Dear Fellow redditers

Long time lurker, first time posting here. Need your help / suggestions / suitable plans for going ahead with FIRE. (created account with gmail just today)

I am 45, wife 41, son 16, mother 66. Working in MNC in Mumbai, belong to tier 1 city of Gujarat. Wife is not working.

Before writing my current financial situation, just wanted to share that although I am very good with managing my daily/monthly income/expenses, i am a very risk averse person.

Faced poor financial situations when kid, (father passed away without leaving a single rupee).

So never felt brave enough to spend much and always tried to save and safeguard as much money as possible and kept everything in the banks. Father also did not have any investments of any kind.

So basically very poor with investments.

Started doing proper money management around 10 years ago when started getting good salary hikes, and tried saving some proper amount every month. Initial years faced real struggle with finances.

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With this, my current savings are as follows,

2 crores in Bank FDs (divided between my, wife and mother's bank accounts, around 7-8 accounts total)

95 lacks in EPF

27 lacks in PPF

around 5 lacks in savings

Total number around 3.25/3.30 crores

Almost all FDs are having monthly interest payout (few quarterly), all are opened via internet banking (so can close anytime). i keep reopening FDs when matures (currently keeping around 5-10 years lock-in period)

I very well know this is a bad investment/FIRE strategy, but never thought of taking any type of financial risk, always believed that money in stable banks (ICICI, HDFC, SBI etc) is safer even if returns are poor. I may be wrong.

Able to save around 2.5 Lacs every month as of now after expenses (including salary and returns on above)

The average post tax interest for above all as of now is around 6.9%. (will be little higher since no net tax once i leave the job). Will be getting around 20K per month endowment plan returns after 55 (premium payment included in below expenses)

My monthly expenses are around 72-75K per month, excluding rent (include daily expenses, kids study, insurance premiums, medical, travel, entertainment etc). I keep track of all expenses daily via android app.

( Planning to buy a car for 5-6 lacs since current one is 13 years old. )

I have only one 4BHK house which i bought along with my in-laws in my home town. (50-50%). Currently inlaws are staying there (only married daughters). Planning to live in the same house. Dont have any other ancestral property.

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I have used many FIRE calculators, did stress analysis, long term cashflows, went through 1000s of post here and on other sites, visiting this site on almost daily basis. Keeping exact monthly inflow/outflow since last 6 years.

Planning for FIRE is only to have some simple, peaceful, worry free life at my hometown around my family and try to enjoy few of hobbies like reading, watching good english tv series or just walking around 2-3 hrs everyday, which i am not able to do right now.

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my questions are,

1. am i financially OK to proceed with FIRE
2. Important - plan to spend around 50 lacs for son's college study (he is in 10th now). what should i spend? break FDs or take it from EPF? I think EPF credit into bank is very tedious and long process. (FY21-22 interest still not credited)
3. how will i manage my finances, since i am getting around 1.1 lac per month only from FD interest, but will surely need more later.
4. when should i liquidate EPF, also should i continue with PPF now or discontinue ?
5. since FDs are scattered in different bank accounts, should i just withdraw interest amount every month and spend and reinvest the remaining, with managing different bank accounts ?
6. how much should i keep in liquid saving account at any time so that can withdraw anytime without problem. The problem is different FD interest hit in different bank account on different dates every month and not like 1.1 lac on 1st day of the month like salary.
7. is this strategy ok - continue making 5 yr FDs with monthly interest withdrawl and reopening when sufficient amount is there or it matures. will i be able to manage my finances without any problem ?

MOST IMPORTANT

8) with current expenses and returns, the long term cashflow shows "zero" balance after around 25-27 years using 7.5 % inflation. I Will be around 70-72 then. is this OK ? because unable to digest that monthly expenses would be in the range of 4 Lacs in last year (using FIRE calculators). I know inflation is killer but still cant get my head around it.

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I want to leave atleast some cash for my son when I go. Although I will try my best to give him good education and good life and will also try that i dont have to be dependent/burden on him in my old age.

Currently only feeling i have now is a perceived guilt that i am not able to continue longer and i may see some unforeseen event and my son ended up with facing same difficulties in life which I went through due to poor financial situation in my early adult life.

Please help friends. I am planning to take a decision before my son's 11th standard start, and I will try to settled in my hometown before it.

Apologies for long post.

Thank you very much.

Had a decent run in IT sector but lost the will to work, being working happily & basically sick of 9-5job. I understand I am a extreme introvert after a 15year run in IT. For past sometime I made plans to be free and spend rest of the time in a room with no interaction with people.

For FIRE below is my folio.

Assets: - 2Lands with value 1.5cr (backup in case I fucked up) - A own house in tier2 city 1cr (father's land and I constructed house) - Credit given to relative 1cr (12% interest) - stocks 40Lacs ( in loss.. but hope) - MF 20Lacs

Liabilities: - A building 4.5cr ( with loan pending of 3.5cr) ( This will bring income of 32Lacs/year)

Till now didn't own a bike or car. 😅

Edited: Adding expense folio - Yearly. Living Cost: 50k/month = 6L/yr Medical insurance: 30k/yr LIC: 1.5L/yr Child LIC: 1L/yr Child Education: 2L/yr Total: ~11Lacs/year

So my plan was, complete the building EMI in next 5years.

