Nupur Dave ex-Googler retires at 40 on a Friday – regrets it on Monday

Nupur Dave ex-Googler retires at 40 on a Friday – regrets it on Monday

Ex-Googler Nupur Dave who retired at 40, decided to rejoin the corporate world the same year.

She became part of the financial independence, retire early — community.

For Nupur, retiring at 40 in 2022 was an easy one.
At the time around, she was living in Bengaluru, India. She had worked at Google for 10 years in the company’s Atlanta, Mountain View, and Bengaluru offices.

In addition to that, she had worked for startups, was secure about her finances, and was confident a corporate 9-to-5 was no longer for her.
She quit her job on a Friday.

But by Monday evening, she was just bawling,” she continued. She was crying her eyes out because she realized that she needs to be with people.

For Nupur, coworking spaces weren’t inspiring amidst her time working in Google.
Dave had her post-retirement life planned out: She would write her third book, hang out with her old colleagues, and network with founders and artists at coworking spaces.

But the reality of retiring early turned out quite different.
She quickly realized she would no longer have the same relationship with her former colleagues.

She went on to add that the loneliness of the coworking space actually hit her when she physically went in there and sat down — it was completely empty,” Dave recalled on her first day as a retiree.

Notedly, the next few weeks, she spent “coworking-space hopping.” While some of the coworking spaces she visited were sold out, some hardly saw any traffic because they were used as placeholders for companies that were largely remote.

Adding further that she wasn’t making friends, and didn’t feel inspired by the physical surroundings of the coworking space and too much independence was also scary.

Even while people say, she likes that she is on her own terms, sometimes being completely untethered is scary,” retiring was like doing a space walk.

Dave on her last day at a financial services company, where there is an early retirement, for her, the decision to retire early came from a place of financial security.

Working in the US for 11 years allowed her to build savings that went a long way in India, where the cost of living is lower. Dave was earning about $100,000 a year in San Francisco when she quit her job.

Prior to her retirement, she worked with a financial advisor to ensure her savings were enough to cover her expenses, and sales from her earlier books and consultancy would help pay day-to-day bills.
The critical part, however, was her location.

Dave revealed that the whole idea of FIREing was possible because she is in India,” Dave and there is no way she could have FIREd in the US.

She added further that everything is much more doable in India, and you can still maintain a life of luxury. She had a helper coming in to help with cooking and cleaning, which cost from $100 to $200
a month.

Though Dave’s problems with retired life were social in nature, some in the FIRE community chose to rejoin the corporate world for other reasons.

As for Dave, her early retirement lasted four months.
Not long after retiring, she landed a role as the head of special projects at an electric-vehicle infrastructure firm in Bengaluru.

She is in corporate right now, but her goals are different
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 herself.

News Edit K.V.Raman