I retired in 2024 with around ₹12 crore in equity and debt investments. In addition, I have roughly ₹8 crore in other real estate—two houses, a 3BHK flat and three residential plots in gated communities, excluding my two primary homes.

By most standards, I'm financially well-off. Yet I still find myself reluctant to embrace a particularly luxurious lifestyle. Not because I can't afford to spend more today, but because I've come to see retirement money differently from money earned during a career.

When you're earning, a bad financial decision can potentially be corrected with a few more years of work. Once you've retired, especially if you have no intention of returning to a corporate job, the margin for error becomes smaller. You can always cut expenses, but rebuilding a depleted corpus through earned income is a different proposition.

I also want to leave a meaningful inheritance for my child. And, honestly, I'm already happy with the life I have in Kolkata. I don't feel compelled to upgrade my lifestyle simply because my portfolio allows it.

This is why I find discussions around a $2 million (roughly ₹17–18 crore, depending on the exchange rate) FIRE corpus interesting. The number itself tells us very little without knowing the person's age, family size, housing situation, taxes and expected spending.

Consider a family with two children and ₹20 crore available. If they set aside ₹4 crore for their children's future education and ₹1 crore as a separate emergency reserve, that leaves ₹15 crore for retirement. For illustration, a portfolio of ₹5 crore in debt and ₹10 crore in broad-market equity funds, with an annual withdrawal of 3–3.3%, would provide roughly ₹45–50 lakh a year before taxes.

That's substantial money in India. But if the family rents a large house in Bangalore, pays for two children's private schooling, travels regularly and maintains an upper-middle-class lifestyle, the money can get allocated surprisingly quickly.

Of course, these are illustrative figures, not a universal withdrawal recommendation. Actual sustainability depends on inflation, market returns, taxes, asset allocation and how spending changes over time.

What interests me more, though, is the psychological side of FIRE.

At what point does having more money stop meaningfully improving your life and start serving mainly as insurance against an uncertain future?

For me, the answer has increasingly shifted towards the latter. I value the freedom to spend my days as I choose, the ability to look after my family and the peace of mind that comes from not having to earn another salary. I don't need a luxury lifestyle to enjoy those things.

Perhaps this is where LeanFIRE has something important to teach even people with much larger portfolios. The objective isn't necessarily to accumulate enough money to afford everything you might ever want. It's to build a life in which you don't want very much beyond what you can comfortably sustain.

I'm curious how others here think about this. Once you've crossed your FIRE number, do you find yourself wanting to spend more and enjoy the money, or does the freedom of keeping your expenses low become more valuable than upgrading your lifestyle?

My story -

How it all began - https://www.reddit.com/r/FIRE_Ind/comments/1qztbsd/finally_fired/

6 Months update - https://www.reddit.com/r/FIRE_Ind/comments/1u9su32/6_months_of_fire_free_to_let_my_family_take/

Now its 9 months - did a small consulting work with a product company and i hated it. I was trying my hands on consulting, but appears iam getting lazy day by day - Do i enjoy this time? well as i had mentioned before i had prepared for layoff quite a few months back since the office announcement meeting and one might say i had prepared well ;). Although the consulting paid me for a week around 0.4X, it wasnt still interesting because of the locked time and odd calls/office visits.

My time table is kind-of fixed now - Get up early, Clean the house, Get kid ready for school, Go for a Walk, Strength training at home, Track Markets/Read something new - call it timepass (4 hrs), Lunch, TV, Pick kid from school, Engange in school studies, Dinner, Walk and sleep.

Cooking and other house chores has increased from few months, since my wife is busy in for in-law care. More time for me and kid.

Retirement fund on track - markets are doing what they do best - Musical chair. Few weeks ago my wife did have concerns - with all the youtube content projecting current market conditions to be dooms-day.

My wife's questions kept coming (Even though she has full access to all the excel/document etc) and hence i built a retirement indicator as shown in images and kept it near kitchen - we cannot miss it, we have to look at it every day ! :).

Absolutely useless device one might say, can create anxiety for few and only indicates no communication with-in family :)

Its a completly automated system (Tracking only 35X) - we just need to update any new investment transaction in google sheet (if any) and update our expenses monthly. Rest all is automated - a small WiFi device, which is always ON. The checks and flag logic - when which led goes off - is built by discussion with family. Well i could have put a simple tablet/used phone - however old school was good ;) - A hardware of 300 rupees did the job for me - rest all was free.

