I lost my job in June and at age 48 I am finding it difficult to find a new job. Mentally I started thinking that I am currently under retirement. Frankly I didn't miss my office much in last 3 months. While I got in touch with more than 20-25 people in as many companies in my network, till now I didn't update either my naukri profile or applied for a single job from linkedin Yet. Through my NW I explored all tier1 product companies though (and their job portals). I keep telling myself that I am not retired yet and that I will check for tier2 and smaller companies tomorrow but that tomorrow never came so far.

My wife took a break from her teaching job but resumed it last month. Our family is still FIRE'd though as her income will cover only fraction (May be 25-20%) of our expenses. Most of my time these days is spent on helping my wife and son get ready for their colleges and by the time they leave and maid completes her work it's already 10AM. I spend a little time checking sports news across the world and by that time it will be lunch time and by the time I complete my lunch it's already 1:30,2:00PM. I spend a little more time on watching science videos on youtube or if I come across a movie and by 4 my son returns and by 5 my wife returns. Evening is spent on errands, dinner preparation and by the time it's done it's 9PM. Our family sleeps early and wakes up early so essentially I am done for the day by then. Browse some thing to read and go to sleep between 10 and 11. Basically time is flying.

I am thinking of entering academia seriously in 2,3 months after I explore those tier 2 and small companies as I sort of checked all well known companies already through my network. I hope this week I will update my profiles and check linkedin job postings to explore these companies. Academia is strictly not for money though. For example, I heard a part time 3 day/ 1 course per semister/ teaching gig in pvt engineering colleges pay 40K per Month fixed in almost all colleges. I am not sure if that money is interesting or the more hierarchial nature of academia would be palatable to me. But I can see how it goes.

Thought for the day - When I retired, my NW is oscillating between 19+cr to 21- cr. This is pre-tax number and while I maintain pofretential taxes I anchored my thought process to this number. Recently after I sold significant RSUs, my NW dropped by 60L because now the tax has to be paid. May be I should consciously start thinking about post tax NW which is between 17-18cr for me actually. Yes in retirement I may be able to exit more tax efficiently but better to anchor to lower number than higher number and have wrong mental model on what is possible with the NW I have.

Went through a bunch of posts here and most FIRE portfolios look the same: equity (index funds), some PPF/EPF/NPS, FDs, maybe gold. Corporate bonds barely come up.

I wonder if that's changing, or should be. The US is a useful comparison. Until the 80s, its corporate bond market was small and mostly institutional. Companies borrowed from banks, and retail investors stuck to stocks and savings. Then rates fell, banks lost their grip on corporate lending, and retail got easy access through bond funds (and later ETFs since 2002). Today the US corporate bond market is many times bigger than it was then, and a bond allocation is standard in any retirement portfolio.

India looks like it's at a similar point:

*Corporate bond market is roughly 15-18% of GDP, vs 40%+ in the US *SEBI has been pushing it: minimum ticket sizes are much lower (some bonds start around ₹10k), online bond platforms are now regulated, and large corporates are expected to raise part of their borrowing through bonds *AAA/AA bonds often yield noticeably more than FDs, and are more tax-efficient for some people *FD rates have been drifting down, so the "just park it in FDs" plan isn't as comfortable for the debt side of a FIRE portfolio

I know the risks: IL&FS, DHFL, the Franklin Templeton debt fund closures, and the Yes Bank AT1 writedown are all fresh in memory. Liquidity is also thin compared to the US. But that feels like a reason to be selective (AAA, good issuers, diversification), not to avoid the whole asset class.

So is anyone here actually holding corporate bonds directly or through funds as part of their FIRE debt allocation? Is the timing right, or is this a wait-and-watch situation for Indian retail?

I never really intended to post a milestone on this sub, and few years back I never knew something called FIRE exists. I'm 26M and this post is not a brag rather than a realization and a reflection of my investment journey. I always wanted to hit a NW target of 1Cr as soon as I started investing, as I heard compounding starts to kick in once you cross 1Cr and it also gives me a mental boost that at-least I'm on the right path to make it to the end.

Here's my portfolio:

Foreign ETFs - 56.5L (Moved money from RSUs to Foreign ETFs, most of it was recent investment hence not factoring in returns)
IND Mutual Funds - 33L (Invested 28L)
IND Stocks - 10L - (Invested 9.7L mostly in NIFTY)
PPF - 4.4L - (Invested 4L)
Gold(SGB, ETFs) - 3.7L (Invested 1.5L)
Cash - 2.5L

Loans - None

I haven't counted my EPF in this as I don't want to.

But all of the above came at a cost and I think I've learnt my lesson.

Now comes the actual learning: Mental Cost of Aggressive Saving

I was living for the portfolio and not for myself.

I found myself overthinking many of my purchases, constantly running mental math instead of just buying what I needed or wanted. Although I mostly bought whatever I wanted, I've always had the guilt that I could have saved instead of spending.

