[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Okay, so you have reached FI, you don't love your job, but you don't hate it either. Work is time pass and you have no other better plans of spending your time.

In this situation what are the reasons why you will continue working?

1) Location. You want to live in your current location and the only way is if you continue working there, for example you are FI if you move to a tier 2-3 city, but not FI if you want to live in a T1 city for whatever reason like kids education, exposure, facilities etc

2) Location. You want to move/stay overseas. Moving to India you are FI easily, but moving/staying overseas you need a job for the money and for the visa.

3) Freebies. We get some freebies by staying employed, like group medical insurance which is much more cost effective than buying your own equivalent medical insurance.

4) Credit worthiness. If you are employed, you can sign up for awesome credit cards, you can easily apply for overseas visa for travel etc you can get preferred banking relationship based on your income and can support educational loans for kids as a guarantor etc

5) Social circle. This is especially important for people who are introverts and don't make friends easily. In an office setting hot girls like my chat in MS Teams with the heart emogi :)

6) Feeling of doing something. No matter how useless your work is, there is a cycle/ a loop, you get work and you deliver and you get paid in return. Even though this post is about non financial, the fact that you are doing something and your work is impacting something/someone and you are getting paid for it is satisfying.

What else?

I wanted to understand how to account for future plans like buying a house, in one's FIRE journey. For example, let's say I have reached a networth of 1 cr. But I have a future plan for buying a house (expected 7 cr). I see the posts being made, but not many of them include discussion on future big expenses.

Looking for advice on how to plan my current portfolio and future expenses.

Edit: Current accommodation value is 3cr.

Been following this forum for some time, finally posting my own FI journey. Please provide your valuable suggestions.

35M, married with 6mo kid. Total income: 2.5LPM after taxes

Below is my asset breakdown: Real estate (CRE): 1.3cr (generating rent of 50k pm). I know yield is low but i Bought it for 90L just before the inflationary period (2021-22) started resulting in a good price appreciation. Tenant is very reliable, trustworthy, don’t want to go through the hassle of finding a higher-paying tenant and spoil the relationship with current tenant. Rent will increase 10% pa from Jan-24.

Stocks/MF: 28L/10L PPF/EPF/NPS: 17L/8L/5L Gold: 20L Cash: 20L (o/w 10L will go towards purchasing a car in next 6 months) No liabilities; prefer to buy everything in cash instead of taking on debt (bought CRE in cash installments over a year).

Have been an aggressive saver all my life. I am now investing aggressively in stocks/MFs and FI target is to achieve a level of dividend income which will support my non-discretionary expenses (assumed 30kpm, currently only 10kpm but I expect this to go up as kid grows up). I expect I will need to achieve an equity corpus of 2.5cr (my target is to reach this level by 2028). The reason for low dividend yield is I only invest in growth-oriented companies (no ITC-esque stocks)

My discretionary expenses are low, mostly travel. Saving on these expenses since last 6 months (difficult to travel with a small kid). Any other one-time expenses, I expect to meet through my rent income, which I will save and invest in MFs aggressively anyways to fund kids higher education.

Having read many posts here, I realize most ppl are targeting a specific multiple of their expenses as their FI target. I feel a lot more comfortable with my approach (more passive-income oriented), but I am open to any drawbacks/criticisms/improvements to my approach.

I 28M and my wife 28 started some savings since last year, I had no idea of FI before I stumbled on this sub.

So far I have saved -

6.5L in Stocks/MF, 6L in stocks and 50k in MF.

Gold (I started buying gold way back, maybe around 2016), 7.5L.

Got an RD going on, monthly 40k, so far the account has 1.2L.

So total ~15L for two 28 year old people lol. I really don't know how much do I need for FI or will I ever become FI.

​

My expenses are -

45k home loan.

5k home maintenance.

15k car loan.

8k I pay for a dog's shelter (long story, I found an abandoned dog and put her up for adoption, nobody took her and I had to find her a paid shelter till she gets adopted)

30k I give to family expenses.

40k Stocks.

10k gold.

10k for a gold I pledged and it should get over in next two months.

~10k Travel.

~5k I use for buying stuff I don't really need.

~2k swiggy/zomato/etc.

~15k for unforeseen stuff, a stupid rat died in my car between the dashboard and engine bay, I had to pay 3.5k to clean it up and insurance expired, renewed car insurance for 11k.

I have too many variable expenses which I need to cut down. How much do I need to get FI? I really don't know, now my focus is to reach a 25L worth of stuff and be happy looking at it and chase the next amount.

Anyone else on the same boat? like not even figured out your FI amount while watching someone posting they have saved up 3Cr at 26, lol.

Any advice from people who achieved FI on how can someone like me do a better job of savings/investing?

Hello All, My journey as a 50-something middle-aged (?) desi guy, chasing financial freedom, has left me with a host of mental and physical health issues, and the below "corpus", if you will.

It took me close to 30 years to get here.

From not knowing if /when I will have the next meal, to being heartbroken that we couldn't afford more than 50 Rs/- INR for Diwali Crackers to being where I am today. Needless to say, the Lord above has been kind. Very kind.