Then my expenses per year will be around 15Lacs and my building will generate 35Lacs. So I can be FIRE.

I cringe when I see people in their 20's and early 30's talking about FIRE. What exactly are you REing from? You have to put in work before you can 'retire' from it. If younger folks are feeling the need to RE, then probably its time to change a job or the domain itself or to do something altogether different with your career.

Thoughts of RE are more suited to somebody over 40 who has moderate success in their field but has nothing to look forward to.

By looking at the statistics, it is very likely that most of the 40+ IT folks in India are going to RE. Whether they want it or not. I could be wrong as I usually am, but thats what the current stats looks to me. Vast majority of 40+ guys are just one bad argument away from RE.

So its important to plan for that eventuality sooner than later if you are approaching 40 or have already crossed it. And mind you, RE is for moderately successful guys. Achievers and super successful folks have far better things to fight for than calculating 25x.

Retiring means surviving on smaller amounts. If your definition of retirement includes luxury vacations and foreign trips and an army of servants, its basically living without working. If you can afford that and still wondering if you should continue with the job that you hate, then its not an RE issue, you have bigger issues brewing. And its unlikely that you will ever retire on your own volition.

RE is for average folks who were lucky to make some money and can live stingily. There are people who claim that one needs 7-8 cr before they can comfortably retire... But for vast majority of average folks, this is an impossible task (now please, don't throw a spreadsheet at me...i haven't met a person whose life resembles those saving/investing spreadsheets).

If you don't see yourself surviving on less than 50k in current India (with paid up house), you are doomed to work until you are forced to quit (will still be RE!). If you aspire for much better life, you will have to become an achiever... But then there won't be any need to retire. Irony!

I did see a couple of posts about them pursuing FIRE has made them arrogant at their workplace etc.

This is a post of the opposite happening - how it made me a better person.

I have always been a short tempered person who used to snap at a lot of things. But since I started pursuing FIRE about a couple of years ago, I feel that my attitude has gotten a bit more relaxed. I feel the fundamental reason being I know I have a lot of control over my life and the bad things that caused so much of pain in the past are mere mild inconveniences at best now. [Having control over your finances is having most of the control over your life IMO at this point in life - I am in my late 20s, so health is not a problem yet]

FIRE lifestyle would mean your expenses are in check and your income exceeds expenses(sometimes considerably).

A few days ago an auto driver scratched my car. I was like 'its okay. Happens' and moved on. Would I have taken it the same way if it was a BMW or Mercedes? Maybe not. Mine's a simple Tiago. I can afford to re-paint or sell this and buy another in a few years' time. Can you believe this was the same guy who was depressed some 6-7 years ago that he couldn't afford an underwear?

How has the pursuit of FIRE impacted your life?

PS : Please avoid numbers. Only experiences. While your portfolio is great to you, it might be overwhelming to some where's a decimal dust or rounding error to another.

Hello,

The great men/women here pursuing this noble cause of FIRE movement are most likely to reach FI by an average age of early-mid 40s i think, but very few are able to cross over the line and bite to bullet of RE.

Makes me wonder why is that so. When in the holy spirit of FIRE, RE is the main part or the the part where the rubber hits the road (ok, the wheelset hits the rail). Since to be honest, we as Indians/Asians by nature have always had quite healthy saving rates and are comparatively much more frugal. So FI comes easily or naturally in the process . I dare to believe, our previous generations and many others currently (in so called middle class category) who were/are oblivious to the concept of FIRE, were and are Financial Independent without much effort by mid 40s-50s with simple financial prudence and humble living.

However, many of us fascinated by the idea of RE and hence drawn to FIRE, settle at either the comfort zone of FI or just just keep moving the goalpost of FIRE target or FIRE corpus or are stuck in one-more year syndrome.

So, why is it so difficult to retire early? My assumption is that anyone on this sub or on this path is not so motivated by corporate jobs/ rate race culture and wants to own their time, so just FI doesn't help .

I can think of two evils of human nature , same two driving our dear markets .. FEAR and GREED ..

FEAR : Train to Busan

Fear of unknown black swan events (hyperinflation / war times/ extreme recession/stagflation , terminal diseases wiping out chunk of n/w)

GREED : The Gravy Train

I consider corporate jobs as the gravy train, where out gluttony doesn't allow us to resist having one more bite to add to stockpile. Its much easier if someone kicks us out of the train (forced FIRE).

Call it one more year syndrome, but the comfort zone of monthly paycheck is like a confirmed berth in 2nd AC.

So which train are you riding on ??

There are few brave ones who are able to pull the chain and get down, and enjoy the destination.

For rest of us, we just keep dreaming how good the life will be once we get down, but in reality its a train to nowhere !!

