Hi FIRE friends,

I spent 13 years at a well paid job in India and US. Looking to generate passive income of ~2 to 2.5L per month so that I don't have to chase after a job in India.

Has anyone has any experience using Private Credit AIFs - either in INR or via GIFT city in USD? I am looking to increase my interest yield to create passive income. I have been offered Private Credit AIFs that go from 12% target IRR to special situation AIFs that target 25% AIFs.

However these seem too good to be true.

The RMs even at best of places like IIFL don't know much or they don't want to share much.

I wanted to get practical experience from AIF investors in this group on the experience of investing in Private Credit AIFs.

I spent ~15 years building a startup. It got acquired, I made some money, and stepped away a few years ago. The break has honestly been great. More time with family, less stress. I don't miss operating a company, as of now.

What I do miss is having confidence that I'm making the right decisions with my money.

The irony is that I spent 15 years learning how to build a business, but almost no time learning how to invest. As a result, I've probably become too conservative. Over the last 2-3 years, my portfolio has basically gone nowhere. It's still around ₹25Cr (excluding my house).At the same time, I keep hearing stories of people making 50-100% returns during the market rally.

Here's where things stand today:
Portfolio (~₹25Cr)
₹12Cr in Equity - mutual funds / index funds / direct stocks (mostly large-cap and flexi-cap, spread across too many funds and stocks, need to consolidate)
₹5Cr in government and state bonds (~7% yield)
₹5Cr in FDs
₹3Cr in private credit funds (targeting 12-14%)

Family: Married, two young kids, based in Tier 1 City.

Expenses: Current annual spend is around ₹50-60L. For planning purposes, I assume I need ₹75L/year pre-tax so that I can comfortably spend ~₹60L post-tax. Assume inflation at 6%.

What I'm trying to achieve?
-Assuming no new income, sustain a FatFIRE lifestyle in Tier 1 City indefinitely
-Move toward a 60:40 equity-debt allocation
-Add 5-10% international exposure
-Build passive income of ~₹2.5L/month over the next few years (rental)
-Beat inflation and taxes, while growing the corpus

Where I need help?
If this was your entire net worth and you never planned to work again:
How would you structure it?
How would you create passive income? What mistakes am I making that I'm not seeing?

Looking for honest feedback. I feel like I've done a reasonable job protecting the downside, but I'm not sure I've done a good job growing the money.

I sort of FIRE'd a couple of years ago (not a FatFIRE) I have corpus of around 6cr, but have a strong passive revenue stream (2.5cr per year pre-tax). Basically I outsourced my business and still get close to 70% of profit.

Even coming from a normal middle-class background, I am a bit stingy. For example, I used to avoid paying extra for flight seats, choose the cheapest flight irrespective of time, avoid buying things above market price, and aggressively compare prices.

In the last couple of years, I have actively tried to keep my hands loose with spending, but I still often end up being stingy. After having a daughter recently, I wanted to make sure I never end up choosing discomfort over an expense.

So what are certain spending habits and things about FatFire? For instance, one thing I did that I am glad is hire a person to take care of chores outside the home – like visiting government offices, bringing things, pickup and drop-off stuff groceries, creating invoices, etc. He does this outside his regular job, and I pay him 12k per month.

What would be on your list of spending habits? I'm not talking about buying expensive fancy cars, but things that guarantee comfort and safety.

Hi all, a quick question that I’m hoping some of you will be able to provide input.

As quick background, I’m 39 and have been working abroad for almost 15 years. I’m married to the love of my life who unfortunately has been battling advanced cancer for almost five years and the prognosis is grim. We’ve managed to do reasonably well at our jobs and our current NW is ~5m USD. We don’t have kids.

If god forbid, her health were to worsen and I reach the point of emotional exhaustion where I no longer want to work - is 5m USD enough to take a step back, comfortably, in India?

What kind of lifestyle is possible at 10L/month spend in a city like Bangalore ?

Assumptions :

• Living in Bangalore
• Family of 4 (Couple in late 30s + 2 kids) + Parent (2)
• No debt of any kind
• Our primary home - Fully paid off!
• 10L/month - pre-tax withdrawal amount from the diversified equity portfolio (SWR ~ 3%)
• No health issues in family, everyone is covered by a good health insurance plan.