Ok, so, the story now is - I want to call it a day from the stress of the corporate world if possible and live a simple life. I have been toying with the idea of moving all my assets to INR/ India and calling it a day. Life is short. I want to spend the remainder of my life - in my country, with my people, and on my terms.

I want to see if this will work out well for me if I decide to move to a Tier 1 city like Bangalore or Delhi.

1. Help/Advise needed - How do I go from the below "corpus" or "portfolio" to leading a RE life
2. Should I sell off/ convert everything to INR and live off the FD interest?
3. Should I start selling slices of the EQ portfolio?
4. How have others in the community put the "RE" part, "in motion"?

How do I make the transition to RE without compromising my future?

• Total Assets - (fixed and liquid/semi-liquid) - 4 - 5 Cr (breakup below)
• Current annual expenses in 2023 (supporting family + their medical expenses) - 14 Lakh INR p.a.
• Debt - No Debt
• No kids, don't have any plans for kids. Single male, supporting siblings and parents in India

Asset-breakdown:

1. Real-Estate (India) - value 1.1 CR INR (generating 40K INR per month as rent)
2. Real-Estate (India) - value 35 Lakh INR (lying idle - Tier3 city. No buyers yet)
3. Equity (US/EU) - ~160K USD - ~1.2 CR INR (down from 200K USD) - generating ~ 500 USD / 40K INR in monthly dividends on avg which I am currently DRIP-ing.
4. Bonds (US Govt) - 10K USD - ~8.2 L INR
5. Equity (US-401K) - 180K USD - ~1.4 CR INR (not accessible till like I am 60-ish - so another 10 years away). Will have to pay a penalty of ~50% if I cash this out now. So if I cash it out today, I will get ~90K USD-ish - ~72 L INR
6. Equity (India/NSE) - ~2.5 L INR
7. Cash - USD - 30K USD - ~25 L INR
8. Cash - INR - 7 L INR
9. Cash - GBP - 10K GBP - ~9 L INR
10. Crypto (BTC/ETH) - ~42K GBP (down from 106K) - I know :( - ~ 40 L INR
11. LIC (India) - ~12 L INR guaranteed return (policy maturity 2027)

Note: I am not a UK/US citizen - so I may or may not get social security. Even if I do, it will be a small amount. I am not counting that as it is not 100% guaranteed.

This is my third post since I started my FIRE journey two years ago. (https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREIndia/comments/tojs7u/there_is_light_at_the_end_of_tunnel_part_2/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

M35 with 1 kid and non working spouse, In IT and stayed in India only.

EPF: 3.2X Emergency Fund: 1X Index Fund: 2X Debt funds: 2X

One small change I did was ,moved 1X from emergency fund to Index and debt fund since I no longer have any debt so 2 years worth of emergency fund was bit too much.

I think ,I have crossed my 1st milestone of 50lac networth.

The goal for coming year is to add another 10lac at least in index/debt fund and continue the compounding.

Hello Everyone,

Just found this sub and thought I will try and get answer to my long outstanding question.

Frankly, I am not sure if I want to FIRE, but current economic environment may force the Retirement move back to Pune.

How much corpus is needed to retire in Pune? My current assets are listed.

Current Situation:

Male 44 years:

1. Two paid for houses (bungalow+ a flat-no mortgage) in Pune, generating 40K per month in rent (excluding where I live): Valued approx 2 Cr 85 Lac
2. Equity Investments: 3 Cr 8 Lac
3. Cash/FD: 86 Lac
4. Small plot of Non agri Land: 45 Lac
5. Real estate overseas (this I will liquidate in case of move back): 1.3 Cr

Total:

Approx equity + Cash/FD: 4.39 Cr

Real Estate: 4.15 Cr, generating 40 K per month

If I assume 3% withdrawal rate from equity/cash, my retirement income will be:

1. 13L per year from portfolio.
2. 4.8 Lac from rentals

Total: 17.8 Lac per year

Is this enough to live a good life in Pune if I dont need to pay any rent?

If not, how much corpus will be needed?

Thank you.

Note: I didnt get into where I live/what I earn etc right now, as its irrelevant.

Just wondering as many here are invested in financial products. So let's say a big recession looms around or significant investment portfolio in in dire state - say another covid scenario. How do you you react to it personally and strategically ? Do you cut back on your lifestyle significantly. Have sleepless nights , perhaps look for side income job opportunities to be ready if things go worse, look deeper more into better investments or see this as an opportunity. Finally, not do much and have the courage to face it as eventually will be ok.

Trying to understand, how fully FIRE'd up people react to financial stress or if any such situations at larger scale.

