r/FIRE_Ind

What was your fire no ? Whey did you want to fire? Did you actually go ahead with early retirement? Are you pursuing what you wanted to? Was there a major change in your life plan that you did not account for before? Any regrets?

I’ve read that Thailand could be a good option to consider. Bangkok costs about the same as any Tier-1 city in India, and if we move near Chiang Mai, the cost of living can be around 30% lower. Other calm coastal areas near beaches might also be cheaper than staying in India, which could reduce the required FIRE number.

Do people seriously consider this as an option? People from the US or any developed country may not move to other developing countries because they are used to a certain lifestyle, but from an Indian perspective especially for someone who has lived in India all their life until retirement moving abroad might be easier since the quality of life would feel similar.

I am in 30s. I built everything from scratch including parents house etc. I could not save a lot in 20s for building basic necessities for our family.

I earn quite well from a salary in tier-1 tech company in in India. ( not a show off just setting context ) despite that I am no where near to average NRIs FIRE jouney ( when I say average, please dont get offended ) even NRIs living abroad specially USA working in tier-2/3 companies will comfortably outperform saving in INR almost everyone working in tier-1 companies in India.

Question 1. Does that mean, being NRI and earning in $ will always outperform. so staying in India and doing FIRE journey is just "waste of time" ? or is there any real advantage of staying in India.

Question 2. Do NRIs earning in $ realise that how much advantage they have?

Not a envy post. Please don't take it negatively. I am bit exhausted that even doing a lot of things right in life, staying in India has become quite a disadvantage.

Please throw shade and rant at me as much as you like. Yes, I am humblebragging too, and sorry if you don’t like that.

Anyway, came to US many moons ago with just 2 suitcases of clothes and scholarship to do MS in non-CS field - in fact one of the engineering disciplines that was looked down upon in India - like beta why are you studying this obscure subject.

Any way, finished studies, got married, moved to SF Bay Area, started working in a tech backwater field - not software or mobile or social media or anything hot. Only got paid salary, no stock. Still working, still getting paid only salary, no stock. Did not move up much, stayed as individual contributor. Got GC, became US citizen.

Bought starter house with 5% down. Sold house, bought nicer house (starter + 1) with profits. House has ballooned to $3.1M in value (thanks Silicon Valley techies) and I have $2M in equity. Locked 2.6% fixed rate (I was going for interest only ARM, but bank refused to lend me, thank God), paying $5k per month.

Spouse and I kept maxing 401k, and saved extras into brokerage. Just bought index funds, no individual shares. Never tried options trading, hedge funds, leveraged trading etc. Never tried investing in India bcoz we did not want more complexity. Never tried buying real estate as investment to avoid hassle.

Now portfolio is $4.1M

Net worth is $6.2M.

INR is at 97 to USD.

INR NW is 60 crores. That’s ridiculous money by my standards. Roast me. Peace out.

Will get $120k per year in social security and pensions in 8 years. That by itself is FIRE money if in India and many other countries without touching portfolio.

I have successfully transitioned from corporate world to entrepreneurship last week

Investment portfolio: INR 30 L

Property: INR 85 L

PPF: INR 33 L

Emergency Fund: INR 1.3 L

No debts currently

Net worth: 1.49 cr

Strat for next 5 years:

- Turn entrepreneurship into a cash cow house

- Accumulate capital on investment portfolio

- Property to be left as it is

US based comanies RSU: 1.4Cr ( too concentrated, risky, currently the share value decreased so can't withdraw)

US based shares: ( 10L)

Indian MF: 1.15Cr

Indian shares: 7L

Gold bond: 15L

Liquid/debt MF: 10L

AIF (insurance) : 10L

Cash: 10L

Total 3Cr + PF, NPS ( 30L)

Owns a car. Dont own house.

Current yearly expense: 12L per year ( rent + basic expense: 8L, Foreign travel + Expensive hobby: 4L)

35M, Indian living and have lived always in India.

Please suggest your stratagy to reach FIRE. I want to buy my own house in either south or Dehradun/Bangalore like place.

It doesn’t matter whether you have ₹1 crore or ₹100 crores - if you don’t know what is “enough” for you, you will always live in survival mode. In that mode, life becomes an endless race with no finish line. I have seen people step out of the rat race with a corpus of ₹1 crore, and I have also seen people with ₹50+ crores still unable to walk away.

