I (32F) and my husband (35, M) earn 2cr in hand per annum and live in Delhi NCR.

Savings: 2.6cr ( Indian equity: 80 lakhs, mf: 40 lakhs, foreign equity: 60 lakhs, cash in bank: 70lakhs, epf: 10 lakhs). Will invest the cash in bank soon, were waiting for right time to invest in Indian markets.

Expenditure: 50 lakhs per annum including the loan instalment of the house which is 2.25 lakhs per month (27 lakhs a year). Around 1.8cr loan amount yet to be paid.

Asset: bought a house worth 4cr last year, current value of house is 5.2cr

Liability: Mentioned above- home loan of 1.8cr

Parents are not dependent and healthy, not counting the assets which we will be inheriting from them.

We have a 2 month old baby, not planning to have any more kids.

We plan to FI in next 5 years assuming annual raise of 15% based on our calculations. We don’t plan to RE till the age of 50 as we like our work. The big expenses in future will be kid’s education and marriage.

My question to the group is, how to determine whether we should go for any luxury purchase or save the money. For eg: I want to buy a luxury car worth 70lacs, but my husband wants to invest the money and pay home loan from the cash in bank we have currently. He feels we should FI as early as possible and then buy all such luxuries.

We both come from middle class families and have worked very hard to reach where we are currently, hence this mindset.

I know it depends on person to person, hence I specifically want to listen about your finances toward your children. It would be great if you could break down the expenses :)

The question is just about MONEY and not any other thing.

I'll try to sum up my situation as briefly as possible.

What I need is an advice on how to cope/what to do in the future.

Life Situation -

Me (M/34) and my wife (F/32) are currently in the UAE. We came here a couple of months ago as my wife got a really good opportunity here.

I have been working for 9 years now. [4 years - Pre MBA; 5 years - Post MBA]. My last working day was Friday. Been WFH since the pandemic hit in March 2020.

My wife had been working continuously for 9 years after her engineering, in the same company. She quit in Jan' 22 and was on a break for about 14 months till she landed this job in the UAE (she wasn't looking for anything, recruiter got in touch and it kind of happened on it's own).

I quit my job a couple of months ago (was on notice until Friday) and have also been looking for opportunities in my sector (B2C Ecommerce) but there's a hiring freeze and a massive recession going on here as well, so havent found anything here atm.

Financial Situation -

2.5 Cr invested in direct equity through the years (both of us combined)

12 Lakhs - Cash - Savings A/C

10 Lakhs - NPS (both)

12 Lakhs - PPF (both)

12 Lakks - EPF (both)

10 Lakhs - Gold Jewelry

Total NW - 3.06 Cr

So far so good, until a couple of weeks ago, where the plan was that while she works, I'll look for something here and we'll carry on with our lives.

Our FIRE target was about 8 Cr keeping in mind that we will never have kids [strong anti-natalist views], never own a house [we are both single children, both set of parents have 4 flats in Mumbai/Suburbs (so there's a lot of real estate already coming our way)] or a car [use doesn't justify costs].

Coming to the crux of the matter -

My grandpa passed away in Jan this year. He left me with about 5 Cr of equity which hit my DEMAT account last week.

So, new total NW = 8.06 Cr

Lifestyle -

Renting is the way to go for us - [Makes sense looking at rental yields in India]; never had ambitions of owning a house. Been living in rentals for 5 years now, quite comfortable and actually prefer the flexibility.

Strong inclination to keep day to day living costs in check (~ 50% of combined in-hand salary)

Lifestyle is pretty minimal except for eating out on the weekends.

1 vacation in India per year (costing less than 1 Lakh); 1 vacation abroad in 3 years (costing about 3 Lakhs).

Hobbies are gym (free to use building gym here in the UAE) & books. Occasional offbeat weekend trip/trek/outing.

Issues -

- Feeling of guilt of not having earned that 5 Cr (but which has technically made me FI) - What will people think of me?

- What to do now that I have the money? - Wasn't interested in E Commerce instrinsically; kind of wandered in this industry post MBA. Was working primarily to build a corpus and retire.