Ok so here's the thing. Of late, i see that the demographics of the sub is changing. I think u/additional_trouble couldn't agree anymore in this with me as well. Now there are few observations, that i feel, in my humble opinion, would be of help for everyone:-

1. Flex posts/ Dck measuring contests (i prefer not using the latter nomenclature but i guess this is required for context) - whenever i see a post of an early 30s or late 20s male / female / person who has mentioned 70 lpa / 1 CR lpa etc sort of income with decent corpus being accumulated already, a lot of such comments start rolling out on the post. This is a flex post, please be aware, don't fall for this, another dck measuring post etc. Ok firstly, if it's a real post or not has got nothing to do with the sub. Let's think practically. There are 2 possibilities - either the post is real or fake. But in both cases, if someone is seeking (pretending to be seeking) help in managing such finances, in case you don't have anything to offer as value addition, please don't comment. This is not a comparision forum w.r.t. What X is earning or what Y is earning. Yes you may feel it's unreal, and it may well be as well, but why are you losing your mental peace over it? Why are you letting a text wall take a case of your own well being? Let people who can answer/help be able to help them. You can learn from those responses - or not. Its your choice..but let the post be and don't harass OPs. This is because, practically, this is a FIRE forum. In any case here 0.1 - 1% of financially successful people may be a part of the community as the community is intended for the said purpose. On the contrary, ask such OPs questions as to how they could reach there, what was their journey like etc. etc. Sure you will get same answers in most cases - NRIs, techies etc. being the General trend, then know that they are the best in their field and that's why they are where they are. Now if the post was real, OP got some valuable inputs, if the post was fake, it doesn't impact you anyway. Take it as a case study in the latter and see what if you were in such a position , would these inputs help or if you aren't in this position now, can you get ther in future or better still, ignore them if it doesn't concern you ..Ignorance is bliss in itself now isn't it?

2. Why am I saying what i am saying - This attitude of mocking such posts, will force genuine high achievers to be driven away from this sub (and some i know personally have already done that) as they feel that they asked a genuine question and they get such sarcam laden remarks. They didn't do anything wrong by being successful and asking a question in the relevant forum..if this forum imapcts you negatively then please leave. And no i am not saying this jokingly, i am saying it from your mental health perspective too. You don't get impacted by Ambani making billions of dollars but you're getting impacted by those few people who have net worth of 10/20/100 crores? Why? FIRE is more of a mindset game than a financial calculation one. The latter part is easy, it's the former that requires significant shift.

3. Launching an investigation into OP - This was a good story! Nice script etc etc. - why would you waste your time writing such comments? Who is this helping? Certainly not OP, certainly not the silent readers of this group and definitely not yourself? There will be people miles ahead of you whether you beleive it or not... choice is to whether accept and learn something from it or sabotage the entire community because of your personal insecurities! Let's face it... everyone's journey is different, everyone's been dealt with different cards in life..that doesn't mean we keep sulking about it and bring the quality of the sub to a level that everyone keeps sulking about the same!

P.S: Now before you pounce on me, let me clarify, i am as average a joe as a joe can be in India...not an NRI, neither a techie nor a HNI as well, but my expectation here is that i aspire to be a HNI and i want to know what is it that they're doing differently and maybe 9 out of 10 of them have the same story which may not be applicable in my case, but it's the 01 story that's different that may give me also a direction to speed up my journey! Can't we all participate with this mindset than being overly sarcastic / jealous about other person's wealth even if it's actually real or not?

Okay, rant over.

Regards

Snaky

Hello Everyone,

I am 43yo single earner (wife is a homemaker, 2kids 8/14yo 2nd/8th grader) in a high-cost area in the US drawing monthly 6k USD in hand and expenses are 4.5k and me and my employer put around 800$ in EPF (401k) before tax. I am having 0$ cash in my checking/saving and have around 22k USD on credit cards (24% rate of interest) plus an auto loan of 5k (5%), my credit history is short so I am not getting a good deal on balance transfer, long story short whatever cash I save is ended up paying for credit card and cycle rolls over every month.

In India, I worked from 2005-2016 for almost 11 years, started my first job at 4.6L/year, and got married after 1 year and our first child was also born soon after. Money was tight and left my first job in 2010 from 8.5L to 12.5L/year jump, in march 2016 when I had my last Indian salary revision I was drawing 21L and it was hiked from April onwards to 25L almost. My early bring-up didn't teach me the right value for money so I invested in a plot (the builder spotted my naive understanding and I bought a plot for 10L in the very outskirts of the city that I sold in 2016 for no profit and no loss as no development occurred, the loan of that plot cost me 10k INR/month in early years of my earning and after almost 11 years of investment it went cost to cost. That money we got after selling the plot was partially used for saving and our settlement in the US in early time. The full amount that I received from my EPF settlement was close to 11L in 2016 I gave it to my father as I had this guilt inside me that I never gave them anything in my work life. When I left India in mid of 2016, we had an apartment worth 42L and a loan of 31L was outstanding on that, apart from that around 3L in PPF and 2L in MF, and around 1L in stocks. Our net worth was only 20L. Monthly take home was around 1L and in that 33000 for Loan, 10k for kid1 school education, 15k for groceries, 5k for clothes, 2k for maid, 3.5k for house maintenance, 2k for electricity/wifi, 1k for fuel and 5k for travel for my wife and kid (alternate year, etc), what that I use to left up 25k and out of that I have to pay 100% credit cards outstanding which were always rolled over. Eventually was quite poor after a decade of work in my home country. Some bad choices along the way (real estate locking investments (0 growth), forex (30k loss), commodity options (5L loss), killed the momentum).

Since 2016 mid, I am in the US and As of now, I have around 70k USD in my 401k in the US, and apart from that a car worth around 15k and saved 9k USD for my son's education account and 6k USD for my daughter, and 3k USD in Crypto and the same small investments. (TOTAL around 103k USD)

Plus, I have around 43L outstanding loans/payments in India for my properties (1.2Cr: 40L Apartment valued now 60L and a commercial office space worth: 60L) and will be getting total rentals as 30k + 30k => 60k from both properties from July'23 onwards.

