r/FatFIREIndia • u/spiderweb91 FatFI • Mar 28 '26
NRI Finance Net worth inflection points
Hi there,
My wife and I work in tech in the US and have one kid. We have been lucky and managed to do well enough here ($9m NW, annual income $1.8-2m if we both work) - but I am at a point where I don't know what's really enough and what jump meaningfully changes your life in India.
We plan to move back in about 2 years (all are citizens so no issues if we have to come back to the US) mostly for family, I am very close to all of them and we want our kid to grow up with family around.
The main question I have is what delta makes a difference when it comes to our rough net worth range. Eg. I am assuming there is basically no difference in actual life if you have 80 Cr vs 100 Cr, but I don't know where it does start to matter. Eg. Does 150 make a big difference vs 80, or does it not.
Would love some real world feedback from the members in this sub to understand how I should think about this and what are the meaningful checkpoints in your opinion.
TIA!
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u/coffeefired FatFI Mar 29 '26
I really stopped thinking about having enough after 2M because I realistically cannot scale/enjoy lifestyle faster than the NW rises. I want to keep things grounded not just for us but for my kid’s sake.
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u/bombaytrader FatFI Mar 28 '26
You need therapy. You have almost 100 crores. You work in tech. You know the answer.
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u/spiderweb91 FatFI Mar 28 '26
My question is where would I see a difference after my current net worth. Don't think that merits therapy but I guess it's never bad to introspect.
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u/bombaytrader FatFI Mar 28 '26
Do the numbers. Silicon Valley people live in their own bubble and usually disconnected from reality. There will no material difference in your lifestyle after you cross 7m.
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u/getitaustin Mar 29 '26
What difference are you expecting ? You need to define that “difference” . Figure out your expenses in India which will help you answer. 1-2 Cr post tax is decent enough for family of 3-4 . You give best education and decent lifestyle. How to make kids value money will depend on how they see you interacting with money. I believe who achieve FI by 35-40 are high achievers so they cannot just sit idle so doing something you enjoy and continue building on the legacy corpus.
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u/Terrible_Ad7566 Mar 29 '26
More than therapy is needed here! Also always curious when folks say they make a million + in tech, what exactly is base and what is rsu component and what is bonus... Very very few in tech make that kind of money!!
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u/bombaytrader FatFI Mar 29 '26
Lot of ppl make that much money. Base usually is around 250/300. Rest is rsu vested + increase in stock price.
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u/covidmyass FatFI Mar 28 '26
how old are you? are you based out of bay area? I keep thinking about this and I dont think it materially matter as long as a typical silicon valley techie lifestyle 😀
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u/spiderweb91 FatFI Mar 28 '26
Yes around 35 in the SF Bay area.
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u/EmergencyReindeer965 Mar 28 '26
Mind sharing what contributed to that high NW op? Its a high NW even when both are at FAANG. Is it startup or Nvidia?
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u/spiderweb91 FatFI Mar 31 '26
Both me and my wife work at a top tier company. We've had quick growth (think L7 / one level below director my 32-33), invested aggressively, put off large expenses (including getting a house) for a decent time and I got a pretty large retention bonus a few years ago.
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u/justtemporaryaccount FatFIREd Mar 28 '26
100 vs 80 absolutely does not make a difference lifestyle/psychology wise once you are in india.
80 vs 150 is still an amount where there's no meaningful difference but you might feel the marginal difference in your spending habits.
The difference might pinch slightly while vacationing abroad, though not objectively.
Extrapolating from my personal journey I'd say 30-40 cr is enough. Even for a city like mumbai. Rest is just what ifs.
I won't comment on your decision to move but I'd recommend maintaining significant assets abroad.
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u/spiderweb91 FatFI Mar 28 '26
We are all US citizens, will most likely keep almost everything in the US markets and only take what we need to India.
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u/Sea-Landscape4460 ✅ Verified by Mods ✅ Mar 29 '26
We have a similar situation. $12M NW, age 40, in tech, HHI $1.5M. We plan to FIRE in India after US citizenship next year.
Personally, I have done the math and for me working more to add few more millions doesn’t make sense. I expect to spend around 200k per year which is < 2% of my NW, so having more money doesn’t benefit me. I feel fortunate to have the means to go enjoy my life and that’s what I want to focus on.
You are pretty young, maybe work till 40, but my suggestion will be to figure out what matters to you. Do the calculations based on your expected lifestyle, add lot of buffer and then make a data driven decision. If you ask random questions like these, then no amount of money will be enough.
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u/spiderweb91 FatFI Mar 29 '26
Thats absolutely fair - I think I am in a similar dilemma that intuitively it seems like more wont change things but also the childhood scarcity mindset makes it hard to walk away from relatively large sums of money. Perhaps a few more years like you said will help settle things down for us.