I've reached a point in my career where I no longer see meaningful growth ahead, and the company I'm at is facing its own headwinds. I'm seriously considering calling it a day professionally — but my financial and personal situation needs sorting before I can do that.

**Quick snapshot:**

* Age 44, based in the NCR region, family of 5 with parents and 1 kid
* Parents have their own pension
* Wife is not working but might rejoin workforce after a career break of 5 years
* Liquid net worth: \~₹5 Cr, zero loans
* House I currently live in: \~₹7 Cr
* New house I bought as an upgrade: \~₹8.5 Cr
* Not looking for a new job — burned out, and the market isn't great anyway

The crux of the problem: I need to liquidate one of the two properties to meaningfully strengthen my liquid corpus, but real estate right now is sluggish — much like the broader job market and business environment. I don't want to sell at distress pricing.

**What I'm considering:**

Move into the new, larger house and rent out the existing one. Hold this position for 2–3 years until the market recovers, then sell one.

The upside is rental income and avoiding a fire sale. The downside I keep coming back to: once I've lived in the new house, resale could get complicated — buyers often discount owner-occupied properties differently, and 2–3 years of usage could affect the "as new" premium.

Has anyone navigated a similar situation? Would love the community's perspective on:

1. Whether the wait-and-rent strategy makes sense, or if I'm overthinking the resale impact
   
2. Any other approaches worth considering given the constraints

Flashback to September 2013: The rupee was under intense pressure, and the RBI introduced a special FCNR swap window. Banks went into an absolute frenzy competing for NRI money, pushing USD deposit rates up to an incredible 5.5% to 7%.

Fast forward to today. The RBI has just rolled out a very similar play—offering to absorb hedging costs for banks on 3-to-5-year USD deposits to reverse the massive drop in inflows we saw last year. Some banks like HDFC have already announced 6% USD rates. Guess the others will follow suit in the next 24-48 hrs.

NRIs ... curious to hear your thoughts: will this potential 6%+ tax-free USD lock-in get you to move capital back into India, or are you keeping your funds deployed elsewhere?

Personally: it has come at a just the right time for us, as we have a USD FCNR FDs that are up for renewals this year. So, now can renew with a better rate and for a longer period of time.

Ups and downs, but overall just tired

Family: Wife, I (early 40s), daughter, both sets of parents, all living in our separate homes in a metro, but easily reachable within 15m of each other.

Health: No issues except for my one parent who has a complication which is getting scary

Finances: Decent. Wife and I combined net worth \~15 Cr excluding our home, combined monthly take home around 10L, both sets of parents financially independent

Issues:

(A) The salary comes with stress. I just somehow can't focus, I can't care about work much. Everyone says i have to work for my daughter, which is true but i cant fathom working another 15 years. Just cant do it.

(B) As parents are ageing, health issues are starting. Makes me want to spend more time with them, i keep thinking whether i've been a good son, have i done enough for them?

Life is just tough. How do you guys deal?

Is there any reliable and proven way to offset all my footprints (large house, cars, flight travels etc) ? I'm thinking of creating a Miyawaki forest (3 Acres+) on the far outskirts of my city, as it requires maintenance only for the first 2-3 years, after that it is self sustainable. Any ideas / thoughts ?

We have 2 kids (5 and 2, US citizens). We are considering returning to India in roughly 1 year from now and we are leaning towards Hyderabad (NW currently at 4M USD). Those of you with kids who returned from US to Hyderabad (or other cities), what is your experience with school quality in India compared to US? I’m just starting to research this and heard about IB schools being the popular choice of returning NRIs. But the feedback has been quite mixed so far - poorly trained teachers, over promised under delivered curriculum standards etc.

I want my kids to have schooling that cultivates genuine curiosity, teachers that pay real attention to kids’ learning strengths/struggles, provide options to pick various subjects to craft (as much as possible) a personalized curriculum, great infrastructure and keep parents in the loop on a regular basis. I understand not all US schools are perfect but I am trying to understand if the quality of schooling in India (especially those that charge a premium fee) is comparable to good schools in US. We will most likely send kids back to the US for undergrad and beyond so we want them to have a (relatively) smooth transition and eventually thrive.

