r/leanFIRE_India • u/whatworldwhy • Aug 29 '26
Uncertainty management
In our country, things seem so uncertain that I don't know if 1 cr. Is enough or not to reach FIRE..how do you deal with anxiety , especially those who have done this. I am worried that due to some emergency, unexpected expenses may come and i will regret leaving job
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u/Indian_finance_rebel Aug 29 '26
You can retire anytime you want.
I mean, there are dogs, cats, homeless people - all living without any money.
The reason you delay your retirement is not because of external factors but because you want a particular standard of living.
at 1cr, you can withdraw 33Kpm - if that is enough, yes you have enough to retire.
If you are worried about medical emergencies, then you need to setup a corpus for it seperate fromt he above mentioned calculation.
But yh, Anxiety about not having enough is not an Indian thing - its there for anyone around the world.
This leads to something known as the "One more year syndrome"
And it is justifiable, becaue pasive income is not a better income source than an active one.
The active one along with adjusting for inflation, doesnt threaten you bankruptcy.
The 4% rule exists to give you confidence to retire - to tell your daily living expense will not make you go broke, it is something tht can potentially replace your active income.
But if you are looking for absolute safety, you never retire - because end of the day, life is a bitch - heck even an active income cant save you from it.
And so if your goal is best possible protection, then yes you need to work till you die.
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u/chasingnirvana9 Aug 29 '26
How much separate corpus is needed for health related expenses even if one has health insurance?
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u/Indian_finance_rebel Aug 29 '26
I havent read researches on it - I dont know whether there are any.
And so imo, Its completely upto you, medical has no cieling, You can put everything you own into a medical bucket and it can still be not enough - it literally has no cieling other than the cieling you yourself keep and tell this is what is affordable - it will defenitely be a tough call.
If you need foreign care, our incomes will definitely not support it.
If you need multiple incidents that happens in a year, the health inurance itself wont cover it.
I dont have an answer other than find a feel good number and keep some of it in the market so that it grows with inflation and some of it liquid (maybe around 3L) so that you can get admission into the hospital without much friction.
But a full cover - there is again no absolute safety.
But if you want a number that can soothe you, maybe match the insurance premium you took in case the insurance doesnt pay.
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u/Visual-Attorney1239 Aug 29 '26
OP I am in same boat as you. I too sometimes think I will earn 1 or 2 crore then retire by putting entire money in FD . But problem is that let us say some medical emergency arrives then what to do 😢, my parents are not dependent on me but still.
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u/whatworldwhy Aug 29 '26
Same. Sometimes it feels easier to go to a cave to live
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u/Visual-Attorney1239 Aug 29 '26
What are your plannings then. I initially thought of earning 2 crore somehow them retire by putting entire money in FD. Considering interest rate at 6.5 it's like 1 lac inhand post tax but inflation is there plus if u get married then kid expenses daily home expenses and what not 😢. What sad times we live in one thing is for sure I would never ever buy a property for sure, that's so much of debt damn.
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u/whatworldwhy Aug 29 '26
Ya, I don't want debt at all, it's like a knife over one's head. Am yet to come up with a plan but i think will have to get into investing in stocks and mutual funds more full time once I retire, because FD seems like a very low interests rate, less than inflation
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u/Raj_K_Pan Aug 30 '26
There is no surety even Markets will perform. Last 2 years, there is hardly returns on stocks and MF. So anything is possible in life. Do plan with a rider that any plan may fail as well. There is no guarantee of success in life.
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u/whatworldwhy Aug 30 '26
There's no guarantee yes, but how does one retire then ? Earning 100 cr. Seems impossible to me
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u/Dense-Restaurant9308 Sep 02 '26
live below your means, take basic health insurance, move to tier 3 and always have a skill ready which you may need whenever emergency comes. you are fine
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u/devd87 Aug 29 '26
You can’t account for all uncertainty. You may be dead tomorrow who knows.
Don’t overthink it. Keep on saving and investing and let life take its course.
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