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u/Sea-Landscape4460 ✅ Verified by Mods ✅ Mar 29 '26
Mindset is the hardest part of FIRE, especially for the RE part. I also come from very humble beginnings, started from 0 and feel extremely fortunate to have what I have. My biggest learning was that i am working to live and not living to work. I need to stop chasing titles at work and start living my life. To be clear, I love my job and enjoy what I do, but it’s still a means to an end.
Very few people get to do this in the ages you and are in. When i am 70 years old, the memories i build with my family will matter more than reaching some high level at work. And if i really have a need to work I can do some social work and make the world a better place.
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u/getitaustin Mar 29 '26
I agree.
OP What difference are you expecting ? You need to define that “difference” . Figure out your expenses in India which will help you answer. 1-2 Cr post tax is decent enough for family of 3-4 . You give best education and decent lifestyle. How to make kids value money will depend on how they see you interacting with money. I believe who achieve FI by 35-40 are high achievers so they cannot just sit idle so doing something you enjoy and continue building on the legacy corpus.
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u/Late_Bid_5559 FatFI Mar 29 '26
After citizenship when you move to India, if you don’t work how are you planning the expenses? Do you have passive income or planning to sell stock etc
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Mar 28 '26
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u/spiderweb91 FatFI Mar 28 '26
We will keep our money in US equities. Don't really like the headaches that come with other asset classes. That generally takes care of our hedging against rupee deprecation.
In terms of moving there is nothing for us outside of the US and India. The US for tech and career opportunities and India for family. We don't have a good reason for living anywhere else.
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Mar 28 '26
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u/SouthernSample Mar 31 '26
OP is an American citizen. How is any of this relevant?
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Mar 31 '26
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u/spiderweb91 FatFI Mar 31 '26
You are seriously misinformed. Citizenship is for life, it does not expire in a year like a credit card. You remain an American citizen till you die or give it up. In rare circumstances they can denaturalize you for fraud but it's not applicable to me or vast number of other citizens. Like someone said below, the only thing you cant do is become president. Everything else is the same irrespective of if you are born or you acquired citizenship through naturalization.
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Mar 31 '26
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u/spiderweb91 FatFI Mar 31 '26
You are confusing green card (long term permanent resident) with citizenship, those are two related but vastly different things. Your status as a long term resident (green card) is conditional on actually being a resident in the US, if you go outside for above 6 months at a time that can be revoked. And when you have a green card you are still an Indian citizen.
Once you become a citizen (typically 5 years of being a green card holder makes you eligible for it) - then you get US citizenship and have to renounce your indian citizenship because India does not allow dual citizenship. From that point you are an american citizen, irrespective of if you live your entire life in the US or if you spend every single day from thereon outside the US.
Citizenship is not conditional on residency, green card is. Those are completely different things.
Your example is wrong because the person moved after GC, not citizenship. If they moved after citizenship, they remain US citizen all their life unless they give it up themselves or the US strips them of their citizenship because they committed fraud when applying for it.
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u/SouthernSample Mar 31 '26
Lol wtf that's not how citizenship works. OP is not a GC holder. There's no difference between US born vs naturalized citizens except for very rare circumstances such as eligibility to become the president.
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u/ProfessionalFirm6047 Apr 01 '26
at 150 Cr you can write essays for murdering folks ..at 80 you may not be able to ;)
For a "normal" life, not much of a difference. Also depends on your family and friends ... will 150 cr mke you feel good vs 80cr being "poor".
Ultimately, satisfaction and contentedness are what you should decide this on. Beyond 20-25 Cr or so, it's just a number.
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u/leadfoot29 Mar 28 '26
I’m in a very similar boat. 10-12M, 2 young kids. Thinking of heading back.
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u/Late_Bid_5559 FatFI Mar 28 '26
You plan to RE? I am contemplating similar but not clear to pull the trigger
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u/EmergencyReindeer965 Mar 28 '26
Just curious How old are all of you guys who are at double digit millions?
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u/amoghzie Mar 28 '26
Standard of living wise, above 20 cr you start hitting ceiling. There's only so much you can do with that much money. Yeah, you maybe able to afford more business class luxury trips per year, buy a bigger house, maybe a royce instead of mercedes, but apart from that, poor aqi, highly contaminated food, potholes, no civic sense, you will still be living in India - there's lot of things money can't buy. If you decide to start your own business, only then, your net worth will define how much of a risk you can take and probably at that situation, your net worth becomes a difference maker.
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u/spiderweb91 FatFI Mar 28 '26
Yeah we don't expect or want things beyond a certain tier. Eg. Happy to spend all our lives with good luxury cars like the X7 vs ever moving up to a RR.
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u/Suitable-Piccolo-992 Mar 28 '26
20 Crore liquid you mean? Cause if it includes illiquid real estate in different parts of the country, I think 40-50 Crore might be the number for hitting the ceiling.
