r/FIRE_Ind

Male 33 - I was fascinated by the idea of FIRE by the time I was 26 years of age already. The thought of leaving the rat race and living your life on your own terms is something I always held near to my heart.

And luckily I was making good progress. Switched jobs, 5Xed my salary from 2021 to 2025 and was saving almost 70% of my take home salary.

Unfortunately, my parents are entirely dependent on me. And neither do they have any savings. So its me and ONLY me for them. Considering I had adequate health insurance for them and it was well covered.

But now since the last 3 months everything went downhill. My father, who generally keeps ill, is now bedridden and cannot even do his own tasks. Mother has her own problems.

I am having to keep full time Physiotherapist and 24 hour help and its just draining my monthly income like anything. Add to these all the monthly domiciliary medicine bills . These are the things that no Insurance would cover.

My savings rate has come down from more than 70% to just above 10%. And this will absolutely not cut it.

I planned for everything in terms health insurance, term insurance, emergency fund and whatnot, but things came completely out of nowhere, and are having serious impact on my planning.

So you can plan everything out but still there can be roadblocks that you did not expect.

Hi everyone. Really great to engage with all the posts here . But somewhere there is an insecurity that is creeping in. Have seen lots of people generating corpus of 1 crore before 30. While I am positive of the outlook my future holds, my real question is even If I struggle till 60 in corporate , I would only be able to save 30-40 crores which would be 4-5 crores in today's real value. This sense of a ceiling hit me hard and made me doubt will it all be worth it till then.

Current portfolio- 5 lakhs FD, 15 lakhs in 3 Mutual Funds

Career- btech tier 2 nit , 3-4 years work ex and then mba tier 1 .

Started with mere 6 lpa now 32 lpa post mba

Currently going through the corporate grind but the thought of having this 5-6 crore ceiling regardless of the grind is really haunting me.

Need a different POV. Suggestions appreciated and open to any opinion

My consulting gig is ending this month, and I'm not planning to look for new projects, at least for a a few months or a year. I'm 48 and have been working for almost 30 years now. I tried taking a break a couple of years ago after winding down my company, but ended up going back to full-time work with an old client within a few months. This time, I'm more committed to staying away.

A big reason is that my corpus crossed ₹10 Cr last week. More than 80% is in equity, with the equity portion roughly split 60:40 between stocks (mostly through smallcases) and MFs. Our apartment is the only property we own, and I consider that over and above the corpus rather than part of my FIRE number.

The other reason is health. I'm reasonably active and not overweight, but almost three decades of desk work has taken its toll. I'm beginning to see a few health issues that I want to address now, before they become bigger problems.

My wife used to work but has been a homemaker for over a decade. Our kids are in 12th and 5th. We live in a Tier 1 city, but our expenses aren't particularly high. We live fairly simply; no smoking or drinking, or partying, vegetarian diet, and we eat out maybe 2–3 times a month.

I'm hoping to keep myself busy by taking on more chores at home, freeing my wife up to eventually take on something of her own, spending more time with family and friends, catching up on the backlog of movies, TV shows and games, and going on treks more often than was possible when I was working.

I'm not sure if this is retirement yet. Plan is to take it a month at a time.

Would love to hear from others who've made a similar transition—particularly what surprised you after stepping away from work, financially or otherwise.

​

So now that there is time on my hands and I am not making ppts like my life depended on it, I turned my thoughts to optimising costs. My grandmother used to say - one way to make more money is to reduce spending.

So using this principle the house got solar.

Our setup generates 10% more than the average monthly consumption. This ensures that our bill is almost close to 0. We just pay the fixed charge of 150 ish per month. Monthly savings around 7.5k = 90k annually. Cost of the setup after subsidy around 3L. So roi works out to almost 30% . This only improves as electricity rates go up. We got a price hike of 0.6 per unit last week. So roi became marginally better.

3.5 years to recover investment cost and another 15 years or so of free to minimal cost of electricity.

Recurring cost - 500 rs every 4 months for a deep clean with detergent solution. 5 min a week for dust cleaning with high pressure hose.

​

Hi all,

This was my update a year ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/FIRE\_Ind/s/gwUjb8Xv6r

So what's happened in the past year?