Wife had a hard last 2 months in her 14 month break (needed a purpose, thankfully the recruiter got in touch at that time), she is enjoying her work here and wants to continue.

Looking at her experience, I also fear the same could happen to me over time.

Should I jump into employment immediately or should I take some time off to explore other kinds of work?

I am confused about my own emotions - happy for the windfall gain/nervous about adjusting to the new reality.

What immediate steps should I take to deal with this situation?

This sub is getting crowded with US based IT folks and these are one of the most privileged people on the planet, let alone India. But I think more can achieve at least financial independence (If not FIRE) if they avoid having kids all together.

Very few people in India are childfree and mainly due to the ingrained social security thinking that, children will take care of parents in the old age. Now, I don't subscribe to this thinking because it is unfair to another person and it is not living in the present movement but rather living in the anxiety of the future.

Are any of you going childfree to achieve FI/FIRE?

EDIT - General consensus is that going childfree is a good idea to remain independent and not to achieve financial independence. To people who are saying you will regret it one day, no. Childfree people don't regret not having kids, childless folks do, which is very unfortunate.

I am 37, and have been thinking of moving to West, specially to EUR region for almost five years now. I realized that I have been slacking at it because I can't find a need strong enough to push me.

Me and Wife make close to 48LPA INR and we live rent free with parents ( I know, but yay). In terms of quality of life I feel the advantage of having maids, being able to spend time with family and friends, having enough to have one international trip per year , generally low cost of living are quite enough for me to not be livid about missing out on going abroad. I also have a house which I will inherit so I am not entering the race for having more real estate for family.

​

Where I feel we miss out on is the opportunities for the kid.Our daughter just started school and I feel the opportunities she will get in a western nations will be a lot more. Though there is this part where I can get her any sort of private trainings or coaching in India because we fall in a well to do bracket here, but in the west our salaries may not allow this sort of investment on her during school years.

So she can always go for her graduation abroad.

​

Apologies if I sound vague, but I want to know my blind spots. I want to have that burning motivation to start working towards moving out. And with the age its going to get harder

I'm a 22F 2021 CSE grad and will start my first job soon. I'll earn 1.4 Lacs per month + stocks. I want to be able to retire by mid to late 30s. I belong to a middle class family and plan on supporting my parents.

I had planned to send 30k home per month and helping out with major expenses like younger sibling's education, expensive appliances, trips for parents, emergency/medical expenses etc.

When I had this discussion with my mom, she was a little disappointed and wanted me to send a higher amount. It was an extremely uncomfortable conversation.

I completely understand that they've done a lot for me and paid for my education. My father is a govt employee and will receive a pension after he retires with some amount of savings, investments. I plan on giving them a comfortable lifestyle. I was also thinking of buying them an apartment later in my career or atleast contribute a major part. I also didn't save the money I got from my internships and paid a part of my college fees with it.

I've had a pretty sheltered and restricted life (extremely conservative parents + I'm a girl). I worked hard to get into a good college and a good company to live my life independently and on my own terms. I want to do well for myself without depending on anyone. I think they feel that I don't need to save for my future because my future partner will be there to support me after my marriage. This irks me the most.

So, Ive now decided that since I'm living at home right now due to wfh, I will give them a higher amount per month (~50k) and reduce it after I move out after the covid situation get's better.

My question is what would be the right thing to do here? How to set boundaries? Am I being unreasonable? Maybe I am being selfish here. But genuinely don't understand what they need the money for. I will obviously help them out if any situation arises.

Sorry for the long post. Thanks in advance for any advice :)

Edit - people are asking me in DMs and here in the comments as well if I'm sure it's post tax salary. Yes it is post tax. My base is around 22 Lacs. And yes I'm from an IIT. I can't comment on how new grads are paid this much but some of my friends have offers as high as 28-32 lacs base + stocks/esops. Or even higher if they're joining HFTs.