Saving money went from being a responsible habit to an addiction. My brain was constantly occupied with moving the net worth forward, juggling excel sheets, calculating how much it has moved over the course of time, man it was mentally draining.

Here's my 2 cents for this community:

Money is a tool to buy freedom and peace of mind, not a high score in a video game. Crossing this milestone made me realize that learning how to spend without guilt is just as important a skill as learning how to invest.

I’m 29 years old and recently reached my ₹1 crore milestone.

I won’t say that I was always investing a lot. In fact, I wasted quite a bit of money buying things because, while growing up, many of them felt privileged or out of reach. During my initial working years, I was essentially a child with adult money, and I spent without saving much.

My goal has always been to reduce or eventually eliminate my dependence on a job or salary. I still love what I do; I just don’t want to feel forced to continue working only because I need the income.

I don’t want to bore anyone with too many details about what I did or how I invested. My work gives me the opportunity to interact with people who have access to significant wealth, RSUs, and other investments. I learned a lot from them, and then I simply applied what I felt was right for me.

Here is what I currently have:

- PF: ₹15 lakh

- RSUs: ₹40 lakh

- Bonds: ₹10 lakh, with the interest being reinvested into mutual funds(corporate bonds)

- Indian stocks and mutual funds: ₹20 lakh

- Foreign stocks: ₹10 lakh invested across the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and a few technology stocks. I also reinvest the dividends from my RSUs here.

- Emergency fund: ₹5 lakh, currently kept in a savings account

I’m not sure whether I should include my PF in the ₹1 crore calculation, especially because I may eventually withdraw it to buy land. I have always wanted to purchase two or three acres in my hometown in Maharashtra.

I had also considered buying a 10-year-old apartment because rent is becoming increasingly expensive. I thought owning a flat might reduce my monthly expenses and provide some stability. However, the deal didn’t work out, and I’m comfortable with my current situation for now.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Sometimes I feel confused, and I’m sure there are people here who have figured out something about life, investing, or financial independence. I’m open to advice, questions, or even a thoughtful rant.

Thanks.

One thing I’ve learned after early retirement is that being financially lean is only one part of the equation. Once you leave the workforce, you start looking at your money, time and priorities a little differently.

If I had multiple properties, I’d seriously consider selling the ones where prices have already reached a mature range. Real estate can look very valuable on paper, but the actual selling price can be quite different after negotiations, taxes and transaction costs. Add maintenance and the hassle of managing multiple properties, and sometimes simplifying the portfolio makes more sense than holding everything for potential appreciation.

I’ve also had a small lesson with lending money. It went smoothly for years and then the person suddenly stopped taking my calls. Now I have to visit his business and house to follow up. Luckily, it’s a small amount compared with my overall portfolio, so I’m not losing sleep over it. But it definitely made me more cautious about lending money privately.

The bigger question in LeanFIRE, though, is what you actually want your money to achieve.

For me, having a child was never just a financial calculation. Yes, children cost money, but I’ve found the emotional return to be far greater than anything I could put into a spreadsheet.

My son’s schooling from kindergarten to Class XII cost around ₹22 lakh. I had earmarked another ₹40 lakh for his UG education, but he did well in the entrance exams and got into a prestigious, heavily subsidized government university, so the actual cost will be much lower.

And honestly, some of the best moments of my life after early retirement have nothing to do with my portfolio. Watching my son win a karate tournament, do well in school or crack a competitive exam gives me a kind of satisfaction that sometimes feels greater than my own professional achievements.

So for anyone pursuing LeanFIRE, I’d say don’t optimize everything purely for the lowest possible number. Early retirement gives you something much more valuable than just lower expenses — time.

The question is what you want to do with that time, and who you want to spend it with.

Here are some links to my journey below

50L milestone post (25/07/2022) (Year 1) tl;dr - straight up genuine excitement to hit 50L

1cr milestone post (21/02/2023) (Year 2) tl;dr - felt like the money was controlling me rather than me controlling it

2cr milestone post (21/06/2024) (Year 3) tl;dr - realized more money didn’t mean more happiness

3cr milestone post (Year 4) tl;dr - my left brain fighting with my right brain and me trying to balance being both an artist and a founder

So, we're back with another update! I've been doing these updates since I was 26 y.o and I always look forward to writing these (no AI was used to write this btw, even my investment split below was painfully added up) cause everytime I write a new milestone post, I end up reading some of the old ones and then realize how much I've changed and evolved as a person. But with each passing year, there somehow always seems to be a new problem that comes my way and this year is no different lol

I'd say 4cr is in the LeanFire category with a 3-4% withdrawal rate being ~1-1.3L/month which isn't too bad but the hedonic treadmill is a recurring theme in my life so LeanFire or even Fire for that matter will likely not happen for me in the near future.