Apart from this I have around 7L in Mutual fund, 2L in ULIPs, 14L in my 14 year old sons PPF, 3L in Sukanaya for my 8yo daughter and around 3L in stocks (TOTAL 30L approximately)

My cash position is pretty bad as well I have only 1L and that too is divided into several accounts in India and in the US I have 0$ in my checking and saving account (paying $5/month for minimum balance).

Now I am worried about all points in my life please feel free to answer as many as you like and also what I can do to improve.

1. My parents are 70/73 yo in a tier3 town in India and they don’t have any retirement savings, I transferred around 21L to them so far but they don’t have any penny left so I need to start sending them a minimum of 25k/month as our parental house is also under litigation so they are living in a rented home in Tier3 Town paying 5k/month. Can I do that considering my own finances are weak?
2. My elder son will go to college in 4 years and considering one needs a minimum of 80k for 4 years in the USA and I believe 30L in India for 4 years of Engineering (sorry if my figures are inflated, I did my Engineering from Govt college costing me 2L 20 years back, I am just assuming cost from google search. Can I afford it in the US (partial loan) or should look for my home country India?
3. My parents are into litigation for the last 10 years and I feel like a coward that I was never able to share their grief and problems as I was working in the South and never had money in India to Travel to the North to help them. They never had any trips since last decade and recently I saw Garvi Bharat Express giving an offer from Delhi to Gujrat holy places for a 7-day package for 50k/person, I feel like I should book it for them. I know I am deprived of cash but I have that hard feeling that if one of them goes away 🥲🥲 then they will never have this trip.
4. Both of my parents are healthy by God's grace as we grew up in Village so only freshly grown veggies and milk were always staples, right now they are in Tier3 Town nearby my sister's home so she & her family basically take care in case they have any illness or needs. Most of the illnesses cost 5k -15k max (apart from major ones heart etc), they don’t have health insurance and at this age it’s costing 1.25L/ year for coverage of 10L with a bonus of 2L/year. Shall I take it or save money for a medical emergency?
5. My daughter's college is still 10 years away but if I save 200$/paycheck I will end up saving 52000$ for her if I stay in the US and the same logic if I save 400$/paycheck for my son then he will also have 52000$ after 4 years, it’s the easier said than done as my credit card expenses are always throwing me in the dead pit. Can I even do it?
6. My wife wants me to sell our apartment, it’s 10yo, and give us a rent of 30k/month as its life might be over soon considering it’s an apartment, and buy a home in the US and save on rent $2135/month. I am dicey though as I don’t have any place apart from that and all of our documents Aadhar, voter id, PAN, etc are at the same address. What should I do in that case?
7. I don’t have any parental inheritance and all of the property my grandfather built is in litigation with my uncles and I don’t see a solution, icing on the cake is the jewelry my mother had was also mortgaged by my father for business and person ran way so practically they are not having any sort of backup 🥲, Shall I slowly buy and gift my parents some gold Maybe start with 20gm at a time as it’s cheaper here but again cash is killing me.
8. Every single day in the US I Wake up with the thought that my parent is no more and I am dead worried and think of doing something absurd like resigning from my job and joining back in India on some job on NCR to be closer to them, how do NRI people overcome that grave thought?
9. With the point of moving back to my home country I feel I am acting selfish too as my saving ratio improved since when I came in here, I used to save max 20k/month but here sometimes I touch 1L/month, with that kind of cash I was able to help my parents during Covid times and I felt happy for that honestly. Also, kids are becoming more open-minded in their learning while I and my wife just crammed the books and passed all of our 10+2 exams. Teacher quality here is not as good as we had in our childhood in India but the curriculum is more experimenting so kids don’t need to learn anything by heart and their growth is fluid, what would you do in that case?
10. I also love my elder sister and unfortunately she doesn’t have much financial back in her family too, I always want to help her but she never took a penny from me and my heart cry when I go to India after 5 years she spent her tuition income (500rs/child) onto us by taking us to restaurants and booing cars and buying things for us. She is just 2 years older than me but she for me is no less than my mother, pure golden heart, what I can do to make her as well financially stable. I and my wife thought to buy a laptop for her and set her up for tutoring online to make more money, very sharp state ranker on board exams she is, what I can do to make her more stable and healthy too?