The interesting part about figuring out what is “enough” is that nobody else can define it for you. Not society. Not social media. Not even people close to you. Because nobody truly knows your priorities, values, likes, or preferences. Only deep self-awareness can help you separate what genuinely matters to you from the goals that were imposed on you for someone else’s benefit.

But that clarity doesn’t come automatically. You have to pause.
Question what you are chasing.
Question why you are chasing it.
Question whether the life you are building is actually yours.

It takes time, but eventually you arrive at an answer. And more often than not, that “enough” number turns out to be far smaller than what you once imagined or what others told you it should be. The moment you develop an “I have enough” mindset, you graduate from merely surviving to truly living. That makes you richer than most people around you.

We are mid-30s couple with a one year old baby boy.

Indian MF -1.57 cr ( 87 lac M, 70 lacs F)
EPF - 45 lacs ( 36 lacs M, 9 lacs F)
RSU - 26 lacs (vested)
Plot - 1.45 cr
FD - 8 lacs
Cash - 15 lacs

We are targeting 20cr ( excluding real estate and kids education) in the next 15 years but we both are insecure about our jobs. We both were above avg students and we both are from above avg institutes ( not the best ). I work for Microsoft and she works for deloitte. We save heavily ~ 4 lacs per month (including epf). I hope we stay relevant in the job market and reach our goal as early as possible.

We both are introverts, but like travelling and indulging in luxury. Other than that we have a very dull social life. We plan to send our child to Delhi Public School (nothing fancy) once he grows up and want to be prepared financially to send him to private institutions (even abroad) for higher education. I never had to take education loan and I hope my child also doesn’t have to take it.

We have covered only 10% of the journey so far. Please suggest ideas to speed up our journey.

crossed a milestone i'd been chasing for a while and the very first thing i did was finally look at my actual portfolio properly

not proud of what i found, lol. 14 funds, massive overlap, no real logic to any of it. just years of - this one looks good. SIPs stacked on top of each other

the number felt gud bt the clarity wasn't there at all. which made me wonder if the number even means what i thought it meant

how do you all actually think about portfolio structure once you're past the accumulation phase? is there a point where you sit down and rationalize everything or do you just let it ride

also been trying to actually consolidate this into one view, harder than it sounds when you have EPF, stocks and MFs all over the place

​I’ve reached a point in my financial journey where the math says I can retire, but the mind is playing catch-up. I’m feeling a bit conflicted and would love to get some perspective from folks who have already pulled the trigger and FIREd.

​Here is a quick snapshot of my current situation:

​Liquid Corpus: ~40x annual expenses (excluding real estate).

​Milestone Buckets: A separate, dedicated corpus of ₹50 Lakhs secured for my child’s education.

​Asset Allocation:

​35% Indian Equity

​15% US Equity

​20% Debt

​25% Real Estate

​5% Gold

On paper, the runway is clear. But with everything going on globally—market volatility, geopolitical shifts, and economic uncertainty—I find myself leaning toward working for another 2 to 3 years just to build an extra cushion (the classic "One More Year" syndrome).

​On the flip side, there are days where I genuinely feel, "Enough is enough, it’s time to hang up my boots and reclaimed my time." This constant back-and-forth has left me in a bit of a confused state.

​For those who have already transitioned into FIRE:

​How did you overcome the anxiety of leaving a steady paycheck, especially during uncertain global times?

​Looking back, are you glad you left when you did, or do you wish you had worked a bit longer for extra safety?

​Any advice on how to mentally prepare for the transition when the financial side is already sorted?

​Looking forward to your insights and experiences.

Thanks in advance!

Started with zero at the start of 2020, as we completed our MBA from premier B school then (Previous savings were used in funding B school fees)

Age : 35 and 33 (Expecting a baby in December this year)
Living in EU for the last 1.5 years
Total portfolio : 4.5 cr
MF : 3 cr
Company RSU after taxes : 70 L
Direct stocks : 30 L
PPF : 25 L
EPF : 10 L
LIC current value : 6 L
NPS current value : 7 L
Term Insurance of 1.5 cr taken back in India (HDFC)

Some other small amounts in FD and savings account. Current savings rate of 2.2 L/month only as one of us is not working.

Although we are extremely happy with our life here, we keep missing home, parents, culture, festivals almost every week and talk about going back. Childcare creche services and 100% of medical expenses is covered by social insurance + private insurance.