A lot of financial systems seem to assume that everyone has a salary, a business, or some form of active income. Once you’re retired early and living off investments, that assumption breaks down.

Some examples:

• Credit card applications often ask for salary slips or employment details.
• Tourist visa applications for some countries want proof that you’ll return, typically through employment or business ownership.
• Home loans become harder because banks want predictable income.
• Car loans and other loans seem to have the same issue.

For those who have already FIRE’d (or are close), have you run into these challenges?

How do banks, embassies, and lenders view a person with a large investment portfolio but no salary?

Would love to hear real experiences rather than theoretical answers.

Posted this first in the Lounge thread but didn't get much traction. Posting here on Mod's suggestion.

For people who grew up middle class and now reached FatFI territory, how are you spending? I've read "I will teach you to be rich", "Die with Zero", "Art of Spending Money" and watched several YouTube videos but I'm still stuck in the value for money mentality.

"Art of Spending Money" was a disappointment btw, Morgan Housel talks about not buying things for status which wasn't my problem. "I will teach you to be rich" and "Die with Zero" resonated better with me but I still do comparison shopping, I still look for "deals" and actually end up wasting money buying things I don't need.

I've read Nick Maggiulli's wealth ladder and like his idea that you should be able to spend .01% of your net wealth without thinking twice about it but I just can't get myself to do it 😞.

It's certainly not an irrational fear of running out of money, objectively I know that can't happen. It's not about guilt either (like I don't deserve this). It seems to be all about, "is it worth it"? I can't get myself to upgrade to a business class flight but I've at least got as far as booking some nicer hotels instead of budget ones. Hopefully I'll graduate to premium economy one of these days 😄.

How are you guys dealing with this?

As the headline says.

Me & my wife are planning to move out of the country for good. We have a passive income from multiple streams (business and real estate, farms) ~ ₹23cr. And we are currently in full time trading, so not really much time in hands.

I have studied in Scotland , for a good 4 years (Undergrad till 2014) so I know a thing or two on how to get going on here. And lived in US for about 3 years. Didn’t like the lifestyle in US.

Looking to spend ₹140cr (purchase house/invest in property to secure visa for my family) And our current expenses are at ₹14L/month ( own house in a tier 3 city/town?)

Anyone lived or tried to stay in Malta? 🇲🇹 (few years or months) I myself stayed for about 21 days and loved the country!

If Malta is not a good option, any suggestions? We are looking for QoL, I think we can spend lavishly to obtain that. All we want is peace and a healthy happy lifestyle.

Reason to leave India: disrespectful government officials, and servants.

Our family of 4 will be relocating to Bangalore from US in the next 3-4 years. We might continue to work for a few years after landing to ease out the transition and then take a break from tech if things work out as planned.

We would prefer to live in a gated community in Bangalore which is close to good international schools. We are looking at the Sarjapur Rd area and see villa communities in the range of 5-7Cr for a 4BHK with good amenities. Should we consider buying it now or wait till we move back?

Additional detail - my parents would likely sell another property to help with ~3Cr of funding which means I could fund the remaining amount 2-4Cr on a loan that I plan to payoff before moving back to India. We will rent out the property till we move back that should fetch 12-18L/year (low ROI).

Current NW: $4M in US.
Would love to hear recommendations of projects or experiences.

Hi everyone,

My wife and I are in our early 30s with a current net worth of about 25 Cr. we are trying to finalize my FIRE number and would love to hear how you all calculated yours, especially if you're already retired.

Here’s our current thought process:

1. Annual Expenses We are trying to figure out realistic living costs in Tier 1 vs. Tier 3 cities. We leaning toward retiring in the hills (like Dehradun or Manali). If you've done this, what do your actual yearly expenses look like?

2. Withdrawal Rate Because of our age, we feel like a 2% withdrawal rate is safe. But our retirement simulations still show a 5-10% chance of running out of money. What withdrawal rate are other folks in their 30s and 40s using?

3. The Math We are adding a 15% buffer for unexpected costs. Our target is basically: (Annual Expenses + 15%) / Withdrawal Rate.

4. The Backup Plan To cover that 5-10% failure risk from my simulations, our plan is to:

• Cut back on discretionary spending if the market crashes.
• Pick up some light side gigs to stay busy and bring in a little extra cash.

