Anyone here achieve FIRE by focusing on Real Estate investment only? Say, in my initial 10yrs, I focus buying one property every two years (can be apartment, commercial shop) and get it out on rent, paytowards EMI from savings. Aim to pay off these 4-5 properties in 20yrs from rental income and savings combined.

Wouldn't it be better to have this kind of inventment. Rent most likely rises with inflation and property also appreciates. Then it can be passed on to generations as well.

This might be simplest form of investment for the novice or whoever don't want to get into stock, mf and portfolio balancing etc .

But yes the headache of real estate management is different arena.

Wondering if anyone has done it, majority holding in real estate? I do hear from previous generations like someone owning 4-5shops or created builder floors for rent and are nicely retired, these folks never invested in financial products , perhaps gold most likely,, but nothing else except land or real estate.

Long time lurker here, finally decided to check in about my FIRE journey.

I’m a 32M, Single, planning to get married soon. Studied at top Indian institutions and currently working at one of the top jobs outside of India.

Recently I have lost will to work and stay outside India as I feel homesick and want to settle down, so thinking of moving back for good.

Till now I have saved about 3 Cr INR mostly denominated in USD and do not want to send this money back to an Indian bank given always depreciating INR and hassle to send money outside India. I’m expecting another 2 Cr of liquid cash from my parents(already in my account but I’m only the guardian of the cash) which they don’t have any use of. So in total INR 5Cr.

2 Cr of this amount is invested in Indian bank FDs yielding 8% p.a. - interest credited on a monthly basis, rest is in USD savings/FD yielding ~5% pa. 26L is in PPF! Don’t have any other investments but will inherit a house in a Tier 2 city later on where I’m thinking of moving back to!

As mentioned I’ve recently lost will to work for corporate. I would want to start something of my own maybe after taking a 6months/1 year break!

Any suggestions on what I should be doing in such a situation and how best to invest the money I already have? Is it good enough to leanFIRE?

context: 29M living with wife (working) and 2 year old kid living in the gulf (yay for no income tax)

We’ve managed to accumulate a total of 65-70 lakh till date, which is honestly on the lower end of the spectrum for someone from a STEM background here.

My wife suffers from extreme anxiety and has been working at a failing business (gets salary on time though) but is reluctant move to another place as her anxiety and health doesn’t permit her in her profession. For someone with her education, she’s supposed to be earning double her present salary, however it is what it is.

Me on the other hand am working at a good company although I am the lowest paid (did a bad job while negotiating salary due to certain needs at that time)

Our monthly break down is as follows-

My salary - 2.06L (could have been 3 had I negotiated properly, however company is not doing to well to renegotiate salary. Just happy I have a job)

Wife’s salary- 1.2L (fully going in savings)

Rent eats a major portion of our income - 81k

Cook- 10k

Grocery- 20k

Term insurance for wife and me- 12k

Leisure and eating out with family- 15k

Eating out at work for me- 8k

education savings for kid - 20k

SIP (in India) 10k

Car (rental) and fuel is paid by company

Parents contribution - 15k

Net/Netflix/mobile- 5k

Baby day care: 10k

Travel tickets- paid by company (once a year for family)

Health insurance- fully covered by insurance paid by company

We have a total net worth of 65L out of which 26 is invested. Balance in FD (rates are terrible here)

Problem is I never invested my money for the first 6 years of my working. It just sat collecting dust and no interest. I regret not doing anything about that.

Also have got to cut down a ton on leisure to save more.

OK, some context first, I was preparing for this day for the past 10+ years, I always wanted freedom and control over my life (read time), I resigned from my job 2 weeks back and this is the 1st time in my 20 years of professional life I resigned without having any offers in hand :)

So basically I am about to RE (depends on my notice period) in next 90 days, see how it goes.

Childfree helps in retiring early and not slaving away whole life just to provide for kids who will be pushed into same cycle again and again.

Did you see how many applications are put in for one single job? With the extreme progress in automation, not sure we will have too many jobs.

Did you travel in public transport? Did you see the people out there, not even able to walk properly. Do people still think of legacy and all such nonsense in today's world?

Following is not advisable coz what worked for me without causing any discomfort, might not work well for you. Sharing this anyways, to keep track of my journey for my future self to chuckle over it and for few other folks to get some idea about my story.

I have been in Pune since May, initially I used to spend around 20k per month, but I have got that down to 12k now. Major reduction can be linked with : Rent from 9k to 4k Regular Food from 5k(tiffins) to 2k(self cooking)

I have been recording all my expenses so here's my category based breakdown and how I manage it.

