Hi everyone. I’m 23F (turning 24 next March) and I’m trying to get my finances in order. I’d really appreciate some honest perspective because I’ve been feeling like I’m financially behind compared to people my age.

I work in tech and currently take home around ₹1.37 lakh/month after tax (gross salary around ₹1.5L/month). I have no loans, no credit-card debt, no BNPL, and no other outstanding liabilities.

The problem is that my financial situation is quite different from many of my friends/cousins because I have fairly significant family responsibilities.

My current financial situation

• Take-home salary: ₹1.37L/month
• Gross: ~₹1.5L/month
• Current savings: ~₹1.5L
• No PF contribution currently
• No NPS currently
• No debt
• No personal health insurance
• No personal term insurance
• Employer provides insurance, but I don't have my own cover
• I have just started investing

My current investments are very small. I started SIPs recently and currently have around ₹10k invested:

• ₹2k HDFC Flexi Cap
• ₹2k Invesco Small Cap
• ₹2k Nippon India Index Fund
• ₹2k Edelweiss Gold
• ₹2k Silver ETF

I know this isn't necessarily the simplest portfolio, and I'm open to changing it. I’m not emotionally attached to these funds.

I also made a stupid short-term bet recently and put around ₹50k into Hindustan Copper, thinking I could make some money in 2–3 days. The market went down and I'm currently down around ₹1k. I plan to exit and put that ₹50k back into my emergency savings. I realize I shouldn't have used money that I may need for short-term security for speculation.

My monthly expenses

I currently live in Bangalore for work.

My personal expenses are around ₹45k/month.

Around ₹19–20k of that is relatively fixed:

• Rent
• Maid
• Electricity
• Water etc.

The remaining amount is groceries, healthy food, cabs to office, eating out, etc.

I like good food and do eat out reasonably often. I don't drink or party much.

I was thinking of eventually allocating my ₹1.37L roughly like this:

• ₹45k — personal expenses
• ₹20k — family
• ₹30k — emergency fund
• ₹35k — SIP/investments
• ₹7k — miscellaneous/buffer

But ₹35k/month of SIP is not something I can comfortably do right now.

My thought was to start smaller (₹1k/₹2k etc.), increase it gradually, and hopefully get to around ₹30–35k/month by November/December.

Family responsibilities

This is the part that makes my situation different from many people my age.

I'm the oldest child.

My younger sister is currently in her first year of BTech.

I've already paid approximately:

• ₹70k for her coaching
• ₹2.2L for college fees

Her fees for next year are currently with my mother and will be put into an FD.

However, there are still roughly another two years of college expenses to plan for.

Over the last year, I also sent money home fairly regularly — sometimes ₹40–80k in a month. Some of that went toward family needs, including money needed for land/property-related matters and a legal issue.

I also gave my bonus to my family.

None of this is something I'm resentful about. I was happy to help and would do it again. But financially, it obviously meant that I didn't accumulate much of my own portfolio during my first year of earning.

My family recently moved houses, and there were another ~₹20–25k of moving-related expenses. They still need some household things such as a washing machine, possibly a sofa/dining table, and there may be another ~₹20k expense for a bathroom.

My parents don't have a large financial cushion. Their savings are negligible compared with what I think they would need for a serious emergency.

There is some family land that may eventually be sold to help the family move into a better house, but I am not counting that as my personal asset.

There is currently no family loan in my name, no guarantee I've signed, and no expected EMI that I know of.

My own goals

I also have things I want to do with my money.

I've barely travelled in my life because money was tight growing up.

I would love to travel more.

I've always wanted:

• A bike
• A good gaming PC (around ₹2L)
• Eventually a car of my own
• To get married around age 29–30
• Eventually buy a house of my own

I also got scammed out of ₹2k while trying to buy a PS5, so apparently that's another financial lesson I've already paid for xD.

I don't want to spend everything and ignore my future, but I also don't want to spend my entire 20s doing nothing except saving for every possible future responsibility.

The house question

My family currently lives in Delhi in a neighbourhood we'd ideally like to move out of eventually.

There may eventually be a family home/EMI situation after the land is sold, and depending on circumstances my younger sister and I may share some of that responsibility once she starts earning.

But separately, I want a house of my own.

I'm unsure whether buying a house before marriage makes sense or whether I should wait until around 35, when I know where I'll actually want to live and what my married life/career situation looks like.

I don't want to buy a house at 25 just because "rent is wasted money" and then discover five years later that I want to live somewhere completely different.

My biggest concern

This is probably the emotional part of the question.

Many of my friends and cousins around my age earn similar amounts, but they don't have significant family responsibilities.

Some of them already have around ₹10L+ across mutual funds, PF, FDs, savings etc.

I have around ₹1.5L in savings and only recently started investing.

So sometimes I feel like I'm failing financially.

I know intellectually that their situation isn't the same as mine, but it's still difficult seeing people my age with ₹10L+ portfolios while I'm starting from almost zero.

I keep thinking:

>"I'm earning ₹1.37L. Where did all my money go? Why don't I have anything to show for it?"

At the same time, I know that a lot of my first year's income went toward my family and my sister's education rather than disappearing into unnecessary spending.

What I'm thinking of doing

My rough priorities right now are:

1. Get my own health insurance
2. Figure out appropriate term insurance given my family dependency
3. Build an emergency fund of around ₹4–5L
4. Separately plan for my sister's remaining college fees
5. Continue investing even if the SIP is initially small
6. Gradually increase SIPs toward ₹30–35k/month
7. Start planning for retirement
8. Save separately for travel/bike/PC etc.
9. Eventually build a marriage corpus
10. Think about buying a house only when I know where I actually want to settle

I'm also wondering whether NPS makes sense for me at this age, particularly since I don't currently have PF.

I'm not looking for a "which mutual fund will give me the highest return" answer. I'm more interested in whether I'm approaching the overall situation correctly and what I may be missing.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

My younger brother recently got CSE in a GGSIPU college, so we're planning to withdraw his admission from JIIT.

I wanted to ask if anyone here has gone through the withdrawal/refund process recently.

A few questions:

• What's the exact withdrawal process? Do we need to visit the campus or can it be done online?
• How long does it usually take to process the withdrawal and refund?
• Is the process smooth, or does it involve a lot of paperwork/follow-ups?
• How much refund can we realistically expect?

For context, we've paid around ₹2.35 lakh in total:

• ₹60,000 during counselling/seat acceptance (we were told this would be adjusted towards the fees).
• ₹1.75 lakh after the seat was allotted.

If anyone has withdrawn this year or recently, it'd be really helpful if you could share your experience and how much you eventually got back.

Thanks in advance!