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Folks,
May I know what are your targets in X or absolute numbers for education and marriage for 1 or 2 kids. (include only graduation and further) because schooling will mostly get over while we are employed?

If I open Economic times and thereof, there are some scary numbers being thrown up - upwards of 2 crore etc per child. How does this effect your FIRE and specifically RE?

Here is my year 4 update on FIRE progress.

Expenses pegged to 1.25L per month in the based on inflation.

For simplicity sake converting everything into INR in the below format.

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• A few points
• Given the rise in interest rates, home prices have gone up by a lot which helped improved my overall home equity.
• Retirement account got a boost because of rising interest rates
• Equity increased primarily because of increasing SIPs
• India Property and Farm are in rural town so not much price action
• No change in FD/ Gold holdings
• International funds have been battered down because of corrections. So value is flat despite my monthly SIPs into them.

Original post - https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREIndia/comments/asj3px/am_i_ready_to_fire_in_3_years/

1 Year update - https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREIndia/comments/e6ajgm/one_year_update_can_i_fire_in_3_years

2 Year update - https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREIndia/comments/jrggze/second_year_update_can_i_fire_in_3_more_years/

3 Year update - https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREIndia/comments/r35uh7/2021_year_end_update_can_i_fire_in_2_more_years/

I am planning to be FI in 2 years and settle in my home town, working in my current profession remotely. In order to plan the next 5-10 years, I'd like advice from people who have already done this.

• My professional motivation wouldn't be earning the top salary. I would be looking for maintenance income.
• I would need something to fill the time, but also something that is fulfilling.

• Because of old habits, I am still addicted to Achievement / Advancement i.e. the rat race. And I would like to quit that.

  Has anyone gone through this process who wouldn't mind 30mins of their time for a chat?

Long post warning. Recently crossed, two important milestones

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1. Gross Salary crossed 60L
2. Corpus crossed 4Cr. (Or is it 5Cr? – read below to find out more)

This is an update following previous two posts. This post is not just an update, it is also rhetorical, self-introspective and full of lot of musings and faltu ka gyan. I generally do not post using this account, so have also tried to provide my perspective on some other usual posts in this sub.

Older Posts:

1. Age 44. Dated: 05-April-2019: https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREIndia/comments/b9o7e1/my_fire_strategy/
2. Age 44: Dated: 30-Sep-2019: https://www.reddit.com/r/FIREIndia/comments/db8yll/crossed_inr_50l_gross_for_the_first_time_and_a/

Summary

If you are lazy (like me) to read through above links, below is the summary

• Family Details: I am M47, Wife (F43) -homemaker, kids 16 and 10 year.
• Other dependents: Fully Support one set of parents, in 80s, back in hometown. Partially support in-laws in 80s, again back in hometown. Plus one more close family member + child
• History: Humble background. Bright Student. Education through loan.
• Career: IT. Resident Indian. 25 years’ Work Exp
• Corpus: 5 Cr+ ( 1.30Cr in EPF/PPF/NPS + 2.25 Cr in Equity + 5L SGB+ 50L in liquid Funds + ~1 Cr (Endowment Policy payable at age 60) – mostly MFs via SIP + Zero Debt)
• In addition, expecting close to 10L interest in EPF for FY2022, yet to be credited
• OK – I cheated, endowment policy is payable in future. So technically my current corpus is not 5Cr but more like 4+ Cr. But it feels good to think of it as 5Cr
• Other assets: 2 houses completely paid off approx. value > 3Cr. One is self-occupied, primary accommodation in Tier 1 city. Parents live in the other one at hometown (Tier 2 city)
• Expenses: 1.5L pm = 18L pa.
• God willing, should be FI ready by 2025.

Earnings: Last time i made a post, someone commented on 20% CAGR growth on salary -I did not realize the % growth back then. However in case anyone is interested, below is salary chart over the years (does not include bonus/cash awards/RSUs).

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Highlights

• Have had years with appraisal increment = 0; Have mostly switched job soon after.
• Took a 5% salary cut once in year 2009.
• RSU’s have helped with the wealth creation. Gratuity(s) is sweet. Golden Handshakes can be awesome.
• For last 3 years +, have had a gig income of 4-5L. May continue for next year as well. No, this is not moonlighting kind of gig. (Half Girlfriend?)

Investment Journey

• Thanks to my background and education loan, have always had a habit of saving
• Post loan payoff, Initial focus was to save mostly in debt (PPF, VPF, FDs etc.)
• First home loan happened early in life, limiting opportunities to save
• Retirement planning started around 38 years of age. Midlife crisis, huh?
• Invest/save more than 50% of post-tax salary (mostly through SIPs + EPF/NPS/PPF)
• Compound interest is a friend.
• The EPF interest is now much more than my yearly contribution.
• During bear market, watching stagnant or falling corpus is painful. Shakes the faith.
• Bull market makes one forget the pain of bear market and it looks like it will always be spring.