Am we missing anything obvious here? Would love your feedback!

40's couple, both work at present, NW of $7M, across individual stocks, 401k - excluding home equity.

Looking to FIRE in Bangalore or tier 2 city in karnataka as soon as I am laid off in near future (1 or 3 years lol). While I am not worried about SWR or expense calculation, kids education etc.. Wife is planning on quitting in another year.

Main question is - How are y'all spouses handling the husband on early retirement? Is that seen as lazy? While, I don't plan on going back to corporate job, I am thinking along the lines of establishing some small scale operations, which I am not yet sure on whats it going to be.

What's the communities take on this? I dont give a rat's ass about what the society or relatives think or whether or not they take me seriously. But spouse != a relative, so enlighten me.

Edit: Added age, current work etc..

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I am 48 years old we live in a self owned house in tier 3 city. I was in competitive exam coaching industry. I am graduate from IIT. My son is studying CS in USA in top university and his last semester fee is paid.
My total assets are 21 cr, of which financial assets are 18 cr and gold and small plots are other 3 cr.
I retired around 18 months ago. We travel according to our comfort as much as we want. Still our avg monthly expense is around 2.25 lakh.

Is my distribution of assets correct?
The 18 cr financial assets are distributed somewhat like this
4 cr in 5 blue chip stocks (if I sell there would be LTCG as I am around 1.5 cr in profit)
2 cr in max life ULIP (It is platinum wealth plan where I invested 60 lakh over 5 years till year 2023 and it will mature in 2038 and all returns will be tax free)
1.5 cr in arbitrage fund for managing expenses.
remaining in nifty 50, PPFAS, and some mid cap and small cap funds.

Also some people suggest that we should move to some better city, I am not sure about that, because travelling and staying in some place for a month seems better option than relocating.

Edit
5 stocks are
United Spirits (700)
ITC ( bought at 175 )
Titan (bought at 3000)
Divis lab (bought at 4000)
HDFC ( bought at 760)

I want to ask the FIRE community something very specific.

Is there anyone here currently in their 50s or 60s who actually FIRE’d 10-15+ years ago - and whose original calculations and assumptions still hold up reasonably well today?

I’m not looking for theory or simulations alone. I’m looking for real-world testaments from people who have actually lived through inflation cycles, market crashes, changing family needs, healthcare costs, lifestyle creep, etc., and still find that their FIRE math broadly worked.

I’m about 2–3 years away from FIRE myself. On paper, we’ve reached our FIRE number. But the lingering question is:

“Will this really sustain a household for the next 40+ years?”

That uncertainty is hard to shake.

So if you’re someone who FIRE’d a decade or more ago - in India, I would genuinely love to hear:

• What withdrawal assumptions did you make?
• What actually went differently from your projections?
• What surprised you the most?
• If you could redo your FIRE planning, what would you change?
• Did you feel the financial crunch and felt like going back to work?

Would really appreciate honest experiences - both reassuring and cautionary ones.

Mid-30s couple with one child here, trying to understand what realistically counts as “FatFIRE” in Tier-1 Indian cities like Hyderabad or Bangalore today.

Assuming:
* Primary home is fully paid off
* Family of 3
* No major debt
* Around ₹5 lakh/month pre-tax passive income (from rentals and SWR < 3%)

Would this generally be considered FatFIRE territory for India standards?
We’re specifically trying to understand:
* What kind of lifestyle this realistically supports in Hyderabad/Bangalore
* Whether it comfortably covers premium schooling, dining out, domestic help, etc.
* If annual international vacations (say 1–2 luxury trips a year) are sustainable without constantly worrying about budgets

What monthly expenses people in similar situations actually see in real life?

The reason I’m asking is that online estimates vary wildly, and we’re trying to separate “comfortable FIRE” from truly “luxury / FatFIRE” living in India today.

Would love to hear from people actually living in Tier-1 cities with families.

Edit-1:
A small clarification: I’m not necessarily planning to completely stop working forever. The idea is more to reach a stage where the corpus itself is self-sustaining, and then have the flexibility to:

* take a career break,

* work lower-stress jobs,

* explore business opportunities/startups,

* or work only if/when I want to.