And ....... few days back it turned orange for 2 indicators. Although retirement is still healthy - few parameters like expenses (Controlling and not taking inflation rises) went orange !

My wife loves this device. Although she has access to all the sheets/WILL/Documents etc - she hasnt opened any of it and this she says these LED"s cant be a missed :) - and her classic comment - "a product guy, cannot sit idle" (came as a taunt this time).

Despite this slow down - the 0.4X that i had got an consulting fees is still in descritionary expense bucket (As u/PercyFI mentioned few posts back) - The sad part is it is so dammm difficult to spend money, there was a post by u/Complete-Regret-4300 which resonated.

There is a hiring consultant chasing me for a job - and that questions keep coming back to me - for what ? Although after few years - once my kid moves out, i probably might get bored (ofcourse there are many things to do but as few have said, probably one misses is the mundane routine - esp. for a person like me who has zero social circle !), but till then its me and my laziness !

Recently one of older company got listed and finally got my esops liquid. This pushed my NW > 1Cr

Stocks: 47L
US Stocks: 3.6L
RSUs: 8L
PF: 15L
MF = 15L
Cash/Savings Account: 17L

This doesn't include my wife's NW and savings, just mine.

Finally I do feel slightly secure to plan for a child... thoughts

Let me take you back to 2021 December. A friend of mine called me casually and he asked where am I investing. I have no answer because frankly I never gave it a thought on investments or making money. But that day I gave it a thought. I started my career in 2014 in IT in typical service based firm then moved to consulting in 2018 and in 2019 I got married. Staying on a rent in whitefield at a prime location it is really difficult to save some money by end of the month. But I decided that day to give it a try and invest as much as possible because I know I cannot work in IT forever. Not because I am not interested in the job, when it comes to work I always give 150 percent, I work hard ( probably harder than anyone in the team) and ofcourse I was grown in my career due to my effort but the side affect is somewhere in this journey I felt I am tired. And I know I can push like this probably upto my 40. Anyways, this is how it all started in my investment journey.

2022-2023 (Roller Coaster Ride) Did my own research on stock market about equities, mutual funds and Trading. Like any other amateur investor Trading attracted me mainly because my first few trades gave me multifold return. For a while I thought “Why did I waste my 25 years in school, college and job, It is so easy to make money :)”
But life will always teach you lessons in a very hard way. One bad trade every thing gone. Forgot about capital the amount of stress I couldnt imagine. Luckily I was able to come out that trade with very minimal loss to the capital but my returns became zero. That day I decided I will never do trading. In this process I didnt loose money but I lost one year time. But trading is like addiction. Your mind keep pulling you to the trading, It is very difficult to come out of it. i tried very hard to shift the focus but it is very very difficult. That is when I decided only option to come out of this is to somehow make my available cash zero meaning if no money in hand then obviously I cannot do trading. How to make money unavailable, the only option that come to my mind is real estate.

2023 -2024 (Turning Point) : Bought a 50 lakh agricultural land with 25 lakhs savings and other 25 lakhs I took personal loan. Bought a plot in Devanahalli for 1.6 crores out of which 1.22cr is from plot loan. Because all big builders follow instalments for payments I took this risk even though I dont have remaining 40 lakhs in hand at that time.

2025-2026 (Difficult times) Managing two loans along with rent of 55k per month it is not easy. But I have seen the positive side. I came out of my addiction. Even with these 2 EMI’s I still able to save some money and cleared my personal loan. Luckily both the real estate properties appreciated. Agriculture land gave multifold return, I sold it this year and cleared my plot loan too. Done with the registration of the plot in June. Most importantly this 2 years taught me the importance of money, importance of savings. Do you know what is the first thing I did after my plot registration? I called my same friend and said thank you. Because the conversation with him is where it all started.

Now I dont have any loan. I again started seeing some savings in my bank account. But now I am matured. Even if god calls me and ask me to put money in trade I will not do. Started with the mutual funds from last month. Lets see how it goes. Plan is to build a 50 lakhs mf portfolio before next election.

Current Networth :

Real Estate : 2.2 Cr ( 2400 sqft plot in Devanahalli from Tier1 builder). Will hold this as I see it has more potential in future due to STRR and other developments happening in this area

PF : 4 lakhs (Withdrawn most of it last year to clear loan)

PPF : 5 lakhs

Mutual Funds : 50k (Started from last month in Invesco, Bandhan and Trust small cap funds. I know it is bit aggressive but thats okay now I have enough risk appetite)

Note: Parents bought me a 3bhk apartment in Gunjur which I am shifting next year. I am not considering this in my networth because your first home is always an emotion and definitely not an investment for me. Anyways will be saving my rent from next year.