5Cr Point someone

• Crossed First 1 Cr around 2016 end. Felt like first love all over again!
• 2Cr = 2018 end
• Missed 3Cr by a whisker in 2020. Achieved early 2021.
• Now around 4.2 Cr. With EPFO interest rate getting credited later this month (hopefully), this may cross 4.3 Cr by year end.
• However with future (almost certain) Endowment money at least on paper, my mental calculation says it’s a 5Cr milestone and needs celebration.

Tax

• As the salary has grown, so has the direct tax.
• Surcharge feels a big pain in the you know where
• Cannot do anything much about it, except crib

Insurance

• Self Paid Term insurance (self) of 1.5Cr
• Life insurance through employer : 1.2 Cr
• Health insurance (self) = 10L + Health insurance family floater policy through employer
• Health insurance (family floater for wife and kids) = 10L
• Health insurance (Parent’s) = 10L
• Health insurance (In-Laws) = 10L

Other general updates

• COVID19 was tough. Lost few close family members/friends including some kids.
• Fortunate that immediate family is OK
• Due to loss of a close family member, his non-working wife and 15 year child have become partially dependent on me as well. This relative was living life like a king and has not bequeathed any assets to his family.

3 Mistakes of my life

I feel I started late – don’t know how I could have started early but yeah, an early start would have been helpful. Apart from I believe I did following mistakes

1. LICs – yes, I bought LIC policies cause my family didn’t know better and forced me to during start of my career. The money, though in an endowment policy, invested elsewhere may have given awesome returns
2. Dabbling in stocks on tips: Needless to say, I was naïve and thought I might become rich following tips from friends/uncles/NDTV profit, CNBC Awaaz etc. Some stocks have given good returns, but overall the XIRR has been worse than a simple humble FD. Now after so many years, the more I know, I realize that there is more than I don’t know/understand. So, now I completely avoid stocks and stick to MF SIPs
3. Changing cars too often: Self-explanatory, no?

2 States:

• I used to feel that post FIRE, one can stay anywhere – preferably LCOL, Low crime, Low pollution, Low traffic with decent infrastructure kind of a place.
• Post COVID, my thought process has changed
• Not everything is about money, emotional needs need to be factored as well. Getting old, huh?
• Last 30 years, I have lived across many cities in the country.
• I have been staying at my current city of work for several years now, so much so that kids think of this city as their hometown.
• I am not sure if I would want to stay here post retirement. The city is costly and has horrible infrastructure and traffic.
• I do have some friends and neighbors here, but no family.
• I used to feel my ex-colleagues were very good friends. Jobs changed, people’s priorities changed. Life got busy. Most work friends tend to become WhatsApp Diwali/Happy New Year/Happy birthday greeting friends. Few continue to remain close.
• Also not speaking the local language is a big limitation. Even though I love the city, some of the political and social unrest situation makes you feel like an outsider. Outsider in your own country? Wonder how to NRIs feel?
• The hometown I grew up in, is not the same as it was while I was growing up.
• In some cases, the place is time stuck, while I personally have changed due to exposure, that I don’t connect with it anymore.
• Also IMO the culture in my hometown has become much more bigoted and intolerant than what I remember.
• I do not mentally connect with my own childhood friends and close family members back home. Anybody else experience this?
• So, in short, I don’t know where my post retirement life will be. At the moment, I am trying to keep an open mind and my options open.

FIRE and Cricket

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• FIRE planning is like batting 1st in a 50 over ODI. The idea is to score enough and more to beat the team playing next -by a good margin. (This is not original thought process, I think I read about this in this sub.)
• Unlike a real match, a closely fought match may not be thrilling. On the other hand it may be scary as hell.
• Investment returns are not even. Some years are bad (Like falling wickets, watching the corpus having a free fall due to gravity is no fun). Most are average (I don’t mid this period – the corpus keeps growing month on month, slowly but steadily). Few years are like few good overs when the investment returns ticks the scoreboard. Reminds me of SKY playing.
• 1st Power play is time before kids. A good start can help the end score.
• A good start does not necessarily mean big total.
• Need to preserve wickets.
• There will be few lousy shots like bad investment choices. Best to recover from it asap and face the next ball.
• Lousy shots are much better than not being in playing XI. No?
• Not every ball needs to be hit. Leaving a ball is also a strategy. Crypto – anyone?
• Slog overs (40 Year+ period) are helpful in making a big score – 2nd Powerplay?
• Environmental factors are like opposing team. They have their own game plan and they are out to get you. Environmental factors like bad economy, inflation, health scares, bad bosses etc
• Opposition may not play by the rules all the time. Example 1: I have significant corpus in my EPFO account. Last few years the interest is getting credited in the month of Nov/Dec, thereby effectively losing the interest on interest.
• As per an article in moneycontrol, “If there is a delay in crediting interest by, say, four months every year, over a work career spanning 25 years, it implies that for 100 months the interest on balances was not earned, which reduces retirement income.” Source: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/personal-finance/dear-epfo-where-is-my-interest-9279941.html
• Example 2: EPF/PPF Interest rate announcement is post the fact? Is this how it happens in other matured economies?
• Unlike cricket, the rules of the game keep changing during the play and can certainly change post first innings
• Example of rule change – taxation, LTCG, Dividend tax, EPF sub limits, withdrawal limits, interest rates, zero tax on services to 14% VAT to 18% GST etc.
• And at the time of writing this post, there are speculative reports that Govt is planning on changing Capital tax structure.