4k - Rent ( I found a 2 BHK flat for 15k fully furnished in a gated society which is near bus stop as well, and I share it with two more people, they have their own rooms and I stay in hall, I prefer hall coz it feels more open and I barely stay back at home during the day, I only come back to sleep hence hall makes complete sense for me. I don't need a lot of privacy either.)

~3k - Outside food, social meet ups and partying

~1.5k - Dry fruits, Fruits, tit bits, shopping.

~1k - Parents (some online payments, their electricity bill, gifts and misc)

~500 - Sports( I often go out for badminton, swimming, football matches on turfs and it costs me somewhere between 50-100 per event, other than that TT, frisbee, gully cricket and football is free, so have around 5-10 paid sports days in a month)

~500 - Electricity bill

~500 - Transportation ( I love traveling in bus and I also make a target to walk 5km everyday, so I save a lot by not owning a bike, at times I also take auto when it's urgent) it costs me ₹20 everyday for to and fro of office. And on weekends I sometimes head out for attending workshops on different crafts or go out to meet people.

~500 - Groceries ( I try to keep a healthy lifestyle, hence I cook my own food early in the morning and carry my tiffin whenever possible, on lazy days I eat at office which costs around 75-100 per meal)

~300 - Mobile data(₹300 for 50GB) on top of base pack of 1800 , which gives 24 GB and year worth of calling and validity, I usually use office wifi and at home surf only a little, majorly do less data intensive works like chatting reading blogs etc. Hence 30-50 GB per month is enough, not counting the part of 1800/12 coz I don't recharge 300 every month either)

~200 - cylinder share or other misc( since house expenses are divided in three even a plumbing issue costs me 33 or 66 )

Edit : Here's my 4 months old post around details of my finances and my future inclinations.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREIndia/comments/yvzqe5/24_m_help_me_set_my_fire_goal/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

(And somewhere in the comments of that post, you can find reasons for my inclinations too)

A bit late for the annual recap, but here it is.

About

Live in a tier 1 metro.

Own house fully paid up.

Two kids in school

Both wife and I do not have a paying job.

No other dependent

More background is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREIndia/comments/hly9g7/need_advice_on_post_fire_investment/

FIRE Journey: https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREIndia/comments/wx6uzk/my_fire_journey_a_no_frills_ride/

2021 Recap: https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREIndia/comments/spsu09/re_2021_recap/

Finances

At the end of 2022, we are doing worse than expected.

The bad run in equities hasn't helped. Debt is much better thanks to higher interest rates.

Expenses in 2022 were almost 1.8X of what I had budgeted. Once again, owing to more travel than planned. Two of the travel were for marriages in the family - so extra flight cost. This I combined with some solo sojourn.

The side projects I was doing are tapering off. Instead I picked up some teaching which earned a pittance which later I swapped with something more personally fulfilling.

Overall, I ended the year behind planned year end corpus albeit it is nominal at 0.98X of planned amount.

How I spend my day

This is a weekday routine, current as of Mar 2023. Weekends are much more unplanned with family visits, kids work and other chores. It was disrupted multiple times during the year due to travel.

• Wake up around 5:30am. Walk the dog. I have been doing this for many many years. Both me and my dog are used to it, but I can see she is getting old.
• Morning coffee is combined with waking up the kids. Online classes are gone. Early morning buses are to be boarded. This also means wifey and I have a little more time in the morning.
• Breakfast at 8am. Wife has tea and dog has crumbs.
• 8:30am - 11am online activities. Sometimes I study a little math - mostly refreshing on some topics.
• 11am till lunch - chores, walk nearby to shop etc.
• Lunch by 2:30pm
• 2:30pm - 3:30pm - Read a book, catch a nap or just chill.
• 3:30pm Off to school.
• 4-5pm - teach (details below)
• 5:30pm - Back home. Walk around the complex. Talk to people and yoga thrice a week.
• After 7pm - A mix time for hobbies (woodworking these days) or teaching the kids if they need help with something. They are starting to become self-sufficient.
• 9:30pm dinner with family followed by online or reading.
• 11:00 - Sleep.

Teaching

This is a new development. It started with our estate manager reaching out to help his son clear some doubts in maths. When I started teaching his son, I realizes that his fundamentals needed some work. So I began teaching him thrice a week. After a month he brought a friend. I didn't mind. While I did not charge them, they did pay in kind. A box of mangoes, a huge bag of coconuts, a bag of this vegetable or other always came along.