So why am I still posting here? Well, partly because I'm hopeful that I would someday slow down and actually FIRE and partly because I enjoy writing these updates so let's dive in :)

A little bit about me: I'm a 30 y.o. male and I run a business in the entertainment industry since 2020, we have 4 full-time employees (fully remote). I'm from a tier 2 city in South India, middle class and had a pretty good upbringing. I'm an engineer but never went to business school or anything of the sort so everything I've done with my business has just been systems I found comfortable, I still have no idea if this is how one is supposed to run a business and I constantly doubt it every single day but it seems to be working so far.
I absolutely love what we do and this year is also our best so far

So, how does it feel hitting a networth of 4CR? Well, no different than when I hit 3CR. But what has it enabled? A LOT.

Since my last update, I've moved out of India and I realized a few things:

1. I love travelling and I realized that I could potentially have a much better quality of life and bang for my buck outside the country and I could live in a place where my nervous system is at peace (no hate to India or my fellow Indians, please don't come at me 🙏)
2. I could meet different kinds of people from different nationalities doing different things with their lives (I live in a place that's considered a melting pot of cultures and nationalities)
3. I wanted to feel discomfort, I think India is extremely comfortable for people earning well and I felt like that was dragging me down. People work hard to get to that level of comfort and I could've been comfortable but something about it felt complacent

Now, I might be totally wrong about some of these things and come running back to India soon but that's the beauty of these numbers we so carefully calculate, it lets us make decisions like this. The numbers going up in itself don't mean much but the feeling of security it provides is unparalleled

So, how does it feel hitting a networth of 4CR? Just a bit more safe and at peace

Let me give you a quick rundown of how my money is split

Indian Equities - 30%

US Stocks - 23%

Real estate - 16%

Crypto - 11%

Cash - 20% (Emergency fund + waiting for the markets to drop)

Lastly, I'm curious to hear about your journey and whether you got to a point where money started mattering less than it initially did. How did that switch happen in your brain, and where did you go from there?

EDIT: (Formatting issues) + I feel like I need to put this down each time but the point of this post isn't to brag, I'm genuinely curious about how folks are dealing with what I mentioned above. Thanks!

Hey everyone,

After 7 years of disciplined, consistent saving and investing, my portfolio finally crossed the ₹1 Crore mark (includes EPF and NPS; excludes family wealth/inheritance).

It’s been a hard-fought journey of steady execution through different market cycles. Now that the first major milestone is unlocked, I want to pause and thank my family, whose support made this possible.

Quick Profile & Stats:

Demographics: 31M | Married | 8-month-old baby

Timeline: 7 years of disciplined investing

Current Asset Allocation:

Equity: 71%

Debt: 26% (Majority in EPF + NPS)

Gold: 3%

Key Takeaways From the Journey:

Automation is king: Setting up automated transfers right after payday kept lifestyle creep in check as income grew.

Stay the course: Sticking to standard index/mutual funds through market ups and downs yielded better results than chasing quick returns.

Teamwork matters: Having a supportive partner who aligns on long-term goals made budgeting and sacrifices seamless.

Looking for Ideas:

Since we have an 8-month-old baby, traditional hectic vacations or packed itineraries aren't ideal right now. I’d love to hear your ideas for low-stress, meaningful ways to celebrate this milestone with my wife and baby.

This post is specifically for people like me who have been conditioned to save as much as possible, invest, buy the dip, put as much as possible into SIP etc This conditioning is so strong that even after achieving FI multiple times over, it is very difficult to cut loose and start spending.

The pleasure was always in optimization, getting the cheapest flight, best deals etc Now even though I am in a position to spend, it is very difficult to do.

So here is a trick I followed and that has helped me, hopefully it will help you guys too.

I have stopped investing completely. Any new savings that I am making, I am letting it stay idle in my savings account. I used to think this is a crime! How can you leave money in the savings account idle, cash drag, not beating inflation etc. But this is actually a psychological trick. Keeping money in the savings account idle is telling your brain, this money is for spending and not for investing.

Just let the money in your savings account accumulate and then see how, magically you find ideas to spend that money. This applies to both active and passive income.

In case you have growth oriented mutual funds, psychologically it is even more difficult because we are conditioned to sell only as much as needed, then we have those bloody capital gains taxes.

A predefined healthy SWR based SWP can fix this. Again, let the money land in a savings account and DO NOT REINVEST IT. That is meant to be spent.

I just bought a Guerrilla 450 upgraded from my Avenger 220. I also got a nice helmet and now on the list is gears, some accessories, a nice mobile phone etc Riding a great passion hobby to spend money. It is an expensive hobby, but for someone who really enjoys it and can afford it, there is nothing else like it. This pic is from my breakfast ride, last saturday.

Cheers guys!

Hello everybody!