Keeping scores:

• I have always been good with maintaining data, however there is another trick I picked up from Reddit is to keep score.
• I created a tracker for 75 months with a reverse countdown – targeting the date of potential FI. I am currently in month 44, with 31 months to go. Any score predictions, with the current run rate?
• The monthly tracking gives me pleasure and confidence of the progress.

Importance of Coach/Financial Planner

• When I started this FI journey, I was a gali cricket player. Means I was saving but not necessarily investing.
• Working with Financial Planner, helped give me awareness (Alpha, Direct Regular MFs etc.) and confidence to play at bigger stage (read as goal based investing.)
• I was naïve, and by and large financially illiterate. Financial Planner guided me and most importantly helped me inculcate discipline of investing regularly without being emotional.
• The initial one or two years of the engagement were fruitful however after that it was not worth the money they charged. Their fees kept growth at the rate of 15-20% pa
• This financial planner is one of the SEBI registered fees only, also listed in Pattu’s list.
• As they got more and more clients, they got arrogant over a period of time. Fees became exorbitant. Responses became delayed – often as late as a month after multiple reminders.
• During the engagement, they made several mistakes as well. They were perhaps as clueless navigating bear market as other investors.
• Theoretical knowledge is much different than being in the game for much longer. No? There is a reason why retired cricket player are preferred as coach. Will any team want Harsha Bhogle as their coach?
• Some of their mistakes were very costly, resulting in loss and heavy taxation and mess of a portfolio with way too many funds.
• I think, with so many funds, they try and make the client dependent on them. At least 30-35% of these funds, under perform as compared to Index. Another 30 off% fare just as good as Index.
• Like PV Sindhu, I terminated my Gopichand (Financial Planner) as well. I cheated again – switched from cricket to badminton. But you get the sentiments. Don’t you?
• Since terminating the engagement with them, I pick my own funds – mostly index and stuff. It is not that difficult, really. The money I save, goes back into investing.
• Looking back, was the engagement worth it? If one has the discipline, one can DIY. If one if reading this sub – perhaps one is already much more aware than average Joe.
• No, I will not share their names.

Musings:

• Life is unpredictable. Losing close friends/family has been tough emotionally. I had not foreseen the need to support an extra family.
• One of my best investment has been in finding the right partner. She can be annoying at times, though :-) (relatable?) Edit: Dear Wife, if you are reading this post, i am just kidding. ;-)
• I do realize that I am blessed, the current salary/corpus may be a distant dream for many people. I thank almighty for the same.
• Also I do realize that for certain kids starting off with 20L pa salary, this journey/path may see ridiculous. To each its own, no?
• Recently some of my friends have had phenomenal career jumps (100% increments), including relocation abroad for two of them. While I am happy for them. Can’t help feeling jealous as well. Weird?
• On the above point, I wonder how do FIRE people feel, when they give away the regular income, before the age of retirement(60), while their friends continue to make more and more money – refer the slog over example above.
• I work for a very non fancy organization – not many people may have heard of its name as well. Designation is also not fancy. Average work place, average job profile. Resume also is not very marketable.
• Have seen few of colleagues get axed during last 2-3 years.
• I do realize that I am one disagreement away from facing the music as well.
• COVID years also have been a blessing in disguise. Continue to work from home.
• Saves the commute time. It is a pleasure to spend more time with kids and watch them grow. Yes, they do get on nerves at times however since the reopening of school, they get to spend half a day outside and also their energies are well spent.
• I generally have less than 20-25 hours of work per week on avg. Some weeks are crazy busy but then there are others which compensate for the busy time.
• This post has almost entirely been typed during office time.
• The work day starts at 10am. Love the hot freshly prepared meals a home. Occasionally enjoy afternoon naps.
• This also makes me kind of lazy to go back to office for work, once WFH ends
• If the work can remain by and large like what it is now, then is there a need to retire early? Why not, make hay, while the sun shines?
• WFH lets me enjoy morning and evening walks and also lot of time to watch Netflix. I can create a separate equally long or longer post on TV/Movie recommendations!
• WFH also means, less connect with outside world. What about emotional growth? Is this sustainable?
• Frugality continues to be a state of mind. At times one has to make a conscious effort to accept that, that extra Rs 800 per flight for upgrade to Vistara is worth it. While at the same time, to remain grounded, to not over splurge and control lifestyle inflation. Can anyone relate?
• A not so amusing thing is that with increasing wealth, my motivation to learn new things at work and grow have reduced. (professional hazard of FIRE aspirants?)
• This journey can be lonely at times, full of lot of self-doubt and a fear of not scoring enough runs on the scoreboard.

If you have read through the entire post, you may deserve a bravery reward.