As we know the articles we all read about poor market returns happening just when you stop working came true. :) 2 years and the stock market is like a car stuck in peak Bangalore traffic.

Portfolio is stagnant. Dipped and recovered. Have not touched it yet. Epf is also untouched. The daily expenses have been covered from existing savings ( not emergency funds)

Thanks to the middle East - international travel is out for now ; So have travelled a lot domestically. Places that were overnight hotel rooms are now explored at leisure. No agenda , no timelines.

Health cover was enhanced to 2cr. The 12 year old beater was replaced with a new car and hopefully we are good for another 12 years. No EV yet, as I feel the market needs to mature further. Got an on grid solar for the house upgrade.

The only thing that is pending is getting into shape. Since laaton ke bhoot baaton se nahi maante - a trainer will be coming from tomorrow with determination to get me and SO into shape. Wish us all the best.

Until the next update then...

M36 - living in tier 1 city with wife and 5 year old child. I am FI but no intention of RE for now.

Found this subreddit discussions and post very useful and informative.

Journey:

I did my undergrad in India and right after that went to the US to pursue my masters.

Lived and worked for more than a decade abroad - Initial few years in US and then moved to UK . Mostly Fintech companies and banks.

Moved back to India in 2024, worked in a GCC for 2 years and left the job recently. I personally could not adjust to Indian workplace politics and bad work-life balance.  

Corpus/Assets:

5Cr in an Indian brokerage account.

60L in FD and corporate bonds.

Have a decent chunk of money abroad - UK brokerage and pension account. I plan to fund my kid's higher education using this money. 

I have my own house and am currently staying in it.

Future plan:
I plan to pursue a PHD in CS. I really want to go deep in my field and contribute in whatever way I can.

Wanted to know if someone is pursuing a PHD after FI and how is it going so far.

just crossed 5Cr in my demat account :-).

https://preview.redd.it/3whutzkggvjh1.jpg?width=1113&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7c4644bab45508c7ca15e15d5c2d403dea6dbea5

FIRE and ZNMD(Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara) have a very close link and this movie was released about 15 years ago and those of us who were working in our jobs at that time and were inclined towards FIRE would have naturally been able to relate with Hrithik Roshan's character.

The iconic dialogue "Chalis saal tak note chaapo fir aish karo".

So I followed that path and achieved financial independence. But another important character in that movie that of Abhay Deol, didnt really register into me. Until now.

Remember, that scene where Kalki Koechin gate crashes into their trip and in the car she tells Abhay Deol. "Shaadi ke baad tum kahan aise boys trip par jaoge?" And at that moment both Farhan and Hrithik look at each other shocked. Eventually Abhay Deol calls off the wedding.

Now, most of us in India, are mostly family oriented, marry, have kids, most of our life is a struggle between work and life balance. But even that life, we are actually not living for ourselves but for our family. Weekends go on in spending time with family. Vacations we take are family vacations.

But the individual 'I', what about him/her? What about personal hobbies, taking time for yourself, like going on a boys/girls only trip etc? I am part of Bangalore Bikers group and majority like 99% are bachelors in the 20s. Most bachelors in India enjoy riding their bikes, but then society traps you into upgrading to a car. Suddenly the car is about the family, taking your family out on weekends, family vacations etc. All aspirations suddenly become family aspirations rather than individual pursuits.

I think now I relate to what Bachelor Python and Traveller_for_life keep saying about not succumbing to societal pressure/not marrying/not having kids etc

But essentially what they mean is to activate the Abhay Deol character of ZNMD and not just focus of the Hrithik Roshan's character :)

Cheers :)

Edit: In the comments, many people are thinking I am against marrying or having kids now. Nope that's not the point.

Abhay Deol wasn't against marrying. He was against Kalki becoming totally dependent on him and expecting to give 100% of his time to her.

Maybe this point didn't come across clearly, let me add it to the main post.

Last year I posted here after crossing ₹3 Cr.

link to last year's post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/FIRE_Ind/s/lkLwSav3m4

One year later, I'm 38 and our financial net worth has reached ₹3.75 Cr. If we include the house we stay in, we're at roughly ₹5.02 Cr.