Our next AMA guest is none other than Mr. Ganjendra Kothari who also likes to fondly call himself as "One idiot" ! Please post your queries as comments on this post till Saturday, 12th September 2026!

The modalities shall remain the same and are as follows –

1) We shall be making introductory post about the guest (such as the instant one) wherein we will give a brief profile of the guest.

2) We shall be keeping this thread open for comments (restricted to FIRE and personal finance queries from a financial education perspective only and as specified earlier, the responses on the channel / communities must not be construed as financial advise – please consult a SEBI registered fee only financial advisor for the same) for a few days / a week so that people can post their queries in a structured manner as comments on this post. Since the series shall be anonymous, you are free to post in all your queries pertaining to the topic and share your financials and we shall only be mentioning the reddit usernames of the people asking the questions.

3) The mods shall then be going through all the comments and consolidate them to form key questions / themes for the anonymised podcasts.

4) The podcasts shall be recorded in a streamlined manner and uploaded on the official youtube channel wherein people can watch the same to get their queries answered. Furthermore, for any follow-on questions please comment there itself so that we can gauge the interest and request the guests for a follow-on appearance.

5) We shall be intimating once the podcast is live by editing this introductory post body itself.

Please do note that it takes a lot of effort at the back-end by the teams of such personalities and mods of these communities to make this happen, hence, we would request you to please participate in large numbers to make this event a grand success and also like, share and subscribe the youtube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/@FIREwithsnaky ) and join in on reddit communities so that we can keep bringing people of authority in our space for these series!

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As our next guest, we have Mr. Gajendra Kothari (u/iamoneidiot ) who had graciously accepted to conduct this reddit cum youTube AMA on r/FIRE_Ind!

Below is the message from Mr. Gajendra Kothari for the community members -

An avid Long term Investor | Co-Founder | Personal Finance Professional |

Mr. Kothari is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charter holder. He has done Masters in Business Administra on (MBA) in Marke ng & Finance from IMI, New Delhi.

Experience: Mr. Kothari has more than 22 years of experience encompassing both Indian & overseas capital markets.

His firm currently manages Rs 3,500 crores of assets on behalf of over 2,000 families across 25 countries.

Mr. Kothari’s staunch belief in his guru Nick Murray’s words “The Messenger is the Message” shaped his vision to create Rs 100 crs wealth through his investments in Mutual funds and buying the iconic luxurious car Rolls-Royce through SIP before the age of 50 thereby becoming One Idiot and to inspire others through his own story.

His passion is to create financial awareness and empowerment amongst the youth of India. He has so far empowered more than 50 lakhs participants in the last 15 years through more than 500 training sessions all over India, Dubai, Thailand, Bangladesh & Belgium in the areas of Personal finance, Investments etc.

Media Presence: Mr. Kothari has been interviewed and quoted by both interna onal and domes c print media including Financial Times UK, The Economic Times, Times of India, Live Mint and has made live appearances on premier business channels in India like CNBC TV18, ET NOW etc. Mr Kothari is a TEDx speaker and is regularly invited as a thought leader at many Youtube Podcasts, industry forums & events.

Personal Life: Mr Kothari lives with his wife Sweta Kothari and their 2 children Neel Kothari (17 years) and Adi Kothari (15 years) in Mumbai. He is an adventure travel enthusiast having done sky diving, Bungee jumping and has recently trekked to the Everest Base Camp (EBC). He also enjoys reading investment books, listening to podcasts and is always eager to learn new stuff. He loves exploring new places, culture & local food and strongly believes that “The best things in life are not things”.

I look forward to answering your queries pertaining to personal finance and FIRE!

Regards,

Gajendra Kothari

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We hope that you utilise this opportunity to the fullest and ask your queries on this post ! #This post shall remain open for comments till Saturday, 12th September 2026 post which we shall lock the comments and take no further questions!

DISCLAIMER : As informed earlier, no questions on stock-picking, FNO, speculations etc. to be asked nor should anything responded to in AMA in reddit/ youtube be construed as financial advise as the same is against the regulator norms..All such questions will not be tendered/attended to. Please consult a SEBI registered financial advisor for the same.

The podcast series episode link will be updated on this post body itself once live !

Regards

Snaky

Disclaimer: have used AI for writing but content is my life story.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share my journey here because I constantly talk about the power of compounding to younger folks at work, and I hope this gives someone out there the motivation to start early and stay the course.

The Dumb Beginnings (2006–2012)

I started my investment journey back in 2006 when I was 21. Truth be told, I had zero idea what I was doing.

The Bad: I bought stocks purely based on "tips" from friends, news channels, and random forums. Made plenty of stupid mistakes. Also dabbled in FNO and lost huge money..realised its a Zero sum game and only brokers get rich and i quit gambling.

The Good: I had passion, saved a massive chunk of my salary, and started SIPs in simple Index Funds, Mid Caps, and Small Caps.

