

I packed up everything in the apartment I’d been renting in Maine<\/a> and moved back into my childhood bedroom, updating it with a standing desk. I used the garage as a business headquarters, where my startup operates.<\/p>\n

Since moving back in August 2024, I’ve managed to save or reinvest $3,000 in my company each month because I haven’t had to pay rent.<\/p>\n

Without this monthly rent bill, I’ve been able to further my career by investing in attendance at conferences<\/a> that help my company reach customers and expand my network. I would have had less capital for this had I been renting my own place.<\/p>\n

However, my personal life has also improved since I’ve been living at home.<\/p>\n

I can afford to go out with friends<\/p>\n

I can afford to go out with friends and pick up hobbies<\/a> (like pottery, which costs $250 a month), which I wouldn’t have been able to afford if I were paying rent. As I’m working a lot more now, this social time is massively important to me to maintain my mental health.<\/p>\n

Living with my family, my mom, dad, and brother, has been really fun, more so than when I was a child. As an adult, my parents don’t need to parent<\/a> me \u2014 they just get to be my friends. We often go hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter. My brother and I enjoy staying up late playing poker together.<\/p>\n

My dad has come with me to conferences, immersed in my world. People at these events tell me how lucky I am that my dad gets a front-seat view of what I do for work. Most of their parents have no idea what they do.<\/p>\n

We all get along well<\/p>\n

A surprising benefit of living with my family has been that I’m eating a lot healthier food. When I was living on my own, I didn’t like buying fresh ingredients to make my own meals \u2014 the food would spoil quickly, and I felt I was wasting both food and money. I ended up eating a lot of take-out when I rented my own apartment. Living with my parents, I enjoy buying food to cook for us because I know whatever I make will be eaten.<\/p>\n

Although I might have expected to encounter challenges living with my parents, I haven’t faced many. I have my own workspace, and the house is quiet. We get along well, and they let me be an adult, rather than treating me like a child.<\/p>\n

I still see many friends, although it isn’t as spontaneous as it used to be. This is just because we are all working now and have to schedule dinners way ahead of time.<\/p>\n

I won’t live with my parents forever \u2014 I’m planning to move out next year, simply because I like change.<\/p>\n

But I wouldn’t hesitate to make the same decision if I could go back in time, and I don’t think anyone should feel ashamed of living with their parents to save up money, and to extend time with family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Amrita Bhasin, CEO of Sotira, a supply chain AI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-280956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}