Here's the current allocation:

https://preview.redd.it/hifun7w6uljh1.png?width=1382&format=png&auto=webp&s=d99c1814eaf373f655646d5b80333bff74b3ba4d

The interesting part isn't that the portfolio went up ₹75L (which is higher than our both salaries combined together). It's how different the journey feels once the portfolio itself starts becoming a meaningful contributor.

My original target is still $1M excluding our primary residence. FI by 45 remains the plan. I'm not desperate to RE as I don't hate my job, but my wife has already mentally prepared for it in 5 more years and is patiently waiting for me to catch up. So, roughly seven years to go.

I'm still equity-heavy (slightly better as moved some of US equity to US bonds) and still comfortable with volatility because I'm working and have ~7 years before my FI target. The biggest change from last year isn't the number, though. ₹1 Cr felt like a milestone. ₹2 Cr felt like progress. ₹3 Cr felt like validation. ₹3.75 Cr is starting to feel like the portfolio has joined the team.

The end goal is $1M.

Let's see how long that takes!

Hi everyone,

I’d appreciate some perspective on my current portfolio and how I should think about the path forward toward FIRE.

My current investable portfolio is approximately ₹3.45 crore, with this allocation:

• Mutual funds: ₹1.02 Cr (29.5%)
• Gold: ₹83.34 L (24.1%)
• Cash: ₹45.71 L (13.2%)
• Real estate: ₹33.80 L (9.8%)
• Indian stocks: ₹31.12 L (9.0%)
• US stocks: ₹22.56 L (6.5%)
• Insurance: ₹16.29 L (4.7%)
• Fixed Deposit: ₹6.07 L (1.8%)
• Retirement accounts: ₹4.52 L (1.3%)

Age 36, M, with one kid
Living in own flat worth 4Cr now.

I’m turning to the wisdom of this community to help me sense-check my retirement goals. I’m not a financial wizard, so any straightforward advice or reality checks are highly appreciated!

​36M, NRI currently living in South East Asia (a lower-cost country, not SG/HK).

​Married, with a 5-year-old child. (Spouse is currently not working).

My ​goal is FIRE in 9 years by 2035 at age 45.

Income: ₹2 - 2.5 Cr fixed annually. (I make another ₹1 Cr in variable bonuses/commissions, but I want to ignore that for now to be conservative).

Current Portfolio: ₹1.7 Cr invested in Mutual Funds.

​Emergency Fund: ₹50 Lakhs cash (in USD & SGD) for a rainy day.

​Real Estate: Own house back in India.

Investable Amount: ₹4 Lakhs per month (after all taxes, daily expenses, and schooling).

I want to maintain my current upper-middle-class lifestyle without constantly worrying about a depleting bank balance. My money goes a long way where I currently live.

Current Monthly Expenses Breakdown: ​Housing & Utilities: ~₹2 lakhs ​Groceries, Dining & Entertainment: ~₹2 lakhs ​Child's Education & School Transport: ~₹1.8 lakhs ​Personal Allowances & Subscriptions: ~₹2 lakhs ​Household Help (Full-Time): ~₹60k ​Local Transport: ~₹50k Total: ~₹9 lakhs (I've been generous in calculating my expenses)

Big Hello!!

53M/Tire-2/Never Married/Single/Manufacturing Industry/Lower Middle Class/ Simple life.

A. In my, 1st post!

In short,

Year 94/95 - Started working.

Year 05/06 - No job, No/Zero money, debt/education loan, hard time.

Year 09/10 - Recession / harsh time, adopted simple life, spend less, saving more.

Year 15/16 - Stopped working, started living on just 7 years of savings, FIRE!!

Year 25/26 - 11 years of retirement completed!!

Simple,

1996 – Job, No/Zero Money, No Loan/Debt. = No Pain.

2006 – No job, No/Zero Money, Education Loan/Debt. = Pain.

2016 – No job, Enough Money, No Loan/Debt. = Freedom.

2026 – No Job, Growing Money, No Loan/Debt. = Super Freedom.