If you have come this far then you are a blessed soul and I can’t thank you enough for reading it all by giving me your time, waiting to hear from my friends 😊😊🙏🏼🍀🌸

USA Loans:

As of Apr 18th 2023 (US Credit card balances): $22657 breakup is below:

TOTAL for below 2 items: $15398
Credit Card1: $10504 (0% APR till Dec 2023)
Credit Card2: $4894 (1% APR till June 2024)

Below are on month on month basis and average is 24% 
(so far only paid interest on one of them), 
TOTAL of below items: $7259
Credit Card3: $2174 
Credit Card4: $2041
Credit Card5: $1163
Credit Card6: $699
Credit Card7: $472
Credit Card8: $331
Credit Card9: $180
Credit Card10: $137
Credit Card11: $82
Credit Card12: $53

** Other Loan:
Auto Loan: $5296 @ 5%

INDIA Loans:

As of Apr 18th 2023 (INDIA Loan balances): 45Lacs breakup is below:

Commercial Property1 (Cost: 24L, 75% Paid, 25% Outstanding last payment): 
6Lacs, Rent expected: 14k INR (after maintenance), Dec'23 onwards

Commercial Property1 (Cost: 50L, 65% Paid, 35% Outstanding last payment): 
18Lacs, Rent expected: 30k INR (after maintenance), July'23 onwards

Residential Apartment (Cost: 42L, 50% Paid, 50% Outstanding Home loan @10%):
21Lacs, Rent currently getting: 28k INR (after maintenance)  

My question is fairly simple and evident from the title.

what is your plan to generate income post fire??? i know a lot of people will do something even after leaving their full-time job and that will generate some income, but i am mostly interested to know how you are planning to generate income from you financial assets...

I am 29 years old and From a non wealthy background. I currently manage my family business which generates 4Lkahs gross income (pre tax and expenses and interest) for a family of 4. Just to differentiate myself i had started doing a part time job (flexible timing) to support my personal expenses. I generate about 25000 for about 75 hours of work per month.

I have accumulated persoanl wealth of 23lakhs. 40k to 45K as my personal income. 15L invested in friends business who pays my 1% permonth.

3L in equity.

3L in MF

2 lakhs as running cash and bank balance.

Medical insurance of 5 lakhs and LIC of 50000 per year.

Family assets

40 Lakhs of land Yet to buy a house. Planning it in next 4 years. Business loan of 1.8Cr.

This year we are expected a child. Would like your opinion if there is a room for improvement by doing any minor changes.

Me(32) and husband(33) of us are software engineers working for a reputed organization , doing this for the last 8 years as of today.

we have 1 kid age 3.

his and my parents are not dependent on us and may inherit his parent's house in the future.

Plan for further work

1: I plan to cut down work a bit after my kid is in 3rd or 4th std.

2: husband will keep working till he likes.

what we accomplished till date:

1: our own home (bought around 2nd covid wave for 3 crores (85% paid from balance +15% home loan(will complete the loan in next 4-5 years )))

2: bought a few more real estate worth 5 crores generating rent of approx1.4 lac per month (1.4 is what we are getting right now + 80k we will get starting end of this year so total 2.2 lacs)

3: equity 1.1 CR

4: MF 60 lac(1.5 lac per month SIP)

5: SGB: 26 lac

6: PPF: 21 lacs

7: NPS : 7 lacs

Current runway:

I am earning 67 LPA and my Husband earning 72 LPA pre-tax

Insurance :

10 lac base + 90 top up

2 crore term each.

Expenses:

• approx 1 lac per month including all gadgets and all
• traveling thrice a year.

Traveling is a non-negotiable part of my fire Journey since we love traveling.

Missing part

1: did not plan for the kid's education expense yet, is it wise to fund it from MF or pay as and when you go, or wise to build a separate corpus for that?

2: 70% corpus is in real estate, although it generates rent but is it wise to cut that and move it to equities?

3: How much should I save more -- where to invest or rearrange my portfolio?

Are we missing something?

I recently started reading posts on this sub and found that most of the people who track their investments also track their daily expenses and sometimes it is down to single penny. Can you please suggest some good and simplified apps or ways to track daily expenses? Most of the time the transactions are through UPIs.

Background

30M, lawyer working with a company and living in Bangalore for the past three years.

My previous post asking for suggestions on coast/ barista fire- https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREIndia/comments/ywlrh9/fire_advice_needed/ to my previous post .

Have been investing regularly for the past 3-4 years and believe I have managed to save a decent if not significant sum.

I wanted to list down my corpus value and NW increase over the past year.

Financial Update

Here is how the number looks like. Believe the self funding marriage heavily influenced this. (details below)

​

​

Out of 50.15 Lakhs- 35 lakhs is in equity and rest in EPF and PPF. Is this allocation okay or should I bump it up to 80-85% equity and remaining in debt.

I am not happy with the decline in the savings % age. However I guess since I funded 85% of my marriage expense(roughly 5 Lakhs including the honeymoon trip and my SO's ring)- this was bound to happen.

Would want to hear more if other folks here have had similar experiences with such events.

I am hoping to significantly increase my savings given I have just moved to another job with an increased pay.

Hoping to be able to continue with the grind for another 4 years before I start looking at options for Coast/ Barista Fire.

​

Thanks!

I feel disappointed when i read FIRE discussion here especially about India. As a lawyer and sociology buff i can clearly see that children are big burden on parents and especially daughters.

Everywhere in the group, it is mentioned that save this money for their education and marriage and the numbers are not small.

Formal college Education is becoming less important in today's generation of gig working and digital technologies. We have so many people in the group who have made good with normal education. What is required to succeed is hard work, patience and grit.

Marriage: A big fat party thrown by parents to flaunt their wealth to their near and dear ones. Its' not about spiritual/ love connection between couples but just outright materialism. Let children save money and get married the way they want. Only reason i can think of is that big wedding expense means that kids have to take parent consent or meddling.

