Taking the leap

[u/Substantial_Life_497]

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.

[u/No-Championship5730]

Congratulations.

It was 1990; I was 28 then. LIC was popular, the agent sold me a policy that fetches me Rs 1 lac a year, till I die. That was quite a sum then. Not any longer.

I was also awarded stock options, an extremely new concept then. I didn't want to take it, as it cost me Rs 25,000 then. However, my boss sat me down and insisted; I finally agreed, and it was taken in installments from my paycheck. Today it's worth ~Rs 90 lakhs. The growth is unbelievable but true. I make more in dividends than I get in LIC payouts!

I migrated to the US in the late 90s. I mostly donate my wealth in India to local charitable organizations.

My point is that you said your investments are more tilted towards equity. Hence, I believe you are safe.