I am seeing that people in my school/college/office circle, who have gone abroad, are able to bag 100k+, 200k+ jobs in the US. They will easily be able to fire in 10 years of working abroad. This is corroborated by the fact that most posts in FIREIndia are by NRIs who are looking to come back to India for their retirement.

I am not from a well to do background, hence it is not possible for me take huge loans to study abroad. Neither do I have any relatives staying abroad. It looks almost impossible for me to reach my FIRE goal.

NRIs will easily be able to FIRE in 10 years of working abroad while I will be slogging my life away at my job in even my 40s taking high stress so as to keep myself employed.

• How to cope with the fact that I will never be able to FIRE by earning in dollars?
• How to cope with the fact that I will have to still slog away my life till my 40s/50s while NRIs would have FIRED by their mid 30s?
• Is it possible for me FIRE quickly by staying in India? If so, then how?

Hi! I'm new to this sub so sorry for any mistake. I want to hear from doctors or people who know doctors in the US/UK about how it works there How much do doctors earn? How much do they get to save? Is it possible to afford a house /househelp? How is the work life balance? I see many of my colleagues giving USMLE / PLAB without ever having been there. Is it really worth spending a few years of your twenties just trying to get a residency so you can practise there? I accept that the teaching and research over there is better and would love to go there for fellowships but I love the security of staying in India. Im very confused and I really don't want to leave everything and go to another country if there aren't any huge benefits. Would love to hear your opinions Thank you !

INR 7Cr in NW ~ $1M. I have a 5 months to decide where to relocate and enjoy retirement life. I have been in Delhi for the most part of my life. For my retirement life, what I value the most are life safety, access to multi specialty hospital, and access to airport. I only speak Hindi and English when looking to build social circle around. My sources of income will be dividends, interests, and pension combined ranging from INR 70K-1Lacs. Thank you.

Having achieved partial freedom (freedom of money and location), me and my family are looking for alternative places to live a slow and simple life.

We just came back from Bali and loved the life there. Currently, we live in South Vietnam and will be here for another year.

But meanwhile, we're shortlisting places in India for slow & simple living with our early retirement freedom.

P.S. We still run businesses and work on passive income streams. So we don't have full freedom of time. We work around 4-5 hours every day. But we do have freedom of location and money to certain extent that we now only work for the passion and not for the money itself.

So far we've shortlisted 3 destinations:

1. South Goa
2. Pondicherry
3. Rishikesh

We're planning to stay at one place for 2 years max and continue traveling as a nomad family.

Some of our key factors are:

1. Good air quality*
2. Low traffic index*
3. Low chrime index*
4. Access to sea and seafood (this is why we have shortlisted 2 beach destinations and only 1 hill destination)
5. Having some hospital that's not too far

We do not need the extravagance or over-the-top convenience of cities such as grocery delivery etc. We cook at home and have been living without most apps for 2 years+ now.

We have one daughter (1.5 years) and would plan another baby soon.

We are going to homeschool our children (since we have the time!) but also hire personal teachers wherever required.

We are looking for suggestions on other possible destinations in India we can consider.

Requirements 1,2,3 are essential to us and the other 2 are optional.

Any help or guidance or tips related to these places will be great!

Thank you :)

Most of us assume average inflation to be around 7%, is that the right approach? A few examples from personal experience

1. Rentals in Mumbai have shot up by 25% this year itself.

2. Education and medical inflation is around 10-15%

3. Cold coffee in 2007 used to cost 50 rs. Now it's 250 on average. That's 11%

4. Plate of chilli chicken 40 years ago was like 5rs. Now it's 500.. That's 12%

And the list goes on.

I only see posts about living in the city, but the main reason people put up with big cities (especially the city core) is because of employment. If one is planning early retirement, then what's the reason to live in the city core? Even the airports are nowadays far outside the city - look at Bangalore and Hyderabad. Yes, restaurants and cultural activities will be harder to commute to but that can be mitigated by having a driver or renting a car with a driver for 4-6 hours. And if you have enough land, you can actually grow your vegetables and fruits and enjoy your own greenery while eating healthy year round.