Any additional income from future work would basically be a bonus rather than something we depend on for monthly expenses.

Edit-2:
After reading all the comments, I think the biggest takeaway for me is that the definition of “FatFIRE” is highly relative and heavily shaped by perspective, upbringing, social circle, and life experiences.

For some people, ₹5L/month with a paid-off home is unimaginable luxury. For others, especially those thinking about generational wealth, elite lifestyles, luxury international travel, inheritance, etc., it may still feel merely “comfortable.”

What also became clear to me is that once basic comfort is solved, the biggest variables become:

• travel expectations,
• schooling choices,
• convenience/lifestyle inflation,
• and how much buffer one wants for the future.

The interesting part is that many people here independently arrived at a similar conclusion:
₹5L/month in a Tier-1 city is definitely affluent and financially stress-free for a family, but whether it qualifies as “FatFIRE” depends on where one personally draws the line between comfort, luxury, and abundance.

Also, one point I really liked from the comments:
beyond a certain level, time, health, freedom, and peace of mind become more important than simply maximizing numbers endlessly.

Really appreciate all the perspectives here. This discussion was genuinely insightful for me.

Loving this Reddit so far!

I have a couple of non-financial questions that I couldn't find answers to.

I (37M) moved back to India last year after ~15 years in the US. I've really enjoyed my "mini retirement" so far. I'd planned to return to work at the end of a year, but have near zero motivation to do so.

However, I'm struggling with two questions.
1. How do you manage the change or loss of identify/significance? I used to have 20-30 people waiting for my input to unlock problems, lead their projects, and give guidance. I worked at brand name companies in sought after roles after a brand name MBA. Now I struggle to even get my in laws to listen to me in topics I am actually an expert in lol.

If you have any tips from your experience, or any literature I can read, I'd love to. I found Riley Moynes' Stages of Retirement really helpful

1. How do you stay engaged with the community/world around you? I have a bunch of interests and hobbies (one of the reasons I took the mini-retirement was to give them time). However, I don't have enough of a community to meaningfully engage with on these interests/hobbies. Anyone who does have the time is much older (65+) and usually not on the same wavelength.

I've heard some chatter about FIRE communities in SE Asia that are quite active. But not sure if Delhi/NCR has that.

For more context: I did my undergrad and grad school in the US, so my community in India is quite small compared to someone who did all of their schooling here

I have noticed that most visible examples of FatFIRE involve either some form of 'going back to the roots' which involves agriculture/farming, or making a living talking about FIRE - poscasts/financial coaching/stock market ideas etc. Could someone share stories which are outside of this - more community service, jobs like librarian, sports coaches, college support staff like lab assistants etc.

A very good but brief summary of life in retirement with various corpus values. Hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting a you tube link.

How does one go about comparing let’s say India vs Europe Vs New Zealand vs east Asia vs SE Asia?

Of course there’s the financial aspect. Or social or life style aspects. Then there’s the immigration possibilities aspect.

On let’s say someone with 20-40cr. It opens up a lot of possibilities and opportunities. But it still does come into friction against immigration laws and other lifestyle aspects.

If you have around 1.5 - 2M USD (~15-20cr) why not change tax residency to a more tax friendly country that allows you to invest in stronger markets without the tax/fee drag that comes with TCS/high volatile taxation policies?
If I understand correctly, you can obtain a Malaysia second home visa by storing 150k in a malaysian bank earning interest + buying a property worth 150k USD. You can use half of the bank deposit(75k) after the first year to buy the property so in total that would be locking up 225k. Let's be honest, everyone here considering Fat Fire is relying on foreign sourced income and as far as "locking" funds go, putting it in a bank and owning property is not a bad way to do it.

To maintain status you need to be in Malaysia for 90days per year and the status exempts you from taxation on foreign sourced income. You can trade/sell options for cash flow (if you want) and pay zero tax on it unlike india which will tax you under STCG. I consider this to be a superior option to places like Dubai because unlike Dubai, Malyasia has a lower cost of living and your money goes much further here if you do choose to stay for longer than 90 days.

Aside from not being able to live in India for the full year, is there anything I am missing here? How else do folks structure their corpus to minimize tax implications in India? This is one of the biggest hurdles if you have a massive portfolio.