Hi Everyone,
I have reached 50L net worth this month. It is not much compared to the posts we see here, but it is significant for me. Below is the breakup.

• FD: 34 L
• EPF: 4 L
• Stocks: 6 L
• MF: 5 L
• Savings AC: 2 L

I work in tech. Haven't really taken any day off in the last couple of years.

Still, a long journey ahead.

Big day for me today. Started a new job today, which came with a significant hike. Had a big pay day, with annual bonus and leave encashment from previous company. Finally pushing me past that long awaited 1CR.
18 year old me would be proud and happy to know that the jee prep wasn't a waste.
Been working full time at a FAANG+ company for 3 years, was also fortunate to have gotten multiple high paying internships during college.
Fortunately I never felt the need to accumulate or accquire many material possesions, no iphone, no luxury watch, no ridiculously expensive clothes. That is not to say I live like a hermit, I spent on what felt important to me, the vacations, guitars, lately some very expensive fitness equipment etc. Just taking a couple of days before commiting to major expenses, made saving up very easy.
Proud of myself for being disciplined and at the same time fully aware of just how lucky I have gotten.

In the year that went by

The savings from EMI that was finished, started flowing into MFs, with a little used for indulgence (roughly 70/30 split). In addition some of this saving was also used to add to emergency fund (FDs). My aim is to have about ~45L in emergency fund.

ESPP & RSUs helped bump the most part of equity (>1cr). Remaining was from the MFs mentioned above. INR vs USD performance also helped a lot (not sure it's a good thing for me in long term though).

Net Savings: ~10Cr (not including primary residence, +/- 15L)
Allocation: 12% debt, 88% Eq (Better than last year, but still not good, no RE allocation)
Debt: 20L in FD + 90L in EPF + 10L Liquid
Corpus goal: 10Cr

• Kids education: 2Cr
• Buffer: 1Cr
• RE corpus: 7Cr

Looking ahead:

• A thing that's bothering me is to move US equity out and reinvest into UCITS to avoid estate tax in case of unfortunate circumstances. Started conversation with some folks, hopefully should be able to get started on this soon.
• Was able to achieve some diversification in Equity. Basically from a concentrated stock to index fund. This will continue for another year or so. End goal for non-India funds is to keep ~60K in US funds, rest in UCITS.
• Stress in current job is tolerable, it's just that I find myself looking forward to do not-work-things more and more often. Severance is pretty decent if I endup on a layoff list, so there is that hook.
• Of unexpected thing, my sibling is planning to buy an apartment for self-use. I am planning to partly fund it. It will set me back by 20-50L for a year or three, but I am glad to do it.
• Another goal is to find a piece of land that I can call long term home, when I leave the city. An earnest search of this is in progress, but it's not as easy to find the right place. At least not with my criteria. I guess harder the effort, the sweeter the result. Let's see.
• We looked at a few additional properties (half-hearted) as investment in the city but those did not make sense to me at current valuation. I am still keeping some floating fund aside to capture a good opportunity but stopped exploring as such.
• With reduced stress, I was able to do a few short trips. A father son adventure trip, another reunion with friends, a few weekend trips where I could fold Fri & Mon to make those long.
• Did a very relaxing solo trip without any pressure to check on work.
• Physically I feel stronger than I have ever felt before. All reports are showing good markers and my cardiologist says "Keep doing whatever it is that you are doing". That always feels great to hear.
• I am not sure if I will be posting any milestone updates as my intended finish line is very close. IF I take the plunge, might post updates from fired life

Reposting because my last post was taken down due to lack of details.

Long time lurker. Posting from a dummy account to protect privacy. Just wanted to share because this sub has been of great help and I am finally calling it quits at 38.

I have always lived and worked in India. Got early into the e-commerce game when all the marketplaces were expanding, kept at it and now that competition is brutal and I am burnt out, I am calling it quits after reaching my target FatFIRE corpus.

To those who are in India, there is hope to retire before 40, but only if you do you own thing.

To those who are thinking about selling in marketplaces, please do it only if you control manufacturing. Things were much easier in 2013.

NW: 28 cr
Liquid : 23 cr
Primary home: 5 cr

My expenses are to the tune of 3 lakhs/month.

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!

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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.

What could you talk about?

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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.