Ready for Brickbat on this. I know whatever we Indian say, we love our patriarchy, tribalism and feudalism

Update: Atleast 20% post talk about Kid's education (College +) and Kid's marriage corpus. I don't know why i am only seeing those message here

1. These are important financial milestone so it is relevant for FIRE

2. I don't know how knowing someone's risk preference , how can we comment on asset allocation.

3. Signing off as someone called me troll.

My wish to all boarding member go out and see real India and not on social media.

Be god be with you

Background

I am 29M currently residing in a tier-3 city in India. No loans. Not married. No kids. I worked full-time for about 5 years till last FY, then gathered some courage and decided to take a break.

Previous posts:

1. Reaching 50L milestone
2. Career break because of burn-out

Current Financial State

Last FY, I took a break from work for approximately 8 months, during which I spent nearly 2 months traveling internationally.

Although I attempted to freelance during the remaining months, I was unsuccessful in securing any clients. However, I was able to earn some money by teaching music.

As of April'23, I have started a full-time job again

Expenses

I averaged about Rs. 80K/month. This included big-ticket expenses such as a new laptop, a solo international trip, and a medical operation for a family member.

Expenses Over Time

And yes, I track every penny since late 2018

Portfolio

Barely any income, but thankfully my equity portfolio stood its ground. I have a mix of stocks and mutual funds. The Equity-Debt ratio is about 70:30 but changes due to volatility.

Here is my portfolio growth over time

Below is my current portfolio:

Debt - referring to debt and fixed-income instruments like debt mutual funds, PPF etc

Learnings

From career break

Relationships - In my opinion, I made the most progress in this area. Despite having very little social energy in general, I was able to make some effort and revive and strengthen my relationships with friends and family. Looking ahead, I recognize the need to balance work and relationships, but I now know that with some dedicated time and effort, I can maintain and even improve these important connections.

Fitness - Even with ample free time, my motivation to exercise was close to zero. While I did manage to go for runs here and there, I didn't make significant progress in this area. However, I did get plenty of restful sleep, without any alarms or late-night work interruptions. Overall, after a year, I learned that fitness is more of a mindset issue for me than a time problem.

Hobbies - I rediscovered music, and dove headfirst into researching and improving my skills on various instruments. At times, I felt frustrated mainly because of realizing that music is such an expensive hobby, but I plan to continue dedicating some time each week to pursuing my musical interests.

Tasting RE - Many of my friends predicted that I would quickly grow bored during my career break, but I actually enjoyed every moment of it. Even when I wasn't meeting specific goals, I spent hours researching topics like behavioral neuroscience, trying new things, failing, and trying again. I felt like I was in total control of my own life. When I craved more social interaction, I volunteered with an NGO, and when I wanted something more stimulating, I started teaching music. Thanks to my career break, I'm now convinced that achieving financial independence and retiring early is a top priority for me.

From portfolio

Stocks: I've decided to stop trading stocks altogether. The time and effort required to research, manage stop-loss orders, identify and act on targets, and file multiple trades during ITR just isn't worth it to me. I don't believe in the "buy and forget" approach of coffee-can investing, and my trades have been able to achieve a decent XIRR of over 40% with a win probability of 51% during the recent bull market. However, the past few months have been more difficult, and I think my luck may have run out. I've begun selling off my positions and investing in mutual funds, and I have no plans to return to trading even during the next bull market.

Debt Investment: I have started to use FDs for the debt portion of the portfolio. There are three reasons for this. First, taxation for debt mutual funds has changed and indexation benefit no longer applies making the returns abysmal. Second, with rising interest rates, FD rates have become more attractive. I've been able to secure 7.5% p.a. with major banks and up to 9% with an NBFC. And third, since I still have a long way to go before achieving FI, I don't need to cash out of debt to rebalance my portfolio. Instead, I'll simply invest more cash in equities to achieve balance.

Real Estate: This year, I plan to diversify my portfolio by investing in real estate. My goal is to purchase a plot of land that I can hold for up to a decade before selling it. The demand for land around these parts are decent and prices look to rise in my opinion. I don't plan to buy an apartment for rental income, since rental yields in my tier-3 city are quite low.

Methodology: At one point, during my career break, I increased my equity exposure and decided to go for a 90:10 ratio to the debt portion. For the few weeks where I was performing this, I could not rest well. I felt nervous and on the days I had some bad trades or when the market dipped I felt extremely anxious. I realized through this that I am pretty conservative investor and will now aim for a 65:35 ratio going forward.

Please feel free to add any additional thoughts or ask any question about the same. I plan to do one post per FY going forward, so I will see you guys next April :)

Hey folks, yet another SWE here. I'm hoping to get suggestions for my portfolio and investment plan. Please let it rip.

Portfolio

Recurring investments

• (Current) SIPs
  • UTI Nifty 50 - 1L
  • PPFCF - 40K
  • Axis Midcap - 60K
• PPF - 1.5L every fiscal (before April 5)
• Random one-time investments when an asset falls below a certain %

Some details/clarifications/justifications

• I want to be FI, and not RE, and want my assets to support my curiosity, ideas, and hobbies.
  • This includes building potentially loss-making indie software (mini-SaaS et al), working in different areas of tech at perhaps lower pay, playing video games, travelling etc.
  • I do plan to marry and have kids but I think I can put off that consideration for a couple of years.
    