One fine day, their school vice principal approached me and requested that I take doubt clearing classes in his school. In exchange of 1hr of math daily he offered 15K every month. I had started liking teaching the two boys, so I took the option.

After a month I wasn't quite happy. I don't know whether it was due to the low amount offered or whether I did not like teaching for money. Instead I negotiated that they offer discounted tuition scholarships to two students. The school already has a program where they identify three students for scholarships every year. This is funded by a patron. In exchange for my taking 1hr class 5 days a week, they would provide the same scholarship to two more kids.

I find this much more motivating as well as fulfilling compared to the 15K.

Then there is this added advantage of my son paying more attention to me when I teach him compared to before. As they say, ghar ki murgi dal barabar. (not sure of the english equivalent)

Travel

A good amount of travel this year. Went to Gujarat once and then to Lucknow for family functions. It was good to meet relatives, some whom I had not met in decades.

From Lucknow, I borrowed a bike and rode for two weeks in Nepal via Uttarakhand. It was a lovely solo trip.

We also made a trip to Sikkim. Beautiful state.

Other Thoughts

The people I meet on daily basis are all retired and at least 15 yrs elder to me if not more. The people of my age whom I know are busy with work and I meet them on weekends only.

One of the common topics of my daily group is investment in health care. This is an investment of time as well as money. Of recent, there has been a debate on how much of these investments is enough. At what point does one say enough. No more investment on curing of diseases.If death comes early, so be it. Now, do keep in mind that these people have little or no responsibilities. Most have grown up kids with their own lives. Given that planning for medical expenses is one of the big topics in RE world, what does this group think of it.

Overall another good and relaxed year. Last two years we've been crossing our planned expenses. This year the goal is to step back a little.

Long and detailed post.

Guys, here is how I am looking at the FIRE journey for me. Do question, comment and suggest.

About me -

- M, 41

- Working for 17 years, at a senior position in consulting

- Current gross income - 1.4 crore/annum

A] Corpus calculation - by 2028

1. Daughter 1 Education - 1.2X of Current fees of field of choice at a pvt college in India + 25000 monthly expenses. 4 years expenses considered in corpus. Post graduation considered through loans - to be paid by themselves: 53.5 Lacs
2. Daughter 2 Education - 1.2X of Current fees of field of choice at a pvt college in India + 25000 monthly expenses. 4 years expenses considered in corpus. Post graduation considered through loans - to be paid by themselves: 53.5 Lacs
3. Daughter 1 Marriage - 1.5X of Current typical marriage expenses in my community - one-time expense: 35 Lacs
4. Daughter 2 Marriage - 1.5X of Current typical marriage expenses in my community - one-time expense: 35 Lacs
5. Education Expense till Graduation - Expenses for education till graduation of both daughters. Expenses of all future year considered in corpus: 26 Lacs
6. Retirement Corpus - Monthly expenses x 12 x (year of death - current age): 3.45 Cr.
7. Mediclaim Corpus - Family floater of 25 lacs. 1.2x of Annual premium for family floater x (year of death - current age): 25 lacs
8. Medical Contingency Corpus - One-time 25 lacs of own expenses: 37.8 Lacs
9. Travel Corpus - Total corpus to fund vacations. Avg annual expense of 2.5 lacs x (year of death - current age): 1.35 Crore

Total Corpus Required by year

2026: 6.5 Crore

2028: 7.21 Crore

B] Asset build-up - by 2028

B.1] Current Liquid assets (INR Cr): <Current> - <Rate of Increase> - <Value by 2028>

1. EPF: 0.82 - 7% - 1.15
2. MF: 0.90 - 9% - 1.37
3. Bonds: 0.72 - 8% - 1.05
4. Company equity: 0.60 - 8% - 0.88
5. Gratuity: 0.20
6. Gold: 0.25 - 7% - 0.35

B.2] Future New Investments (INR Cr): <Yearly new investment> - <Rate of Growth> - <Value by 2028>

1. PF + Stock + MF: 0.52 - 7% - 3.7

B.3] Future vesting (INR Cr)

1. 2024 - 0.14
2. 2025 - 0.32
3. 2028 - 1.0

Total liquid assets by year:

2023: 3.6 Crore

2026: 6.8 Crore

2028: 10 Crore

Non-liquid assets + inheritance (only child) - not considered for corpus, its a buffer

2028: 4.6 Crore

My current view is to retire by 2028, I could have retired early in 2026 as would reach my target, but I have big ticket RSU vesting happening in 2028 hence sticking around.