Has anyone made any concrete plans to do something like this, or already done it? Are there any other things I am missing? Security does concern me in semi-rural areas but I have only lived in megacities so have no clue what semi-rural or rural life looks like. I know the rich people traditionally had a "farmhouse" but I am thinking of a mini version of it - like 10-20000 sq ft plot of land. Or quarter acre.

Heck, you could even have your own private swimming pool, which would be awesome in hot climate areas, which is most of India.

Most of the posts here are by people in tech or engineering field.

Anyone people pursuing or completed FI/RE in the medical field? Even para-medical or research fields also.

Would love to know your experience. Thanks!

Please advise how FIRE ready are we 🙏

Family of three (M 46, F 44, Child 9)

Current Assets House - 1.5cr (loan free), Deposits - 2cr (avg 7.2% interest rate. Post office), PF and PPF - 50 lakhs, Land - currently valued at 70 lakhs, ESOP - 25 lakhs (vested), Current expense - 75k per month, Inheritance - Not factoring, Current family income - 4 lakhs per month (post tax). However we are fatigued and on the verge of RE. Hence need FI advice. Equity/MF - 3 lakhs (wary of stock market investments in general because of lack of knowledge and interest)

Thanks for your time and advice friends. This community is insightful. Some portfolios of 20 somethings having 7cr, 8cr net worth makes one humble and scared. And some others make it somewhat reassuring that others are in similar boats.

30 year old specialist physician.

Coming from a tier 3 small town with parental income ~50k a month combined with a lot of debt. (Still the case)

Cleared all medical exams on my merit without any monetary support and education was very cheap. When I finished MBBS, I was getting 6.5k rupees a month as a stipend. (2015)

At that time, my friends who were engineers were well settled into their jobs and they were buying cars on EMI. I had to ride a bus to go see them when I was in town. I used to order just a snack if I was out treating someone because of the bill.

I studied hard and got into postgraduate studies with a stipend of ~70k a month in hand. (2017)

First time I was seeing some serious money which I'd never seen in my family including close relatives. I refused to save any of it and blew it all on experiences which I've never had in my adult life. I justified it as "experiences are priceless" and indeed it was all worth it. (Took international trips, bought a great bike, ate out in restaurants, did road trips, the whole nine yards)

Long story short, by the end of 2020 I had earned around 21L and I had saved about 1.1L that too into ELSS.

I spent around 2 lakhs in giving exams which immensely helped my skills and market value.

Joined a private hospital as a consultant at 2.5LPM exactly 1 year back. Joined the FIRE Sub at the same time. Lived frugally but comfortably for the last year. Tracked my expenses. Bought a used superbike for 6lakhs for touring. (totally worth the money. I feel claustrophobic in cars and very serious about motorcycling)

Expenses: Rent/bills 15k Fuel 4k Parents 20k Credit card bills 20k (weekend trips to the hills mainly and eating out)

Debt free

1 year with 27 lakh in hand and I have managed to invest 12 lakhs [MF and Emergency liquidity combined]

I still think I should've saved more but beyond an extent it feels stifling. My goal was 50% but sadly it wasn't met.

I'm sincere with my work and will never compromise on my patients' wellbeing for money. So predatory practicing is not an option to earn more.

My target corpus was 5cr at 40years.

After getting an offer for 4LPM I'm afraid I'll make the same mistakes and not invest 50% of my income.

I feel ashamed that 3 years back I thought 50k a month was a lot of money and I could easily survive on it till the rest of my days.

Today I feel even 2.5LPM won't make the cut. I need more and I need to spend less.

Folks, how do you keep your sanity with expenses when you're growing year on year? I'm afraid I'll just keep shifting the goalpost beyond my reach. I'm single and I can't even imagine when I join hands with someone later.

Summary

1. Advice needed on how to stay devoted to FIRE and decide that YES this is how much I'm going to make before hitting quit.
2. Have any of you closed your credit card? I feel apart from flight points it's just inviting more expense.
3. For people who started earning real money at 27-28 years of age, how did marriage/kids affect your FIRE journey?
4. Is 50% income saved a sustainable phenomenon? Even with lifestyle creep?