If we ascertain our expenses to be around 1.2 L in India at this point in time (rental house). Both sets of parents have their own home (not sure if we plan to buy in the future or not), does it make sense to go back to India, raise our kid for 2-3 years without any of us working and then maybe find a job later?anything that supplements some passive income.

If you were in my scenario, would you want to go back and will you be able to manage expenses (esp medical and education expenses) with this corpus. Parents dont need any money from us, but might have to pay for medical expenses if any(God forbid)

Thanks to everyone who has helped me in this journey. Special thanks to AIFW facebook group.

This is a genuine question out of curiosity, not judgment.

Over the last few years, I’ve worked with and observed people in very senior roles managers, directors, VPs in tech and non tech domain, many of whom I know are earning 50 LPA+ and sometimes significantly more.

But what surprises me is how “normal” their lifestyle often looks from the outside.

Most wear very basic clothes.
They don’t seem obsessed with luxury brands.
Many use just 1–2 credit cards and aren’t into reward optimization or lifestyle flexing.
No constant gadget upgrades, flashy watches, gold stacking, or visible signs of “rich living” that at least Reddit subs usually associates with high income.

And it genuinely made me curious:

Where does the money actually go once you start earning at that level?

Is most of it quietly going into:
- Investments and wealth creation?
- Home loans and long-term assets?
- Supporting parents and extended family?
- Children’s education and future planning?
- Financial security and peace of mind?
- Or does consumption simply stop being exciting after a point?

Because from the outside, I expected higher income to automatically translate into a visibly luxurious lifestyle. But in reality, many high earners seem more financially calm, minimal, and low-profile than people earning much less.

Would genuinely love to hear perspectives from people in this bracket, not just where the money goes, but how your relationship with money changes as income grows.

I am usually on r/IndianStockMarket But after Modi's announcement, fear has gripped the sub. Everyone is expecting a huge drop in the stock market.

I have already exhausted the LRS TCS limit. I wanted to survey the FIRE sub on where you guys are investing.

Got some really good feedback on this sub, so sharing a quick update here. Focused on using LLMs for data input and added a dark mode for fun. Would love to get feedback on what direction to go in next.

1. Apple Intelligence feature things like “hey siri sent think to Zoro” or using your camera to extract data from documents

2. Way to export data or share it with others to get active feedback. Maybe a human advisor in the loop type of thing

3. Agent builder to customize logic and in app execution of tasks such as updating exchange rates, auditing spending, planning for retirement

Would love to get feedback on what approach makes more sense and / or if there is anything that would make you use a tracking app over a spreadsheet.

More details, including technical info here: r/getzoro

I realised after working in corporates for 22 years and achieving FI, one thing. I had aced the corporate fakery game. In those 22 years I had slacked most of the time in various companies. Only 2 companies where there was real stressfull work and I quit them in 6 months. Rest of the time or couple of decades I slacked and yet managed to create a pretence of doing important work/useful work. I was often in managers good books and I knew how to do just enough and get good ratings and hikes and promotions. Although I always had the imposter syndrome because of this fakery, so I chose the FIRE path and couldnt wait to get out of corporate life.

Then enter Real World: I pulled the plug returned back to Bangalore and said enough of the fakery let me be myself and do real things. I realized the real world is brutal out there. I pretty much failed in everything that is real.

1. I joined badminton, used to play horribly but I was a beginner so it was okay. But after 6 months, I was still playing horribly and there is no faking it here like in corporates. If you are a bad player in doubles, you will know it and everyone knows it. You can't be a bad player and play for long.

2. I took up riding. I used to go for groups rides solo rides, I even did a ride to Kannur from Bangalore which is 320kms. That particular long ride I realised, my back really hurts, I cannot ride for more than 2hrs, after that I needed to take a break every 10 mins. What should have been a 7hr ride became a 12hr ride.

3. I decided to take up mutual fund distributor certification from AMFI. The exam itself was easy peasy. I thought I accomplished something for all my knowledge about financial planning I had practiced all this while. But then when I tried to get clients, I couldn't even get 1, not even 1Rupee or AUM. Not even from people who were close to me, relatives, friends, none.

This is when I realized, it was so easy for someone like me to fake it in corporates and be a winner. But post FIRE, I wanted to do something in the real world, things that were of genuine interest to me, badminton, riding bikes, being involved in financial industry. But I realized it is very hard work to make it work even in things that you love. I didn't have the motivation or the willingness to put the effort to become successful in any of these pursuits.