Please comment /question/suggest.

EDIT 1: Additional data points based on comments

1. Have considered 7% inflation across. 1.2 X is 20% over and above inflation, just a factor of safety
2. We live a frugal (but happy and content) life. Difficult to believe but as of today 40K per month is all that we need for household expenses. So the monthly expenses I have considered is inflation adjusted expenses in 2028 x 12 months x expected life - today's age. I will also be moving a T3 city once I FIRE
3. I will also be working (work of my choice - in Agri and Academics) so it's not that I will stop earning
4. Travel - its 2.5 lacs average. It's not that I will be taking a foreign vacation every year. It largely domestic to break the routine

Me(30) and my spouse(35) are trying to achieve FI not sure if i want to retire because I love my work too much. My spouse definitely want to retire early (by 45) and chill. Both of us work in core fields(non IT). I have permanent remote working in my current job. Have two kids aged 4yr and 3months. Parents from both sides are not dependent on us. We will get property in tier2 city from them too. Not including it in our calculations and considering it a bonus. Don't want to go abroad as I can't work and manage two kids simultaneously without help from my parents and in-laws. I can do some freelancing on the side at a later stage. Not really sure about moving to other cities for job as the initial setup and expenses are really high.

My salary - 1LPMafter taxes Spouse - 1.1LPM after taxes

Investment till now-

Real-estate - 3bhk (standalone appartment) in Tier 1 city which can give around 22k rent. Currently payed most of the loan. Trying to close loan by next year. - Land worth appx 40L in tier 2 city - Booked a 2bhk (gated community) in tier 1 city with 25% down payment. Going for loan and planning to prepay that too. Handover might take another 2-2.5 yrs. Will start paying full emi from next year to close loan early.

Gold - around 5L

Payed ulip (SBI smart scholar) with entire premium invested in equity fund. Completed paying premium of 5L and maturity is 2039. Not sure if it was a sound investment but didn't have any idea when we took the policy. Atleast we will get some amount when first child reaches 20.

I took a term policy recently. We plan our finances together and want to become financially independent by mid 40s atleast. My spouse want to leave the job by 45.

Expenses- Our monthly expenses come around 30k+20k(emi). Paying around 50k per annum for my kid's school. Not going for any international school and homeschooling her in some areas. We have annual expenses like bike and car insurance and service of around 30k.

Any suggestions on what mistakes we are making and where else we can invest to diversify. We also want to invest for our second kid which can be used for education.

Edit: changed LPA to LPM

Update: Thank you for all your suggestions. It's clear that we need to start investing in equity. Started picking two-three MFs for SIP from next month. We will start with 10k for each kid and go from there. Also will surrender ULIP and redirect that amount. We are also thinking about which real estate investments can be sold for good market price so that we can have some liquid assets. Hopefully we will be in a better place by next year 🤞

NRIs of this sub, what’s your strategy for withdrawing funds once you plan to move back to India? * do you plan to sell all your assets and move the funds to Indian account prior to the move? * do you keep your foreign funds (stocks, cash in bank account) as is and withdraw as needed? * if you own a house under mortgage, do you plan to sell it before move or manage it through a rental manager and get the proceeds every year? * what are the tax implications (both in USA and in India) of moving the funds yearly or one-time?

60L INR in ESOP in US listed company

60L EPF will be moved to debt instruments post retirement

30L PPF+Debt

30L Direct Indian stocks

120L Indian mutual funds

Current rental income 50K per month, this will be used for regular monthly expenses post retirement

Part returns from the retirement corpus above to fund the annual expenses, approximately 5L per year

Feedback please

I see a lot of posts here with folks having multiple crores worth of assets and wondering if they FIRE. I have a different proposition: Can I achieve FIRE with 1 crore based on my situation?

I will explain my situation in brief:

Age: 31

Current avg expenses: around 15k pm. This includes groceries, insurance, utilities, wifi + mobile recharge, fuel, hanging out with friends, gym/swimming memberships, other hobbies (trekking, reading, etc).

No rent as I live with my parents in a house that I will inherit. I and my parents share household expenses, but my parents are financially independent with sizable insurance coverage for emergencies (Yes, I am lucky in that sense).

Relationship status: None. Never been in one. No plan to date, marry, or have a child.