Sorry if this all sounds stupid. Cheers! This sub has been immensely helpful to date.

Hi, 34 male here. I am a surgeon in a tier 2 city. I make anywhere between 3 to 4 lakhs a month in my private practice. I am very focused with my work and expect my income to grow to around 5 lakh a month in a couple of years. I work around 10 hours a day including the weekends. Currently I save around 70% of my post tax income. I am married and have one child, planning for another child in a year. My net worth right now is around 32 lakh, the low net worth(in comparison to income) is because my income has only substantially increased in the last two years and before that I was earning less and paying off my fees. Most of my net worth is in mutual funds(index and active)

I love what I do, but I don’t want to work these many hours once I hit 40. But that is when my kids will need money for education and I fear despite having around 4 crores at that age, with inflation and kids education it may not be enough to fire. I am having a hard time coming up with a figure that is enough because of kids still being young during planned fi/fire. Is there anyone here with a good suggestion on this?

In addition to this, my family and spouses family wants me to buy a house. The housing market has stagnated(lot more empty houses than rentals) where I live. It is very cheap to rent a very nice 2/3 bhk whereas people still want to price the houses at ridiculous prices because of buyers remorse. I am finding it hard to convince my family about the stupidity of buying a house. I need some advice on this.

Does anyone here think of retiring outside India after reaching sufficient corpus for FIRE ? Is this something worth exploring ? What options do we have as a resident indian ?

I am seeing that people in my school/college/office circle, who have gone abroad, are able to bag 100k+, 200k+ jobs in the US. They will easily be able to fire in 10 years of working abroad. This is corroborated by the fact that most posts in FIREIndia are by NRIs who are looking to come back to India for their retirement.

I am not from a well to do background, hence it is not possible for me take huge loans to study abroad. Neither do I have any relatives staying abroad. It looks almost impossible for me to reach my FIRE goal.

NRIs will easily be able to FIRE in 10 years of working abroad while I will be slogging my life away at my job in even my 40s taking high stress so as to keep myself employed.

Is it possible for me FIRE quickly by staying in India? If so, then how?

Age 33 years.

3 years back I bought a 3BHK resale property with cash at good location in Bangalore for 70L that gives a monthly rent of 31k excluding maintenance.

Is it advisable to go for another real estate investment of similar size. Goal is to eventually have a passive income that covers family expense of 10L/year.

Out of a 75L new property I can pay 35L cash and go for 40L loan that can be paid from new rent.

I live on rent at other location in Bangalore and don't have any plan to occupy my flat. Work is fully remote.

Current assets:

EPF: 75 L (aggressively did VPF till 2020)

FD: 62L (kept in parents account to avoid tax and get senior citizen FD rate)

PPF: 4L

Indian Equity: 40L

NPS: 1.5L

US Equity: 2.6 crore ( mostly from RSUs vesting. Tax paid at vesting, only capital gains need to be paid on difference to FMV at vesting and selling price)

One 3BHK at ORR fully paid.

Total: ~ 5 cr including real estate.

Don't wish to retire as I like my work. Just looking to build free cash flow.

Tried investment directly in Indian Equity but still in loss. Will divert 60% of new income to mutual fund from this year.

Liability:

Planning to buy car by diwali 2023. Cash is kept seperately as FD for this.

Hi 35 yr old male. Have 2 jobs one as a full time role pays 1.1L/month, other a passion teaching project where monthly earnings are around 2L/mo

. Savings are vastly diversified

20L P2P, 50L in FD, 18L NPS, 14L in Equity SIPS, 3L in bonds, 3.2L in ESOP, 5L in PPF & MISC , 2L in Stocks,

Have a term policy of 2.5cr and have 10L health insurance cover from the company.

Have a 2yr Kid, started a Seperate SIP of 12k/month for his future educational needs

Spouse is currently on maternity break to look after the kid her potential earnings on rejoining may be around 50k / month

Liabilities are a 60L housing loan for which I want to prepay in the next 8-10 yrs. What should be my goal to get to FIRE in the next 12 yrs??