So now I am back again in a corporate job that pays 1/4th of my previous fulltime pre FI job and this time again as always, I am slacking, I resolved one issue yesterday, worked total of like 2hrs in the entire week and I got this sense of accomplishment/achievement without really doing anything impactful or material.

(Post written without any AI)

I see the writing on the wall. I don't know if my team can be fully replaced with AI - may be it can or may be it can't. But I clearly see the push from top to replace my team with AI. Work will likely become super boring if AI becomes the norm and I do not plan to stick around much longer after that. Anyhow, I have reached my leanfire with a bit of help from company:

Family background: 37M, single, parent, work from home tier two city, brother lost somewhere in USA

Current expenses - father monitors expenses and it about 25K per month for three of us. I cover the large expenses such as insurance (50K health for parents, 25K life for me) and other large expenses such society charges

Living situation: 2 houses, one where we live and another in a Tier 1 city where we go and live for a month every quarter - poor man's vacation. All our relatives are in the Tier 1 city but we like the peace and quite and low population in tier 2 city

Current income - ~3L in hand cash, the usual PPF, bonus ~10%

Break down - all in INR

Total Corpus: 4.2 Cr

Equity MF: 2.8 Cr

EPF PPF: 0.55 Cr

Direct stocks: 0.3 Cr

NPS: 0.06 Cr

Cash on hand: 0.07 Cr

US ETF: 0.03 Cr - late to the game

Company vested ESOPs: 0.4 Cr that is currently held in arbitrage funds and will be used to invest in US ETF at 50K per month over the next 2-3 years

Upcoming major events: About time I get married. I have no interest or heart it in but my parent keeps pushing. I am already an uncle and my marriage value is quite low.

Future plans: Our company does not do layoffs, haven't laid off anyone that I know of. I am rated either EE or ME last 3 years. I like the current role (Analysis, preparing reports, talking to customer about our finding, help them optimize their position). Company is fairly small and I do not see any team that I would like to join internally. Exit is probably my only path. I also do not want to go back to shitty tier 1 cities so I am closely reviewing my options. May be something will work out, may be nothing will. Who knows.

I am 34, wife is 29 we got a 2 year old daughter.

My 67 year old mother is not dependent on me.

Current assets are as following. Not including my wife's assets and salary because she has to take care of her mother, father and brother who is still studying.

• 1.3cr in Fixed deposit, monthly interest payout. Used by mother for her living expenses. (I will inherit this)
• 56 lakh in debt investments.
• 1.6cr in equity investments.
• Mother lives with her siblings in their ancestral home. (I will not inherit this)
• 3BHK flat in Pune where I currently live. (I will inherit this)
• Purchased a plot away from the city and built a weekend house, currently not renting this.
• Current monthly salary is about 1.5 lakh in hand. I am a founding member of a startup with 5% stake in the company. Fintech domain.
• Current salary is low since this is a early stage startup. Not making significant revenue.

I am debt free. Current living expenses are about 80k a month. Daughter will start school from next year which will increase the monthly expense to about 1.2 lakh per month. Not planning to have any more kids.

I took a decision to leave my high paying job and got into a startup which is currently paying me 30% of what I used to earn. I some time stay awake at night and think if I took the right decision.

Am I currently at cost FIRE where I don't have to worry about saving anything anymore? What should be the next strategy for me so I get to the stage where I can work on anything I want without considering how much it pays.

Target coast fire amount - 3cr

**Current portfolio**:
Indian equity: 50L
Multi assets: 7.7L
FD: 10.5L
Arbitrage: 5.2L
PF: 12L
US equity: 1.3L
RSUs: 2.5L
Savings account: 3.8L
Endowment: 3L (I have put 6 till now, but will get 3 if ai forfeit)
Esops (companies to go public in next 2 years): 15L (I see no further upside on them)

**Total Current Portfolio size without esops**: 96L

I am 26 right now.

Salary split looks something like this:
In hand: 3L
Pf: 50k
RSUs vesting every month: 40k

SIPs (out of total in hand):
1.6L monthly in Indian midcap and smallcap
45k in US index

I can probably start putting in around 15-20k more every month.

Software Engineering is not for me, and it’s been a while I realised it. I just want to reach the 3cr number as soon as possible. When can I realistically target to?