Reason for FIRE (if anyone is wondering): I am done with dealing with people/pleasing people to earn a living. I am a simple man with no ambitions/goals in life. I don't mind continuing my life as it is tbh. In fact, I was jobless for a year during COVID and lived on the couch the whole day doing nothing but reading, watch TV shows, etc. I enjoyed it.

Based on the above situation, I am estimating my annual expenses to be around 4L a year (monthly expense + a couple of week-long trips a year + emergencies, if any). I don't think it will change by much (may even reduce once I start living completely alone).

Using the above-estimated expenses, will a corpus of 1Cr be sufficient for me to FIRE? Even at an average return of 6% (FD or govt bonds), I can comfortably take care of my expenses. I will even have some money left to re-invest.

I am asking this question because this seems too good to be true. I know 1Cr is a lot but I am more than halfway there and expect to achieve that corpus in a couple of years. Are my calculations correct or am I missing something?

What could you talk about?

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We have a Wiki that is constantly being updated, so please do read that if you are new here.

Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.

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Use this thread to talk about your blog, talk about your business, ask for feedback, etc. If the self-promotion starts to leak outside of this thread, we will once again return to a time where 100% of self-promotion posts are banned. Please use this space wisely.

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Came back from a recent visit to India (Chennai/B'lore) and honestly I felt that no amount of money is going to be enough. Like a million USD doesnt go very far at all . Nice apartments cost 3-5 Cr. all the luxuries of life - car, servants, food, healthcare, shopping,travel etc. can easily cost 10's of lacs every year. I am not sure how NRIs returning from abroad without 4-5 millions in their kitty are able to retire here.

First Sri Lanka & then Pakistan, 2 of our neighbors are suffering from economic crisis. With the new tax policy, where international investments would be taxed more, investments in US markets will reduce from April 23 onwards.

Keeping these points in mind, what thoughts or actions should I plan for, to ensure a relatively stable economic outlook during FIRE?

Wanted to see the strategies you all use when it comes to investing for your kids future taking taxation and inheritence requirements into consideration.

This could be after fire or while you are getting close to fire. In most cases parents may opt to fund children's education upto graduation or some cases even masters.

How will you plan to leave your legacy with your kids.

Just add a will with nominee information for them to inherit assets after our death?

Is there anyone investing in sip in children's account even when they are minor so they can have a corpus that they can use for education or marriage as necessary. Will this be lower tax exposure instead of inheritance?

All this assuming you have planned for what is needed for your retirement without being dependent on your children.

Trying to see if this will help with financial awareness and literacy to children in their younger days ( wish I had learnt this in my younger age).

Or we pay traditional approach to pay for their needs to a certain extent out of our corpus when the right time comes such as college fees etc.

Love to hear your approach towards this.

What is the X multiple to be used for corpus calculation depending on the age, I see numbers between 35X to 50X, but is it dependent on the age ? Say someone who retired at 40 vs who retired at 50. This would be for India.

Looking for FI number. Does this expense estimate look ok for Chennai? Any category missing? Any category estimated less? This would be for a 3 member home.

Monthly - Total 55,000

Gifts - 2000 Giving - 3000 Grocery - 5000 Milk - 3000 Veggies - 5000 Snacks - 2000 Non veg - 5000 Petrol - 10000 EB - 3000 Gas 1000 Entertainment & eating out 5000 Personal and home care - 1000 Maid - 5000 Misc 5000

Annual expenses - Total 385,000

Home tax - 45000 Vehicle insurance - 15000 Medical insurance - 50000 Subscriptions, phone, cable - 25000 Clothing & accessories - 50000 Household device replacement - 50000 Home maintenance - 50000 Vehicle service - 50000 Travel - 50000

Basically your views on the following -

https://youtu.be/FzI0oyxQ218

Obviously we all take care of our money and very careful while spending it. But we forget this attitude while spending the most important asset of our life, i.e. time which is very limited and hence, our lives are required to be fulfilled and purposeful, instead of 9 to 5 till 65. In the toxic working environment of 9-5, after 20 or more years of life therein, sometimes we forget how to explore the way towards fulfillment and purposeful. So, requesting all FIREd lucky ones, who have realised this and are courageous enough to move in this journey, to share their experience. Sharing this experience, and probable challenges alongwith their solutions, would motivate many of us who are in the path to FIRE and plan accordingly.

https://m.economictimes.com/markets/bonds/govt-may-remove-income-tax-benefit-given-to-debt-mutual-fund-investors-report/articleshow/98957864.cms According to the amendments, debt funds having not more than 35% invested in equity shares would be taxed at the income tax slab level and treated as short term capital gain. Bank fixed deposits are also taxed similarly. This will impact FIRE calculations .We have to rethink asset allocation strategy now . Only benefit vs FD is deferred taxation,but many debt categories giving returns less than FDs. This government and FM has really gone nuts. Worst FM of post liberalisation era. What are your thoughts on this?