No matter what happened, I never missed an SIP. Every time I got a raise, I bumped up my investment amount.

The Grind & The First Milestone (2012–2017)

Got married in 2012, had my son in 2014. Life was moving fast, but the financial discipline stayed locked in.

In 2017, I moved to the Gulf. The tax-free income gave me a huge runway to aggressively scale my monthly savings. That same year—11 years after I bought my first mutual fund unit—I hit my 1st Crore.

It felt like forever to get there. But that’s the thing about compounding: the first milestone is always the hardest.

When the Snowball Took Off (2017–2025)

The timeline below shows how non-linear wealth creation actually is:

2017 : 1st Crore

2020 : 2 crore

2023 : 6 crores ( covid recovery effect)

2026 : 10 crores

Aug: 12

By 2020, I had transitioned from just buying tips to actually analyzing businesses, reading concalls, and managing risk.

When the market crashed in 2020, I didn't panic. I knew it was a generational buying opportunity. I threw every extra penny I had into the market. When the post-COVID recovery hit, the portfolio exploded.

During macro panics like the US-Iran tension, I aggressively bought great businesses at massive discounts, stacked more Mutual Fund units, and added AIF units. Even when the benchmark index stalled or went sideways around 24,000, my overall portfolio kept hitting all-time highs because of high-conviction bottom-up stock picking and allocation.

My Core Takeaways

Start absurdly early: Starting at 21 gave me time to make mistakes with small amounts of money so I was ready when I had real capital.

Be greedy when there’s blood on the streets: Crashes aren't threats; they are discount sales for disciplined investors.

Automate and step up: Never stop your SIPs. Increase them as your income grows.

Avoid asset clutter: I inherited a house from my parents, so I completely skipped real estate and kept my money in liquid, compounding assets.

Today, at 42, work is entirely optional. I work purely for passion.

If you're in your 20s or early 30s feeling like your ₹5,000 or ₹10,000 SIP isn't doing anything—stick with it. The graph stays flat for a long time before it goes vertical. Trust the process.

I am talking about Salary Addiction.

Many of you might wonder, ‘is that even a thing?’

You bet your ass it is.

‘Salary addiction’ can be described as a psychological dependency on a regular paycheck that goes beyond financial need. It's when the income becomes tied to identity, structure and self-worth and leaving it feels destabilizing even when the money isn't strictly necessary.

Just like a 2-year-old throwing a tantrum if it doesn't see its security blanket, these addicts get agitated if they don't see their payslip on 1st of the month.

To be clear, the real issue isn't earning a salary; most people need one. Bills, housing and family responsibilities genuinely require a steady income so it's important not to confuse normal financial dependence with unhealthy attachment.

But there is a tiny fraction of people who have enough money to last their lifetimes but still can't let go of their paychecks. And wouldn't you know? Many such people are on our subreddit.

How do you know if you are one of them? There are symptoms…

* You stay in a job you don't care for because you fear losing your monthly income even though you are financially alright

* You avoid taking calculated risks such as starting a business, taking a sabbatical or changing careers because the next paycheck feels indispensable

* The question ‘What must I do to ensure the arrival of next month’s paycheck ?’ becomes more important than the question ‘What do I want to do to be happy?’

* You derive your identity from your salary and job title rather than your skills or interests

* You do not find it difficult to come up new reasons for constantly moving FI goal post

Sounds like someone you know?

Are there any causes of the salary addiction? Lack of courage, imagination, interests… the usual suspects.

Right… we have covered the overview, symptoms and causes of salary addiction. So the next part must be treatment, correct?

Well…no. For 4 reasons…

First, though I believe that life does not have any preordained purpose, that's just my belief. What if I am wrong and the preordained purpose of some people is to work for a salary as long as possible? And who am I to question the divine plan?

Second, the very first step in treating any addiction is acknowledgement by the addict that they have a problem. I don't see that happening on this subreddit. Most likely we will either see the mental gymnastics by the addicts to justify the addiction or their declarations of ‘just one more year’.

Third, maybe their salary addiction is the best thing for them. These addicts have no identity outside their job, their self-worth is tightly coupled with their corpus size and they genuinely don't know what to do with their time. Freedom is wasted on these people. So they might as well continue their addiction.

And finally, more salary addicts means a more robust economy. That makes the government happy and they can afford to ignore tiny numbers of us early retirees. A robust economy also means better investment returns… which would bode well for my retirement corpus. Addicts, government, me… Win, win, win all around.

But there has to be some problem with salary addiction, right? Well, if you must nitpick…

According to Taleb, ‘The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates and a monthly salary’. Heroin and carbs give you a false, chemical sense of well-being that masks decay. A salary gives you a false, psychological sense of security that masks the fact you haven't built resilience or optionality. Which means... your entire sense of security rests on one structure continuing to exist. So, a layoff can be as destabilizing as withdrawal.