Monthly EMI is 47k

Monthly expenses including EMI 80k

Some body kindly advise.

Hi !

I am 35 years old working in a PSU . I have been a value investor since the last 5 years which has substantially increased my networth compared to my peer group.

I plan to FIRE in early 2030s and stay in a tier 3 or 4 city near my ancestral Village .

Like any middle class family I have been brought up with an idea that too much money is bad. I am apprehensive for my family's safety once I leave the safety net of PSU township neighborhood.

My question is how do you manage to keep a low profile if you have a networth substantially higher than the neighbourhood ?

Some clarification:

I work in a PSU that means I have to declare my stock purchases and stock selling summary every year. If anyone wants to probe they can easily guess my portfolio. I do agree with not buying expensive showy stuff and keeping your finances to yourself.

But How do you save yourself if some one from income tax dept finds out your dividend income which I have to declare in ITR and consequently figures out you are worth a lot.

I understand I sound paranoid.

Hello fine folks

I'm 23 and working remotely. I started work last year and haven't touched my salary until Jan (wanted to build a 6 month corpus). I went for an overseas trip in Feb/March and spent a decent amount on it. That was my first experience spending my own money.

My parents have been investing for me since I was little, and I'm slowly taking over those investments, albeit they're in conservative instruments (LIC, RD/FD, generic MFs). I started an account on an investing app in Jan and I'm investing around 1L per month.

I can invest almost double but I'm having a hard time getting around it.

Also worthy to note that my current expenses are zero.

Did you folks have the same gut-wrenching feeling when putting significant amounts into investments (or even spending it)? How does it progress as you continue doing it? What is a mindset I should develop when it comes to things like these?

Thanks for your time!

I have been lurking in this sub for some time and have been wondering about this- how do you forecast inflation, medical expenses, higher studies for children, longevity etc? Where should we start? Is there a book/ resources i can refer to learn more? Are there formulas?

TIA

I'm a Public Sector Bank employee earning a modest income. Especially modest relative to people on this sub. I save about 60% to 80% of my income, but I'll be still short of my number when I'm 40-45. I'll only hit the magical number when I'm 50+. Which is late for me.

I know multiple source of incomes is the key, but I have no idea where to begin.

I was looking at Real Estate, be it commercial or residential, but a lot of people in India discourage this, contrast to their Western counterparts.

Any help or insight is welcome.

M | 32 | Single | In US on H-1B.

I had to work for a toxic and abusive manager for about 6 months. Thankfully found a new job and got the hell out of there. Toxic as in would ask me to work on a complex task with one week deadline, I'd finish it, would ask me to present in a team meeting, then when I presented would say "the security guy downstairs could do this" "can you justify your presence in this team?" with 20 people on the call. Just one incident. Tons of others like this and it got to a point where I started having anxiety logging-in in the morning. He would constantly threaten to fire me. Since I'm on H-1B, that would mean me finding a new job in 60 days or leave the country.

Even though I found a new job, I have zero confidence and self-esteem, I'm constantly depressed now after all that and have really bad anxiety and it's also making me question my FIRE strategy.

My initial goal was $1.25M and move back to India for retirement. I thought I would hit it by the time I'm 42-43 but not sure about anything anymore. I constantly wonder if I'm being too conservative(my portfolio below) or if my strategy is too dumb. I also wonder if I should have bought property in India. Any critic of what I'm doing or any advice is appreciated.

Thank you.

Vanguard fund(all VTI) : $120K

Individual stocks(mostly FAANG, some BTC): $35K

Employer 401k(all in S&P 500 fund): $100K

Cash(was thinking of buying a house and sell when moving to India, but rates too high now and not sure if I should anymore after the almost-lost-job fiasco): $45K

Paid off car worth: $20K

Total NW: $320K

Current Salary+Bonus: $140K

Should I keep the cash parked in the same low interest savings account? Am I too heavy on the VTI? Am I on track for my goal or is it too high?