B. Current, how the simple need base life/frugal life looks like –

I do have already experienced in my life, Business class, fine dining, fine wine and this country and that country, Himalayas and Alps etc, but as mentioned in my 1^(st) Post, from the year 2009 onwards, I have had adopted frugal lifestyle / simple need base living...

Frugal / Simple Lifestyle –

1. My life is so simple, comfortable, stress free, tension free and happy, that until today I did not need a smart phone, I have been using simple feature / button phone for calling only. I keep internet (use laptop) and calling separately.

-1^(st) phone in 2003.

-2^(nd) phone in 2008, used until 2022 (used for 14+ years).

-3^(rd) phone in 2022, still in use.

2. I do not own any two / four-wheeler.

3. Up to 3 Kms, I walk, depends upon the climatic condition, otherwise use a public transport (as such, no rush in life), for long distance, of course, I get a cab (but, may be 2/3 times a year).

4. I do not eat out-side food, no processed food, no packed food. No readymade, No ultra-processed food, no sugar, no milk and milk products, no wheat/bakery products, no tea/coffee, no alcohol/drinks, no cold drinks etc. (Gluten and Lactose free).

5. I Cook 3 warm meals every day, focus home cook food only. (If, on travel, only warm fresh available food, I eat!!)

6. I buy every day, only nearby available high-quality vegetables and food stuff. No stocking.

7. I buy only when needed, rest of the stuff, like, cloths, shoes etc.

8. Prefer high-quality spectacles/ glasses over expensive mobile phone. (Eyes Health first).

9. Prefer high-quality shoes over expensive cloths. (Knee Health first).

10. I do not use or need credit card!

11. As one has said – One should only buy and consume, limited / needed / required available resources, ultimately, it will protect our mother earth / planet, lower carbon footprint!!

Today, simple need base life is continued, and I do most important thing, that is - Relaxing!

Today, my decision to stay with feature/button phone really helps, health wise too, as spine health really matters to me, as, I do not need at all, small screen and too much text and data!!

C. My recent Upgrade –

As I have realized, my corpus is growing and stable, so within the set monthly budget, I have decided to upgrade my simple lifestyle, in the given below way...

Before, Rice 60to70Rs/ Kg, After/ Now, 180 Rs/ Kg.

Before, Mug Dal 120to130Rs/ Kg, After/Now, 140to160 Rs/ Kg.

Before, Jawar/Millet 60to70 Rs/ Kg, After / Now, 70to90Rs/Kg.

Before, Dry fruits 320 Rs / 250 Grams, After/ Now, 475/500 Rs / 250 Grams (higher quality)

So on…

The food, I eat for the superior and higher quality!

D. 2026 Budget -

15,000 Rs/ Month = 1,80,000 (for 2 persons, mother is independent, I pay only house hold).

25,000Rs/Year, Mediclaim premium.

50,000Rs/Year, some need base shopping.

2,35,000Rs/Year, travel, very comfortable.

Total expense, less than 5 Lakh/ Year! =X

E. Corpus --

Bucket 1= FD, Bucket 2= PPF and Bucket 3 = Mutual Fund.

-2015

FIRE in Aug 2015, yearly expense, less than 2.5 Lakh, corpus was 1+ Cr. Means 40+X.

FD = 1 Cr.,

PPF = 3.2 Lakh,

Mutual Fund = 4.0 Lakh.

I lived 11+ years on FD interest and also kept re-investing to Bucket 2 and Bucket 3, means compounding. (Since 2+ years, started withdrawing from FD for travel part.)

-2026

Now, in Aug 2026, yearly expense, less than 5 Lakh, corpus is 2+ Cr. Means 40+X,

FD = 95 Lakh,

PPF = 36.5 Lakh,

Mutual Fund =75 Lakh.

From 10^(th) year to 11^(th) year, not much change/gain, as Debt got some improvement, but Equity fell down, so 2+ Cr, stays as it is!

F. Finally Note: Today, I am just living from 7 years of saving only, so, for many in the Sub, it will be not possible, the way I live, it is my simple need base lifestyle, and which I have chosen it, after the hard and harsh life experience, in that, 2 times I was with ZERO money with Debt/Loan!!