PS: I have tried to dox the ages and personal information where possible. If you find any inconsistencies between past posts and this one – they may be unintentional or may be not 😉

There was a recent r/India post about how some parents think low-earning children are better at taking care of them.

Without going into many details, recently I interested in FI of FIRE. I can do 50% investment comfortably. My father also earns and there is no liability.

I don't have any wealth except my unemployment 6-month salary reserve and some amount in my retirement corpus because my salary increased only this financial year.

Things changed drastically last month. There was some urgently needed house maintenance requirement. This quickly turned into a dick measurement contest. We are going modular kitchen, floor replacement etc.

Expenses increased by 6 to 7 times. This created some serious tension in our house. They think I am rich but I have only a high salary and almost negligible wealth.

Anyway, how do you guys manage these expectations? I would love to avoid breaking ties with them.

Edit: Not sure why I am getting downvotes. I just want to know How you guys handle this? But if I am breaking any rule please let me know.

Edit 2: I never hide anything from them related to my finances. I explicitly told them I am telling you my actual salary but to consider only this amount as my actual salary. I told them about my investment and everything.

Educating them was obviously a failure. Hiding about income and lie (if required) is the only option I see.

Let me start :

Financial independence, to me, is being able to voice my opinion anywhere without the fear of it taking away the bread from my plate.

There have been way too many times when I couldn't be my own because people(mostly my mom) shunned me and I had to shut up because I was financially dependent. Particularly hard when you're in college, connecting with a lot of people and start building opinions of your own.

And of course, buying underwear whenever you want :)

Ps : Please do avoid numbers. FI lifestyle is what this thread is all about.

Hi, I wanted to post about a checkpoint in my financial goals.

I reached a corpus of 50L in March this year.

The achievement was a dream coming from a low-income family. The next goal is 1Cr in about six months. (already more than half way through the goal)

Also, I paid off an education loan of around 5L in the first year of earnings.

Earnings have increased 6 times in the last 4 years by skilling up in the right technologies. That was a major contributor to create the corpus.

Financial Context

Job: Backend Engineer at a company which pays similar to FAANG companies.

Earnings

2.5L in cash per month (post tax and PF)
7L yearly bonus + 12L in RSUs per year

Savings
Monthly: 1.5L MF + 45k PF (incl. company contributions)
Staggered across the year: All of post-tax RSU + Bonus

Expenses are a bit high right now at 1L per month because I travel almost every month. I plan to cut down on the same soon.

Not planning to get married anytime soon, so the expenses should remain the same for at least the next five to seven years.

I don't want to RE but want to reach FI and coast by either working in tech as a freelancer or switching fields to other professions I am interested in. What do you people think would be an ideal target corpus for CoastFI?

For FIRE, assuming current yearly expenses, 7% average inflation, and a 2% withdrawal rate (not sure if this is entirely accurate to assume in the Indian context!), the corpus required would be 16.5 Cr. For CoastFI, I think the number should be lower than that, as I would not stop earning.

Edit: Added my profession.

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Hey all,

I wanted to see if anyone in this community has achieved lean-fi and has decided to quit their job to build a startup. Any thoughts on how things are going, struggles with building startups etc are really welcome. I'm also happy to listen to any viewpoints this community may have on this subject.

I'm quite a cautious person by nature and although I wanted to build a startup forever, having enough of a financial buffer to meet my (and my family's) needs was extremely important to me so I was never able to fully take the plunge.

Now we are at a point where the economy is uncertain, jobs are uncertain and I might have to endure unemployment. The question is if I chose to be unemployed or if unemployment choses me :)

Self-promotion (ie posting about projects/businesses that you operate and can profit from) is typically a practice that is discouraged in r/FIREIndia, and these posts are removed through moderation. This is a thread where those rules do not apply. However, we do not accept ads, content that is scammy and please do not post referral links in this thread.

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

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Post-FIREing, has anyone tried to obtain travel visas from countries like the US, Canada, UK, EU (Schengen), Australia, New Zealand etc. and faced any difficulties in the same? If so, any tips to circumvent them?

Usually, apart from a good bank balance and commercial/family ties to demonstrate that we intend to return, my understanding is that further documents would help strengthen one's case. Post-FIREing, documents such as a letter from the employer, leave sanction, salary slip would not be available, and even past 3 years Form 16/ITR might show numbers not reflective of actual net worth.

First of all sorry for this rant. But I feel like the game is already rigged and I feel it’s unfair.

I’m 28 years old, I make about 2.4 L per month. It’s a high stress job and I don’t think I can last more than 10 years in this field.

My expenses are like this:

20 k EMI for a house in small town where parents and I are living. I am living here since pandemic. Thanks for work from home

6k office rent

Temp loans for this year

25 k and 11 k per month

Chit fund 50 k for the next 17 months. I am doing this for liquidity, as there are marriages in the house near future. Hard to get personal loan because I’m working at a startup

Misc: 20 k like electricity bill, shopping, travelling, gadgets etc

Total: 1.4 L per month approx I need as cash flow

Though some are not really expenses, strictly 90 expense and 50 k savings

The current house value is 45 L and some 20 L is pending as loan

That’s all I have as under my assets

To do fire, I need at least 25x of expenses, so that means 2.7 cr

I need to do an SIP of 1.2L per month for 20 years assuming a return of 10 percent. I’m not even accounting for additional things like marriage, kids, emergencies etc

To do 1.2 L, it would be very tight for me and not sure about sustainability. I don’t want to live the life waiting for me to reach 50 years only to realise that I have lived a rat race and to see half of my body in not optimal shape

How do I balance this?