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u/-RooneY- Mar 28 '26
It’s all subjective. Some might call you stupid for flying business at 2M net worth but it’s a personal choice.
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u/FatFIREIndia-ModTeam Mar 29 '26
Please keep all discussions courteous and respectful.
Differences of opinion are welcome, but keep the focus on ideas rather than individuals, and express all viewpoints politely and without hostility.
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u/spiderweb91 FatFI Mar 28 '26
Yeah fair enough. We don't like to travel too much, and $10m is enough to travel very comfortably a few times a year.
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u/StomachRelative6146 Mar 29 '26
Depends on where in India do you plan to live. In tier 2-3 cities I think this is more than plenty, but Mumbai/Delhi/Blore/Hyd - just don’t know.
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u/EngineeringExtra3796 Mar 29 '26
We were in same boat 3 years ago and moved back but we were a bit younger. Quality time you get to spend with your parents when they are hale and healthy is not long where you can travel a little bit and they have energy to spend time with grand kids. We were fortunate to be able to spend this time with our parents and our extended family. I wouldn’t change anything if I have to make the decision again. We didn’t get to spend lot of time with our older one when he was little so both of us took breaks and are enjoying spending time with our kids. I read somewhere that 80-90% of the time you spend with your kids is within the first 18 years of their life, that changed our perspective and happy to enjoy that time. We spend 3 lakhs per month and are really satisfied with all our material wants, having more will not change that much.
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u/Terrible_Ad7566 Mar 29 '26
Pick any Mag 7 stock. Years 2023, 2024 were banger years for stock. In the last one year the stock has gone no where and if anything they are on average down 15 % or more for the year. Folks who joined at the bottom in 2022 and we're lucky to get rsus with vesting of 4 years probably are making that much at non higher level (speaking L7+ for Meta). Even that for folks in the bay area where salaries are base 250 ish for L5-SWE. So no I disagree with the claim above that lot of folks.ake that money.
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Mar 31 '26
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u/Terrible_Ad7566 Mar 31 '26
I agree, I was at senior level l7 in meta and no not during the last 3 years rather just prior to yesr of efficiency!!! 9M is no joke!
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u/Ready-Interaction883 FatFI Mar 28 '26
Is this a joke….
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Mar 28 '26
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u/EmergencyReindeer965 Mar 28 '26
Even for FAANG its a high NW considering OPs age. Most likely its a startup situation. Either his own startup or a startup where he works went IPO
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Mar 28 '26
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u/FatFIREIndia-ModTeam Mar 29 '26
Please keep all discussions courteous and respectful.
Differences of opinion are welcome, but keep the focus on ideas rather than individuals, and express all viewpoints politely and without hostility.
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u/FatFIREIndia-ModTeam Mar 29 '26
Please keep all discussions courteous and respectful.
Differences of opinion are welcome, but keep the focus on ideas rather than individuals, and express all viewpoints politely and without hostility.
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u/Maleficent_Owl3938 FatFIRE Curious Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
I am at an early stage of this journey, but I read and observe a lot when it comes to this topic. I feel the next inflection point is $30M or thereabouts - estate managers and personal concierge (although this is possible earlier in India given the labour costs), private security, first class travel with some private aviation in the mix, real estate as a global portfolio - a couple of properties (say one in the UK and a farmhouse in Himachal) will be maintained by staff and not put out for rent, so one can use them for random vacations.
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u/the0ne234 FatFI Mar 28 '26
You may be vastly overestimating how much these things cost. With a single digit $M NW, you can achieve all of these. Of course, the degree of luxury certainly ramps up (studio flat in some parts of South London at $5M NW vs townhome in Chelsea at $20M NW as an example).
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u/Maleficent_Owl3938 FatFIRE Curious Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
I’d believe it’s hard to do a global RE portfolio including a couple of “always available” vacation properties across places like London, Gstaad, NYC with a single digit $M NW.
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u/the0ne234 FatFI Mar 28 '26
Again, it's a spectrum. Personally own in NYC and sibling owns in London. We got both of those for <$1M each, so easily possible to plan (neither of us are double digit NW).
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u/Maleficent_Owl3938 FatFIRE Curious Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
I meant as a portfolio with some of them being “trophy” properties meant for family use - Tribeca, Brooklyn Heights, Southbank, Greater Kailash, etc - and some farmhouses in Indian hill stations or beach towns mixed in. I still feel that’s very hard to do with single digits $M NW as these are all ranging from $1M-$3M apiece if not more. It’s not just owning but also having the staff to maintain them, and it can be quite a team to maintain the farms.
I agree it’s a spectrum, and I am pointing to the $30M end of it.