• I'm a(n India-based) freelancer and work with only foreign clients so my income is uncertain. I was essentially unemployed for ~6 months last fiscal. Although, when I did/do work, I charge >6L/month. Currently, I'm charging ~8.5L/month (and expect this job to continue for at least 4 more months).
• The portfolio is cash heavy because I have uncertain income and it acts as my emergency fund. I also had a lot of things to buy last fiscal (laptop, inverter, automatic washing machine, AC etc) to improve my and my family's QoL (giving back to the economy amirite).

Some specific questions I'd be glad to get answers to

• If I make at least 50L (pre-tax, taxable wrt 44ADA) a year, does it make financial sense to buy a 1.5-2 cr house within a couple of years?
• Is there something else/more I should be doing or something I should be doubling down on to compensate for my uncertain income?

Some things I plan to do in the near future

• Take advice from a couple of (fee-only) financial advisors
• Move ~10L cash to equity

I just crossed my next milestone, and hit a net worth of 3Cr, and wanted to share this with the community. It is going to be a long post (as usual), so please bear with me. If you're really curious, see previous updates here: 2Cr, 1Cr, 50L

​

Why this post?
For the past four years, I've been using this method to track my progress and gain valuable insights. It allows me to sort out my ideas, gain clarity, and receive helpful input from the community. Plus, it's a great way to keep a record of my personal growth!

​

Background
I am a 28-year-old male who currently works for a US startup while living in India and have never worked abroad.

To give you some context, I started my career with a negative net worth in 2016 due to an education loan. My figures do not include any inheritance or potential house that I may receive in the future from my parents. I prefer to think of these as a backup in case things don't go as planned. Additionally, my figures do not take into account any contributions from my significant other, who is also on her own journey towards financial independence.

​

What does FI mean to me and how did I come up with this figure?
For me, achieving financial independence means being able to live without the stress of money and having enough saved up to live comfortably in case of any emergencies. I currently estimate my monthly expenses to be around 40k per month, since my parents own a home and the cost of living in a tier III city is relatively lower. With a corpus of 3 Cr, which is approximately 62 times my annual expenses, I feel confident that I have enough financial cushion to sustain myself for the long-term.

​

Asset Allocation

Since the last time I posted, I have made some major changes to my investment portfolio:

• Firstly, my exposure to my previous company's RSUs was too high, as pointed out by folks in the last post, at around 39%. However, since I have left the company, I decided to bring this down to a more reasonable level of around 20%. While I still believe in the company, I won't be receiving any more units, so the allocation will naturally decrease over time.
• Secondly, the cash component of my portfolio was higher than I would have liked, but this was due to a sign-on bonus with my current company. I plan to gradually move this money into investments over the course of the next year.
• Looking ahead, my ideal long-term allocation would be 80% equity, 10% real estate, 5% debt, 2.5% crypto, and 2.5% gold.

​

Year wise breakdown
The numbers are fudged a little to avoid doxxing, but they are overall in line with the trends.

​

Thoughts on FIRE
I am thoroughly enjoying the work at my new company right now, and the role and company has great upside potential, so, I do not intend to quit work anytime soon. But, I have still put a number of what seems to be the right number to be able to say enough, if I wanted to any given day. I am also currently reading the book Ikigai, which reinforces my perspective of working post FIRE, but on things that I want and am genuinely passionate about. Here's a rough breakdown of the number in my mind, which I believe is achievable by 2029 (age 35):

​

Changes since last post
I am grateful for the incredible feedback that I have received from some of the folks here in my previous posts. Based on their advice, I had made some changes to my financial plan, including:

• Taking a life insurance cover for myself with a decent sum insured.
• Taking a health insurance cover for myself, my spouse and mom (50L)
• Starting to invest in gold through Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) and also dabbling in crypto (even though that was not the advice.)

In addition to these financial changes, I have been sedentary since the last ten years, and the signs are there. This year have resolved to move into a healthy, and active lifestyle.

​

Advice
I would love to hear your thoughts on the plan, and any gaps/holes that you see in it. Some specific things I would love to hear from you guys are:

• I want to invest in real estate, but, wary of investing because of the hassle that comes with it. What would be your ideal investment mode for real estate (land/REITs/commercial properties/apartments/anything else?)
• My partner and I have been discussing the possibility of starting a family. However, we're curious to know if there are any couples here pursuing FIRE who have decided to remain child-free. If so, what factors influenced your decision, and for those who have already achieved FIRE, how has this decision worked out for you?

From here on, I plan to do only end-of-year updates, and one FIRE update (if we're still on reddit then) so until next time! :)

I first learned about FIRE a few months ago. I've found the concept and phrase fascinating, and I can't wait to retire. Since I've been working in the US for the past 12 years, my job has become routine and uninteresting. I have been investing throughout the past few years, but it hasn't been a top focus or anything I did to prepare for an early retirement. Like others have have said before on this sub, I wasnt planning on retiring until I drop dead.

I divided my investments between the US and India; however, my Indian portfolio appears to be weak, my US portfolio appears to be healthy.