And during the said former down time, literally, no one was around to help/support me, so, now, I am doing well, but I prefer to present, that, I am poor and broke!!

With a God blessing, after retirement, I do not have to work for money!

So, now, small things in life, like, helping someone, call old pal, cook something simple/nice, watching a laughter show, brings happiness to me and material pleasure, show-off and status! does not bring any happiness to me!!

G. Life is not a linear path!!, anything can happen, in my - 2nd Post

In short,

Thought FIRE, due to one doctor mistake in 2018, landed in a Health situation(spine/stomach), financials were up and down, but still could maintain the re-investment part to grow the corpus. The FIRE situation and no work pressure, really helped me to improve the health, as such, no stress or no travel, later, focused moved to self-made / home cooked food, diet supplements, walking, Yog etc. (Hence, now above said lifestyle!)

Here is my update, when the health issue started in 2018, I had lost weight and later, during covid, started a self-recovery plan, started to gain some weight, next was to start push-ups, in 2023, I could hardly do 2 or 3. But now in 2026, I am back to normal and now, I can do 31+ push-ups within a MINUTE!

H. Questions –

So, what do you think, in the next 10+ years, if I am still on the Earth, how my all 3 buckets will look like?

So, what is your score on Push-ups, how much you can do it within a MINUTE?!

Enjoy!!

 

Recently crossed ₹25 lakh net worth at 27 and thought I’d share my journey and get some perspective.

I’m currently in the UK, working in an IT role at a product-based company. I came here in 2022 for university, finished in September 2023, and started working immediately after. I was lucky enough to land a job pretty quickly.

My current finances:

• ~₹26.8L in mutual funds (around 9% absolute returns currently)
• ~₹2.5L in my UK savings account
• No liabilities — my education loan was paid off by my parents
• Current income: ~₹2.8L/month
• Rent: ~₹80K/month
• MF investments: ~₹1.2L/month
• Remaining ~₹80K for expenses

My university fees were around ₹13L, which my parents paid. During university, I also worked part-time for a year, mainly to cover my rent.

I probably could have saved ~₹35L by now, but I’ve also spent quite a bit on travelling to India (7–8 trips in the last 3 years), and I’ve lent some money to my dad for their marriage expenses and holidays. So I’m not really unhappy with where I am.

I’m not particularly aiming for FIRE or early retirement — I mostly read these posts because I find personal finance interesting.

That said, I’d like to get better at saving/investing going forward. Given my current income and expenses, what would you do differently? Would you increase the MF allocation, keep a larger cash buffer in the UK, diversify outside MFs, or simply enjoy the money and not overthink it?

Would love to hear what people in a similar situation would do as I have a few big things probably coming in the next 2-3 years - i.e. Getting married(not sure about this though but surely on the books), buy a car etc.

PS: Obviously, I have used ChatGPT for summarising my brain dump. Really interested to know all of your opinions.

Hi folks of reddit - I am a fellow FIRE enthusiast who is planning to FIRE in a year or two. I have been stashing away every penny I could (high now, was lower in 2020 , average say 1 lakh per month - and a one time infusion in 2025) in past 6 years away into basic stuff - mutual funds, blue chip stocks and Gold (SGB) - I am not a very intelligent investor (pun intended) but I do follow buy and forget. My only goal was to save as much as possible and then jump out of the rat race. But recently I decided to review performance and I was pleasantly surprised - with the rallies in market couple of years back and the gold rally last year - my portfolio has done surprisingly well - more than I was expecting. I kind of wanted to share this with someone but I don't talk to anyone about my personal finance, so the anonymous reddit folks are the only ones I could tell this - also I hoped this might inspire someone to trust the process - that even if you are not very savvy investor you can trust the process and make some money.

I basically fed my my NSDL CAS statements from 2020 till July 2026 (only the monthly balance - not the details) and asked Claude to analyze it and below is the result. Here it is. brief context - 35M, unmarried, tech job.

https://preview.redd.it/btv92yhmprih1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=7149628358e1b3e9b4475a307baeaa7249d5b101

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I worked in tech for several years and was fortunate to have good pay and ESOPs. I invested in a couple of flats in a Tier-1 city, which now generate decent rental income. I’ve effectively been FIRE’d for the last few years—the rental income covers our expenses, and I have enough liquid investments to cover the kids’ education.