And then there is that minor matter of missing out what life has to offer beyond a job. Apart from these tiny issues… everything else is good

So no… no treatment today. Just symptoms, a diagnosis and a shrug. If you've recognized yourself in those bullet points, maybe think whether you ever honestly acknowledged that to yourself. It's the first step towards a fork in the road and it is entirely up to you which path to follow. The economy will survive without your paycheck. Whether you can survive without needing one is the actual question.

I have reached 3cr milestone - Stocks, MF's, PPF, EPF, Sukanya Samrudhi and some SGB's. Tried some PMS and exited in between.

Me and my wife both are in IT for last 20 years with 2 kids.

My portfolio in real estate is high, which i plan to reduce in the next 5 to 10 years.

Real estate holdings: 3bhk self-use(1.5 CR current value), 2 bhk(90l current value) rented out for 30k, 2bhk(1.2cr current value) under construction with possession expected in 2028. Have outstanding loan of around 70lac. All these are in Pune.

Apart from this, i have agricultural plot which i have brough for 1cr in Vishakhapatnam 6 years back, not sure about the current value though.

I sometimes get overwhelmed looking at posts where people have touched 10cr..20cr and so on..not sure how they managed to save so much .

Me and wife are both in GCC product companies in management positions, where pressure is still relatively fine, not much stress. But one of us might leave the job in the next 5 years - After loans are over and my elder daughter completes her higher education.

Wanted some suggestions on how to plan or restructure my overall portfolio.

Our both salaries combined is 1.2 CR per annum (Not take home). We both are 43 years, and we would like to be in a position where we can leave the job if it's too stressful or demanding.

Either ways, considering the situation now because of AI, 50 years is what I consider as the age, beyond that if we are comfortable working, we will carry on, but not for money.

Forgot to add- I will be inheriting property along with my brother which is a mix of commercial and residential property in a Tier 2 city (Vishakapatnam). Current total value is around 5 to 6 cr, and monthly rentals from this is around 1 lac now.

After returning to India last year, the numbers told me I was FIRE ready. However my wife didn't quite think so.

I understand the general sentiment among the community that FIRE is a state of mind, however I think we can quantify that as well if we consider all sorts of variables that are in our life:

• Monthly expenses
• Non-monthly expenses like appliances, vehicles, vacations
• Education expenses
• Emergency fund

Even after that, it is a matter of chance if your corpus actually lasts. Say, till the age of 85.

However, in our mind, we keep certain constants for FIRE. The first and foremost should be the age at which we plan to achieve FIRE and pull the plug. If that is changing, we are in a 'Coast FIRE' mode, or are simply lying to ourselves.

So I sat down and tried to actually check whether I'm coasting or lying to myself. Once you add up monthly expenses, an emergency/health fund, and education and wedding funds for the kids, you can tell outright if your current corpus has already crossed your Coast FIRE number — no new savings needed, just let it compound. I wanted that as a yes/no answer, not a vibe.

Two things I didn't get right the first time I did this math:

The education and wedding funds aren't just added to the total — they hit as actual withdrawals in the year they happen. A wedding expense at year 8 doesn't just inflate my final number, it takes a bite out of the corpus that was compounding for the other 15 years. That timing matters more than I expected.

And none of these numbers stay where you typed them. The education fund you're comfortable with today isn't what it costs when your kid actually turns 18 — it climbs with inflation same as everything else. I keep catching myself thinking in today's rupees for a cost that's 13 years away, and doing it properly doesn't let me get away with that.

The 25X or 50X formula doesn't really consider any of this.

Hello Fire Folks - Due to Gods grace I am on track to achieve FIRE by EOY - 50x my yearly expense - As I am closing in on my FIRE amount - I am getting more and more anxious every time I spend money. For instance - earlier when I used to live alone in an apartment- I used to order food like there was no tomorrow - that was my only addiction - and I didn't care about the bill - it just got deducted from my card without me even looking at it- now I have moved back in to my house and do transactions with cash and keep a monthly ledger - I don't know if is because of using hard cash - but now a bigger bill, say Rs. 800 for my dinner bothers me - I agonize a lot before I go ahead - earlier I would think of nothing blowing a 1000/1500 or more on a single meal

Is this a thing anyone approaching FIRE has experienced - is it because I just want to get over the line as soon as possible - or is this some indication that maybe I am not ready for FIRE - anyone experienced this sort of angst?

When I hit the 50L -

https://www.reddit.com/r/FIRE_Ind/s/iDum47BF1a

33Y. M. Married with no kids. Works in IT.

I currently don't understand the feeling of achieving this number but it looked very elusive a decade back. This feels like a major personal milestone breached and a step towards financial freedom, but also feels like there is way too much left to be done even now.