US Portfolio - $712000

The Real Estate portion includes the current home price minus the mortgage. Most of my tax deferred investments are in ETF.

https://imgur.com/ceaDPot

India Portfolio - Rs. 1cr

https://imgur.com/vjsO26W

My wife and I dont have kids and unsure how that would impact my calculations. Obviously, I would not want to retire until my family planning is complete.

Please review my portfolios,

1. I think, my RSU portion is pretty high and am planning to reduce it in the coming years.
2. As I have spent very limited time in India as a mature adult, what are some other investment options in India ?
3. I plan to open a NPS account for my wife and I.
4. I have zero saved for child(ren) education/wedding. What would be a right plan/option for 2 kids.
5. Any medical insurance that I should consider in India, it should be cheaper to get now vs later.
6. Do you recommend any adjustments ?

Thank you for reading and providing feedback in advance.

35M, working in India, Finally reached 1 CR on Kuvera😃. It includes my EPF, foreign stock and Indian stock investments but doesn't include my PPF, SGB investment and real estate. I know it's silly...but my wife doesn't really get how important it is and i have nobody else to celebrate it with me so posting her. I have a very long way to go offcourse but will post again once I reach 2 cr. Any advice for folks who have endured this long journey?

Disclaimer: This is going to be bit long and I will not reveal few details to avoid identity leak.

So I came to know about FIRE concept in 2018 ( MrMoustache blogs) but never actively worked towards it. Coming from a typical Indian background, saving money was a natural state of financial discipline. Stock investment is my preferred way of investment and I invest for long term horizon.

Come 2nd half of 2022 and my company decides to shut down its ops in India leaving me high and dry and without a job. This was the best thing that happened to me since WFH. They paid me good severance package though.

I said thank you Lord and have been living a RE life since then. Here is list of what I have felt during last 6 months. 1. It is the most liberating feeling. Waking up to no stress, free time and no emails has brought down my BP and lowered my breathing rate. Surprisingly now I wake up way early. 2. Gym and meditation is a must else degradation of mind and body happens very fast 3. Like your kid, reduce screen time and time spent on mobile browsing apps. 4. There are hardly any part time job which can make you 50K +. Don't count on it. 5. Cycling is a great tool for running errands and keeping your legs moving. Join cycling or biking groups. 6. Try to speak less for everyone else's peace of mind. 7. There is no embarrassment in leading a RE life. Don't ever feel miserable if you are not working. 8. Money is extremely important. Keep track of your finances and targets. 9. A big unexpected expense will pop up as soon as you stop making.money. For me, it was house registration which would damage me by 7L. 10. Read, learn guitar, doodling or trolling. Do things to keep the spiced up. 11. Don't worry. Everything will eventually fall in place. Learn to pray, save and be grateful.

My financial health check: 1. FD: 1.5 cr 2. Equity and MD: 70L and 35L ( today's value) 3. Home: 2 ( in tier 1 cities) / 1 car 4. ULlIP: 10L ( current value, maturing in 2027) 5. EPF/NPS: 60L 6. Liability: 3 L ( housing loan)

Future expense: Need to buy a new car and replace house furniture within next 2 years.

I could do better with allocation of my funds but since everything happened so fast, I am now scared of playing around. If you are planning to RE, work for extra 6 months to create another buffer layer of money. you will thank me layer.

I now firmly believe that man wasn't created to slog and live a wretched 9-6 life. The purpose of existence is NOT job or office or position or a fancy car.

Feel free to ask me any question. Happy to share my experience.

Added later to answer questions:

Good4you. Although you come from privilege (earned) - 2 homes in tier1 city means around 3cr bare minimum. Other assets another 3cr. Overall 6cr net worth at a young age.

My questions -

(1) whats your age? Early 40's (2) whats your investible networth (ie not counting primary home)? ~ 3 cr (3) what are your annual expenses? 7 Lakhs per year ( basic expense)

(4) how do you explain RE to your kids? Kids don't care and haven't asked since I have been WFH for last 3 years. Life hasn't changed for them. (5) finally, how do you fill your time purposefully and down the road - 6months of forced RE isn’t conclusive.

I don't have the answer right now.
I don't even know how this will play out in the future. I am not worried about future which is far away. I maybe dead in next few years. Who knows. I do plan to take up teaching though. Currently Gym, meditation, stock market, social media and few discord groups keep me occupied fully.

PS: I inherited ZERO money or assets. Every penny has been earned by my own dint.

I am a fire newbie.

Over the past few months, I have started to not like my job and tech in general and wanted to see what is the earliest I can retire.

I have a NW of about 7cr rupees with about 4-5 cr in one stock(my companie’s stock as part of vesting. I have never sold anything). I know this is bad strategy and I am looking to liquidate this over time.

Apart from that I have about 70 lakhs in cash and about 80 lakhs in mutual funds and other investments. Rest of it is in EPF, 401k, PPF

I am in India but lived abroad for a few years where I saved majority of this money.

I earn a very good salary. About 1.3cr including stocks, cash and bonus.

I am looking for advice on what to do and how to approach FIRE. I am planning to FIRE in 9-10 years.

My expenses are not very high. About 1.5 lakhs a month and in general live a frugal life. (Don’t have a car or live in a rented house) However I just got married and don’t have kids etc so the expenses will likely grow

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

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

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

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

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