But my reason for FIRE was quite simple. I reached a point where I felt there wasn’t much point in continuing to chase higher income. My wife is a Group A Central Government employee (not in any revenue department 😄), with medical coverage and other benefits, and her job isn’t particularly stressful.

So I stopped working, while she continues to work because she actually enjoys her job and has no real reason to quit.

Is there a term for this? One-sided FIRE, spousal FIRE, one-person FIRE?

Also, am I missing something here? Is there any significant financial risk or blind spot in having only one spouse FIRE while the other continues working, especially when the working spouse has a stable, relatively low-stress job? Curious to hear from people in a similar situation.

As a FIRE aspirant I was cut throat optimizer in all financial decisions. Ultimately every purchase I did became a financial decision first and a consumption decision later.

Whether it is buying groceries or discretion items or investing, the first question I would ask is, is this financially worth it, or is it value for money. All this was towards the goal of accumulation towards financial independence and early retirement.

Even when it came to investing, I have optimized to keep it passive and spend the least of my effort.

Now I am reached the stage where the pursuit of FIRE has come to an end. I have reached the destination. Now I don't know what to do.

For someone who spent all life optimizing money decisions, my life is already optimized and I have made more than enough money to sustain myself. I never thought about what I should spend the money on other than the usual non discretionary items. Like groceries, fuel etc

I am not a big travel person. I like to go on weekend bike rides. We have our own house, we have our cars and bikes. So all the big ticket purchases are done. So I don't know what to spend money on.

I am not someone who enjoys buying a farmland and do farming or buying a homestay and host people etc I prefer keeping all my assets as financial. So that leaves me with a surplus of both time and money and I don't know what to do with both of them.

Most people either spend time to earn money or spend money to kill time. I don't need the former and I don't know how to do the later. It is a wierd conundrum.

Genuine question for people who've reached the stage where another ₹1–2Cr doesn't change much

Not sure if this belongs here, but I've been thinking about something and would genuinely like to hear how people here approach it.

I've been around independent traders for the last few years and, through that, got to know quite a few people who take trading seriously.

The genuinely good ones are rarely the loud ones. No "5x in 3 months" screenshots or constant posting about wins. Mostly pretty boring people — they trade every day, have bad months, talk about position sizing and risk more than returns, and have been doing it for years.

The strange part is that unless you're already in their network, you'd probably never come across most of them.

That got me thinking about the other side.

Once you've built substantial wealth, there presumably comes a point where you're not particularly interested in squeezing another 1–2% out of your existing portfolio. You might still want to put a small portion into something different.

But how do you actually discover those opportunities?

Not the usual mutual funds, stocks, PMS etc. — I mean things that aren't necessarily sitting in front of you through the standard wealth-management channels.

Is it mostly friends/personal network, your CA or wealth manager, word of mouth, private groups?

Or do most people decide the extra due diligence isn't worth it and stick to what they already know?

I've realised that if I personally had substantial capital and wanted to explore something outside the usual options, I wouldn't really know where I'd start looking.

Curious how people who've actually reached this stage think about it.

Fatfire Ind has a minimum number of 20cr. I know everyone's FIRE number is different wrt lifestyle and spending. But can we have the minimum number so as to say most are comfortable to say or have little confidence that this is a FIRE number. Average will always be higher than threshold so what one should consider here so as to comfortably say that they can have FIRE.

Also as of today if my FIRE number is for example 5cr with home, it won't be same if I actually decided to FIRE in next 5 years because of Inflation. That one factor is there but what about others?

I may get downvoted for this but since last year, almost everyone's FIRE number/target has increased. Till last year , people were actually okay with 4/5 cr but this year many have opinion of 7/9 cr with primary house.

Maybe because of recent substantial salary hikes (from income tax sub / finance india sub).

So FIRE target (average and threshold) should change every year?

Also I would love to have some wisdom from FIRED ones. Please share your opinion as well...!!

Sorry if this is asked here many times...!!