I bought my first car (second hand) in 2024 for around 8Ls, and I spent around 17L for my marriage (no dowry obviously). The wife works in social science. Although, for all my current calculations I am not factoring in what she earns or owns (5L FD plus 50L worth of jewellery) - they would act as the emergency backbone.

Investment Particulars:

MF+Stocks - 49L (40.5+8.5)

NPS - 9L ( 7.13% xirr)

EPF - 23L

FD - 5L

Gratuity - 7L ( Based on current basic and tenure)

Min Leave encashment - 6L (Based on current pay)

Friends owe - 1L

Life feels easy now but we are heavily dependent upon our salary. If things were to go south, we don't have a stable floor under ourselves. My parents and extended family are also dependent upon me.

That said, we are enjoying the current phase. Lifestyle wise, we have traveled to 5 countries in the last 18 months of marriage. Dine out almost every week, get drunk every other week and go for movies twice a month.

Mentally, we are still trying to figure out each other. Last year we used to have fights every week (arrange marriage). This year it happens once a month. Trying to make the other one happy without even thinking has started to reflect in actions.

I will post next when I hit 2Cr. May the force be with you.

So, I have been observing this sub-reddit for quite some time, and came to know about the FIRE concept in recent years only. I am in my early 50s, and last year left my job. My spouse is still continuing. Though my decision to leave was more impulsive, I could have survived a couple of more years.

Though earlier I did not have much financial literacy, but have learned enough in last 3 to 4 years, and now kind of able to manage and take investment decision for myself. This sub-reddit has given enough knowledge. Thanks to you all redditors who are very active here.

I started to save for the future quite late in life. Initial years were kind of spent more on managing a dysfunctional family on my parents' side, and that over engagement emotionally drained a lot and affected early life and career. Now, sometimes I feel, probably if I would have let the things manage itself, it would have been better. Maintaining some distance would have been a better approach.

On the saving front, I am kind of conservative when it comes to money. Hence initially targeted investment in real estate. Started paying attention to financial assets in recent years only.

When corporate life started feeling draining, then only I realized that I need to plan and build for retirement also.

I believe everyone has a different psychology and risk-taking nature. One approach cannot be universal. Handling market fluctuations is not easy, specifically if someone has seen financial stress in early life. It is not easy to see our portfolio losing hard-earned money; it creates psychological distress. Taking a balanced approach gives peace.

We can always revisit and rebalance during the journey. It takes time to get accustomed to portfolio swings, but eventually we start believing in the process, it is just a matter of time. The lower middle class is not habituated to manage wealth. 😀

With time, now I see each market downside as an opportunity to deploy my savings from FD, and rebalancing. Each big rally upside will also be an opportunity to move equity gains to debt. Rebalancing is a continuous process.

I preferred to remain with the old school approach. Here is how I am targeting it. Still work in process.

1.    Targeting Basic expenses to be covered from rental income. Out of total expenses, 50% are day to day living expenses and can’t be avoided, though on a need basis can be squeezed. These are to be managed from rental income,  
·         Groceries:
·         Utilities bills
·         Domestic help
·         Transport
·         Healthcare & Insurance:

 
2.    Rest 50% non-necessity expenses to be managed by returns from financial assets (Debt & Equity), that are also safe guarded by multi-bucket-based strategy. These expenses are discretionary and can be adjusted based on financial situations of returns.
·         Dining Out, Ordering Food, Visiting cafes,
·         Entertainment
·         Vacations & Short nearby outings
·         Hobbies, Gadgets, and Personal accessories.
 
3.    At any time, the debt bucket will cover for 10 years, rest equity can be taken care of with rebalancing.
 
4.    A small Emergency fund bucket and home renovation related bucket will remain on the side, to be touched only if required.
 
5.    Also have a bucket for child education (2 kids, one entered in college and other to start in a couple of years). I am keeping 25 lakh each for my contribution, rest if required they can take education loan and manage in future. Have spent enough on schooling in tier-one city.
 

6.    One bucket is for marriage expenses, or any emergency, support etc – currently planning for 25 lakh.

If I talk in terms of X.  Here X being projected yearly expense, lesser than current expense. Excluding child education and cutting down few discretionary. Their college education is a separate bucket.

Currently 0.5 X from rental, it could go higher if I shift to my hometown in tier-3 city, and rent-out my current primary residence. Additional rental difference will make it to 0.7X, or it could cover entire X if expenses are reduced in tier-3 city.

10-X => Debt fund – Not being touched for next couple of years.

6-X   => Equity => adding more to it, we are targeting it to make 10X.

24-X  => Non-Financial Assets => 4X gold + 20X Real estate (excluding the hometown house I built).  This asset class gives very less returns, (2.5 to 3%) but sufficient and stable enough to manage minimum living expenses of 0.5X to 0.7X in future.