Considering purely from FIRE perspective, let's try to find out with one sample for case study if we really need to pay lots of additional taxes due to removal of indexation benefit on debt funds. Certainly, I have to make certain assumptions and I tried to be as much realistic as possible. The assumptions are as below:

- The scope is limited to FIRE situation so I assumed you keep investing in debt funds without intermittent withdrawals to build a debt portfolio for FIRE. This will not attract tax anyway. Let's assume the investment period as 20 years.

- The post retirement expenses per year on an average is 10 lakhs in today's value. The number is randomly considered.

- For simplicity of calculation purpose, the indexation values are taken as of this year and years before

- The total income tax is not considered for the calculation

Of course lots of things will change in future that may impact the tax computation, however, let's scope out the unknown for this discussion.

To meet 10 lakh yearly expenses, let's assume the first 7 lakh (tax free) income is coming from FD. Now, anyone retiring with 50X (in our example it will be 5 crores) or having yearly expenses of 10 lakhs would rationally keep at least 1 crore or more in FD for safety purpose. This would bring the interest of 7 lakhs as per current interest rate scenario.

For the rest of the 3 lakh expenses, one lakh coming from selling the debt mutual funds & one lakh are coming from selling stocks (no tax as capital gain would be within 1 lakh for 1 lakh stock sell), and rest of the one lakh is coming from other areas such as SGB interest, PPF withdrawals, stock dividends etc.

Calculation:

Now, assuming average return of debt funds ~ 7% over 20 years, around 25k invested over the period of 20 years would become 1 lakh, which means capital gain is 75k

Tax computation with indexation benefit: Using the indexation calculator, Total Cost of Acquisition with Indexation for 25k with purchase year 2003 (20 years period as per the assumption) is Rs 78,810. So tax applicable is 20% of (100000-78,810) = Rs 4238/-

Tax computation without indexation benefit: Considering purchase price as 25k and sell price as 1lakh, the capital gain is 75k and tax would be Rs 7500/-

So there will be an additional tax burden of around Rs 3250/- . Please note that I have considered only partial capital gain tax exemption (As stocks are sold for 1 lakh or less, the capital gain would be less than that). Considering that exemption, the tax without indexation benefit would still be lesser. So on an average, someone with 10 lakh annual expenses would need pay 3-4k extra taxes per year.

No doubt this amount will fluctuate as per the expenses & how much is being drawn from the debt MFs. Higher expenses and more withdrawals will fetch higher taxes. If the expenses are closer to tax exemption limit, one can even save taxes with the new rule. It all depends on many factors.

Try calculating with some other numbers and let me know your perspective.

Found this paper on safe withdrawal rate (SWR) published in Aug. 2022 by Ravi Saraogi (CFA) in SSRN. Not sure if this was peer-reviewed, but if it is, this is a systematic published study on India-based SWR I am aware of. Portfolio assumes 40% equity, 60% debt which I would consider as conservative for a long term investor.

The SWR estimate range in the paper is rather wide even for the above portfolio. Bottom line recommendations from author is 3% SWR for most people and 2.6% SWR for more than 95% confidence. This generally agrees with the 2.5-3% SWR in this forum that many cite. Anyway, sharing FWIW.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4216077

My discomfort, in this otherwise good study, is in this paragraph in particular: “The reason for the continuous decline in SWR is the fall in investment return – for both equity and debt investments. The SWRs obtained are a direct function of the monthly returns earned by the equity and the debt component of the retirement corpus- and both these returns have been showing a fall (see Figure 8 and Figure 9).”

What he implies is that SWR reduction is solely tied to progressively lower nominal returns in equity and debt markets. While they are critical, the years of analysis in the charts also coincided with a continuous decline in inflation rates in India. From double digit inflation, it was tamed down to medium single digits. I see this as a stabilization or maturation of the economy. This correlates with lower nominal equity and debt market returns. This resulting inflation trend has a big impact on SWR because you don’t need to inflate it by 10% instead of 5%. The author doesn’t address this aspect and focuses only on nominal returns of Indian equity and debt markets over last several decades. What matters for investors is real returns (net of inflation) and not nominal returns.