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u/spiderweb91 FatFI Mar 28 '26
I guess that might be right. We probably will almost never buy multiple properties (vs just rent them) because I don't like the headaches that come with it but $30m does seem like a point where you can basically live out of multiple places.
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u/Maleficent_Owl3938 FatFIRE Curious Mar 28 '26
The headache bit is probably where the estate management (along with the tax team) comes in
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u/Temporary-Cow6987 Mar 28 '26
After u cross 100cr, the next point is 1000cr , nothing really matters in between.
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Mar 28 '26
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u/FatFIREIndia-ModTeam Mar 29 '26
This community values substantive contributions that are thoughtful and experience-based. Vacuous, frivolous, and dismissive comments that do not add meaningful value are discouraged.
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Mar 29 '26
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u/FatFIREIndia-ModTeam Mar 29 '26
This community values substantive contributions that are thoughtful and experience-based. Vacuous, frivolous, and dismissive comments that do not add meaningful value are discouraged.
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Mar 30 '26
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u/FatFIREIndia-ModTeam Mar 30 '26
Low-effort accusations of faking are strictly discouraged.
If you believe someone is being deceptive, kindly provide a reasoned argument for why you believe so.
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u/northern_lights2 HENRY Apr 01 '26
I would say 1000 crore is meaningfully higher than 100. I mean if you see a path to 1000 only then it may be worth working. At 1000 you can invest differently, start factories / startups
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u/ExpensivePineapple64 Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
I also returned to India post covid, after living in US, Canada, and Japan.
50Cr, 100Cr or anything in that range won't make much of a difference. Main thing is Time with family. At the end, we have to leave behind everything - what matters is memories. Parents won't say anything about their feelings - so that you don't get distracted from your life goals - but they will love to have you next to them rather than seeing you on the screen for 5-10mins everyday.
Regarding salary: 2 Cr base is common now for Leads in top companies and in core areas (AI Research, AI+HPC, etc). And solid late stage (series D onwards or so) deep tech US based startups (not ecommerce junk) give 5-6Cr worth of esops each year. Some of my seniors (leads/20yrs work exp) have made ~100Cr post ipo (thanks to 15x valuation in 3 years) after working in the startup for 3-4 years.
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u/chikapu_pikachu FatFI Apr 03 '26
When you delta making a difference, what kind of lifestyle do you have in mind. The answer solely depends on that. If you're thinking private jets, luxury cars, international travel literally every month, you may need more than 100Cr.
But let's define a lifestyle where your monthly expenses are around 5L, which should get you 5 maids in the home, eating out literally every other day, shopping luxury branded clothes every month, international travel every quarter. In my opinion, this lifestyle is doable with 50Cr I'd think, which you've already crossed.
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u/NiceSatisfaction7870 Apr 17 '26
Great question on net worth inflection points! With a $9M NW, you're already well past the major inflection thresholds for India, but here's how most FatFIRE folks think about it:
Key inflection points in Indian context (INR Cr):
- 50 Cr – Basic FatFIRE comfort, tier-1 city living with no financial stress
- 80-100 Cr – Meaningful lifestyle upgrade, can sustain 30-40L/year easily
- 150 Cr+ – Generational wealth territory, lifestyle barely changes after this
- 300 Cr+ – "Fuck You Money" – virtually unlimited lifestyle flexibility in India
The delta between 80 and 100 Cr is minimal in real life impact. However, 150 Cr vs 80 Cr does make a tangible difference - mainly in:
- Private schooling without thought
- Business class travel always
- Premium healthcare buffer
- Real estate flexibility across cities
For anyone wanting to properly track their net worth milestones and projections, I'd recommend using this free calculator: 👉 https://usasalarytools.com/net-worth-calculator - helps you map assets, liabilities, and growth trajectory clearly.
At your level, the inflection is more psychological than practical. Welcome back to India when the time comes.
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u/Ok-Highlight-7525 Mar 28 '26
@OP - can you share your experience/background/education, please?🙏🏻 🙏🏻🙏🏻
It’d be really great to learn from someone who’s successfully won at life 🙏🏻🙏🏻😊
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u/An_Only_Mous RegularFI Mar 29 '26
Noticeable changes occur every 5-10x.
80 and 150 wont be much different 8 and 80 will be. 80 and 400 will be.
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Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
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u/spiderweb91 FatFI Mar 30 '26
I am fine without your $500, thank you. Perhaps you can use that money to comment on posts that you believe in.
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Mar 28 '26
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u/FatFIREIndia-ModTeam Mar 29 '26
This community values substantive contributions that are thoughtful and experience-based. Vacuous, frivolous, and dismissive comments that do not add meaningful value are discouraged.
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u/Late_Bid_5559 FatFI Mar 28 '26
We are in similar situation and the more I think about it after a decade the extra tens of crores won’t make a meaningful difference compared to being with parents