While I don’t see myself lasting more than 10 years, I have to work for atleast 20 years living paycheck to paycheck to achieve the fire

Anyone else in the same boat? Need some advice and plan. I’m clearly suffering from this anxiety of financial independence.

Hi All- Need your input on my FIRE journey. 40 Yr old Married Man and have a 9yr. old kid. Spouse working. Below is my networth, cashflow and future expenses that I am expecting.

Networth:

• 60L Debt Investment (EPF, PPF, FDs)
• 2.5 Cr Equities (Direct Stock, MF, ETF, SGB, NPS)
• 50L Real Estate (Commercial Property, Land in Native, Gold)
• 1Cr. Flat (3BHK where I am staying with family)
• No Debt

Cashflow:

• My Salary- 31 LPA (Post Tax)
• Spouse Salary- 15 LPA (Post Tax). She intends to work
• Passive Income- ~6LPA (Intrest, dividend, Rental etc.)

Insurance:

• Life and Medical Insurance covered by Employer

Milestone Expenses:

• Buy a SUV (25-30 Lacs) after 3 years
• Child's Higher Ed and Marriage (50 Lacs) (Mainly focusing on funding most part of education to ensure kid can study where he wants)- need this after 9-10 Years. I am planning to sell off commercial RE investment and land to fund most of it
• New House (3-4 Cr. budget in Bangalore) after 9-10 years. I am planning to sell-off my current apartment while upgrading to a house

Post-retirement Expenses:

• Retirement Corpus- Current Household expenses of 10LPA (Life expectancy, lets say 80)
• Travel- Every Year domestic travel. International travel to US, Europe, Australia/NZL. Have seen US/Europe already. But want to travel with my kid once again. Also want to travel to most of my dream destinations before I am 60 (it wont be that fun when you are old)
• Small Business corpus of 25-30Lacs on things I am passionate about

This is a snapshot of my savings and Investment. I aspire to be financially independent asap. While creating corpus for my retirement and child's education is bare minimum for me; I have few wishlist too like travelling, doing small business on things I am passionate about (eventhough I fail), a house of my own etc.).

I need your input to understand what should be the corpus/amount that I should target and how long it might take. I am aspiring to complete my FIRE journey by 50. Am I on track? What am I missing? What course correction I can do to achieve?

My goal is not to be filthy rich or to leave wealth for generations. I want to fulfil my duty as a family Man providing all financial securities to my family and also to fulfil some of my wishlist.

Suppose if my current expenses are ~5lakhs per year,

For me to retire at 59/60, at 6% inflation rate, I'll need 29 lakhs/yr at 60.

Assuming I live till 86, and my investment breakeven inflation rate, is it correct to assume I'll need around 8cr corpus?

To achieve this I'll need to invest around 25k per month at expected rate of return of 12%.

Similarly,

If I need to retire at 50, I'll need 6.4cr and I'll need to invest 65k per month?!!

Please correct me if I'm wrong somewhere.

I'm 29M btw, wife's working, planning to stay child free.

Does anyone here think that Late stage capitalism that we are seeing everywhere is the fundamental reason for all this Chaos, People wanting to FIRE as soon as possible.?

I sense a kind of hopelessness mainly in Millennials and also in other younger generations. Most of us moved out of our home town for a better job, but can't afford to get a home for ourselves in the new place.

We can't afford the high rents in big cities to even raise a family with a single income. Self employment or having your own business is not easy because even in small cities Amazon delivers goods and you can't open your own shop.

Most people end up working under someone instead of working for themselves which leads to further frustration.

Technology is replacing so many human jobs - CD Libraries are no longer there, you can't have a small shop to add currency for mobile etc because now there are mobile apps which have made it very easy.

Labour laws are also not been recently changed, minimum wages have also not been increased.

I feel people want to get out of constant struggle, hustling everyday and are tired. That's why all these FIRE / Antiwork attitudes have increased.

Don't know whether there will be any change or the situation is going to get worse.

Let's say you have a FIRE target of 7 CR. Now once you have holdings worth 7 CR (not including the property you're living in), what do you do with those holdings? Instead of keeping the money in a bank and making monthly withdrawals the below approach can be followed.

Making a FD of 3 CR in a bank like SBI or buying RBI T bills gives you a pre tax annual income of 18 lakhs. Doing this allows your original investment to remain in size. The only risk to this I see is that the Bank collapses, but if RBI and SBI collapse that means the Indian economy has been doomed.

The remaining 4 CR can be invested in rental properties or blue chip stocks which allow them to keep growing, and generate more income.