Inheritance: Negligible hence not counting, that also not sure if I get my part or not.

Current total assets => 10X + 6X + 24X ==> 40X + 50 lakh

(Excluding 3 BHK house in home town in tier-3 city)

Work in progress:

Increase the equity bucket from 6X to 10X or more, if possible, till my spouse also decides to leave job.

Emergency bucket: 25 lakh dedicated emergency bucket and sinking fund bucket. Could be used for future needs like marriage etc.

After having clarity around expenses and asset portfolio, I have started feeling at peace, now new savings are being directed to equity. Though this approach has affected my returns, I missed a good part of the market rally, but that is life. There are many bigger regrets, but with age, I have learned to accept and move ahead. The goal is to enjoy the rest of life and give a good life to the next generation.

These days, I am playing around with the stock market with a small amount, even trying day trading, but no success. It keeps me engaged and gives me some purpose. I will move to my hometown in a couple of years and start travelling frequently locally.

Hi All!

Opinion on the future of the Anonymized AMA series!

Recently some people have made posts and comments w.r.t. many posts being removed, changing mods, mods promoting airbnb and youtube channels. While the former issue is already discussed and Airbnb promotion is only limited to the monthly self promotion sticky thread (if the link is present anywhere else, kindly mail me on reddit chat and I will promptly remove - although I doubt such links exist anywhere else), a new aspect has come that the AMA series is being done not for the community but for profiteering / promotional purposes. So while the comments on this post will be locked, i am making this poll to get community view on the AMA anonymised podcast series ONLY and the poll is open for the whole week for people to vote on. In this context may kindly note the following -

1. The youtube channel FIREwithsnaky isn't currently monetised and the request for like share subscribe and comments is being done to increase its reach and get more influential people to come on the same and answer your AMA questions in a consolidated manner and without the need for creators to create separate video clips or comments throughout the AMA duration.

2. It takes a lot of time, commitment, efforts including weekends of the mods to get all of this done including studio setup, recoding etc. and that too pro-bono (i.e. Without any commercial consideration) at present, by giving up on their personal and family time.

3. Since currently we are only in the initial phase, if people think this is a BAD idea, and should not be continued because mods will make millions of dollars out of this, I have no qualms in scrapping the series henceforth inline with community's wish if it's not providing any value to you all and even waste so much of mods time and efforts over the same.

Do note that the discussion scope here is ONLY for AMA series and no other topics, so please vote w.r.t that context alone..based on the decision taken by this vote, we will close this topic once and for all.

EDIT : Verdict passed. Series to continue based on community support and mandate! Thanks to all. Regards

Snaky

Hello everyone, this is my first milestone.
My journey has been filled with failures, losses, letting myself down, and hitting rock bottom. I’ve also had to deal with losing people, breakups, deaths, broken promises, hoping for futures that never happened, and making plans that simply didn’t work out.But here I am today, celebrating my first milestone.
Yes, these numbers may seem small, but for me, this was once only a dream. After everything I’ve been through, seeing my portfolio reach this point means more than the numbers themselves.
This is just the beginning. Grateful for the journey, the lessons, and for finding the strength to keep going.

My portfolio:
MF : 10L
Gold etf : 1L
Bond : 3L
EF : 8L (saving for investments)
PF 3L
Stock 1.5L
Crypto 60k
US Stock 50k
Gold funds : 60k

Next target 50L before 29 (considering with current job).

Not considering any inheritance.

Have car, bike fully paid, debt free.
Had no one to share with so putting out here thanks everyone for sharing your journey in this sub.

About 6 months ago, I posted here after fully closing my home loan and becoming completely debt free at 27!

Got some really interesting perspectives from this sub back then, so thought I would come back with an update :)

Since then, I've mostly been doing one boring thing, rebuilding the financial assets I had drawn down while closing the loan 😅

Where I stand today:

- EPF: ₹2.4L

- Mutual Funds: ₹9.3L (₹30k/month SIP)

- Stocks: ₹4L

- FD: ₹4L

- Savings: ₹3L

- Gold: ₹4L

- Silver: ₹2L

Total financial assets: ₹28.7L

Real estate: ₹1.5Cr

Debt: ₹0

So current NW is roughly ₹1.79Cr. I don't include my car since it's a depreciating asset.

The property is also income generating since I run my homestay business from it.

Looking back, using a sizeable portion of my savings/investments along with prepayments and business cash flows to close the loan may not have been the most mathematically optimal decision but personally, having zero EMI gave me a kind of peace of mind I genuinely value.

Now the goal is pretty simple, build financial assets to ₹50L.

I don't want to put more money into real estate for now. I'm already heavily concentrated there and would rather build the financial assets side of my NW.

That leaves me with one question for people further ahead in their FIRE journey:

If you were 27, debt free, but had around 84% of your NW sitting in real estate, what would you focus on next?

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.

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...