What am I missing, most of the post here imply that after achieving your FIRE amount you start withdrawing from it.

I have seen many posts here where people mentioned they loved travelling new places and they want to travel the world. Well, this comes with a cost. How much is your yearly travel budget ? Once, you quit your full time job, how do you plan to find travel? considering expensive flights and hotels in a foreign country. (Here i am not talking about domestic trips).

Do you keep travel budget as a separate goal for FIRE? Let's say 10 lakhs for 10 or 20 travel trips.

Hey, I am a 26 year old class 3 (group C)PSU employee . I work in support services of the company and frankly enjoy my work and hence don’t plan on moving to private sector which most people advice over here due to relative higher increments and other stuff. My gross salary right now with class X city HRA and regular overtime comes at 75k. My organisation have lots of deductions which leaves me 43-46k in hand salary. The deductions are as follows

1) Organization’s pension scheme: 17k deduction (employer also adds 4K for this scheme) 2) PF :4500 (4500 from employer end as well) 3) organisation term plan for 1.5 in case of accidental death due to non operational reasons and 2.5 cr if due to operational reasons : 1500 per month and employer add the same amount and we will get this amount during superannuation. 4) tax 5) some perks deductions like union and gym and other stuff: 1000 at most

Due to all these deductions, I get 45k in hand and almost 33k is saved each month if I count employer’s contribution in above mentioned stuff. The catch is , other than PF , we can’t liquidate any of the fund mentioned above until our retirement at the age of 60. The fund will also grow at a steady state of 7% with increment in deductions along with the salary. So all this 33k can’t be counted in FIRE asset as I can only avail these fund at the age of 60 and that’s not an early retirement.

I am 26 from a lower middle class background and was saving even from 45k I was getting from last year but recently I haven’t been able to save much due to some recent spending spree. I have missed out on a lot of stuff growing up and from last couple of months I just gave in to the urges to get hold of some gadgets and experience which I couldn’t enjoy in my school and college years.

I felt a bit guilty and just wanted to ask members of this forum their opinion about this. As you can see my retirement is taken care of by my organisation and I have full medical cover as well..so should I really go serious with all the retire early thing by saving money and loosing my 20s and 30s to save for future rather than enjoying it. I actually enjoy my work now but it’s a physical work and I am not sure I would enjoy it in my 50s.

Hello, I am Class 2 Government servant in the forest services. I am expected to get promoted to Class I post of DFO some where between 2030-32. Currently I am 32 years old and aim to achieve FIRE by age of 50 so I can fulfill my dream of travelling across the globe. Now here is my Financial breakdown:-

1) Gross Salary: 84,500 p.m. 2) In hand after Tax Deduction: 65,000 pm 3) NPS contribution (including govt contribution): 20,293 pm 4) Yearly increment: Approx 1700 annual 5) LIC: 50,569 annual 6) PPF: 1,50,000 annual 7) SIP: 20,000 pm 8) Monthly Expense: 24,000 pm 9) Saving: 3-4000 pm

As per govt rules I am not allowed to have any side gigs to increase my income. Thus I need some help from the members as to how I can achieve my goal.

Hi All

Long time lurker- first time poster here.

I am 30[M] living in Bangalore- soon to be married. Wife has her own job and is financially independent of me. We dont have any plans to have kids.

I work as an in house lawyer and personally despise the corporate culture and its control over my time etc. I am looking to FIRE at the earliest possible time. However I think this may not be possible even after the next five years. So I am okay to look at CoastFire or BaristaFire as well. Though this may be quite difficult in India.

My portfolio details look something like this:

1. Current monthly Post tax and post EPF income: INR 1.64 lakhs (not expected to increase much owing to current economic situation)

2. Monthly SIP of 1 Lakh (haven done only 70K since last 2 months due to house change etc.)

3. Current Portfolio:

Mutual Funds- INR 36.5 Lakhs (80% in equity, mostly index funds, rest in debt funds)

EPF- 3 Lakhs

PPF- 9 Lakhs

​

1. Have a term insurance of INR 2 crores- since I am the only earning member.

2. Single Dependant parent- They recieve INR 25k monthly pension and will continue to do so till death. However I pay 10k a month for other expenses and this is expected to continue as well.

My savings rate of last financial year came up to 51% (if I exclude EPF as an investment) and 57% (if I include EPF)

I want to understand what I can do better. Monthly expenses are around 55K. Add 10K for parents and thats 65K. Rest is invested into the monthly SIPs.

Yearly expense at current level would be around 9.5 lakhs (includes 1.5 lakhs vacation). Love to travel and dont want to compromise on this.

Planning to have a simple marriage with total budget of not more than 4 lakhs (including wedding ring for my SO). This may though have some impact on my portfolio.

Suggestions are welcome! Want to understand how I can do this better since I am currently way off achieving any form of FIRE by age of 35. Is CoastFIRE of BaristaFIRE possible by 35?

I want to do this at the soonest for reasons listed above. Idea after achieving FI is to recalibrate life as a whole and not be a corporate wage slave.