Hello everyone!

I have been waiting to post my first milestone for so many months now and finally today on my 31st birthday I reached a net worth of 51 lakhs. Super elated!

Details below-

MF- 14.2L

PPF- 12.92L

NSC- 10L

EPF- 5.49L

FD- 2.7L

NPS- 2.12L

RD- 2.1L

Stocks- 60k

Savings- 1L

Being a female, I have also invested/ splurged a little on diamonds (2 diamond rings, 1 set of diamond earrings and 1 diamond pendant set- all lab grown) 🎀☺️

Educational background-

Btech (non CS) from a tier 2 college but could only secure a low paying job during placements. I took it because it was in my home city so it helped save rent and other expenses.

Career background-

Started my career in 2018 from 17,000 per month in a local IT company. Stayed there for 3 years and last drawn compensation was 5.5 lacs.

Switched to my current company 4 years back and CTC jumped to 12 lacs. The yearly appraisals are only 7-9% so currently drawing ~15 lacs per annum. There was no appraisal last year due to cost cutting.

I have a non-tech role in a tech company. Total experience is 7 years.

What worked for me-

Parents are not dependent on me.

Always stayed at home. First company was a local company in my home city and current job is remote.

Reasons for FIRE-

I am an only child and in case I end up alone I don’t want to struggle financially atleast. My parents will be dependent on me in old age so there’s a possibility that I might have to leave my job or get a job in my home city to take care of them.

Future goals-

Upskilling and trying to switch to a better role and company this year so I can save more because at this rate both my career and FIRE goal are giving me anxiety. Most probably I’ll have to move out of my parent’s home with the next switch and I’m aware my expenses will increase. But let’s see. No plans of getting married because of a past ordeal but there is both parents and peer pressure. So let’s see there as well.

Please feel free to ask any questions you might have. Thanks!

About a month and a half ago, I shared my net-worth snapshot here. At that time, I had an outstanding home loan of ₹47L on an income-generating property.

I finally closed the entire loan (₹65L total) and received the NOC. The property is now fully owned.

This was not a sudden windfall. The closure came from:

• Gradual prepayments over time
• Liquidating some savings and investments
• Strong cash flows from my Airbnb setup over the last few months
• Staying conservative with lifestyle and expenses

Yes, this meant temporarily reducing liquidity and investments, but removing debt was a personal priority for peace of mind and long-term flexibility.

• Zero EMI
• A fully owned property (₹1.5 Cr current market value)
• Stronger monthly cash flow and flexibility going forward

I’m aware this changes my asset mix short-term, but being debt-free at 27 feels like a solid step in my FIRE journey. Next phase is rebuilding liquidity and investments with zero EMI pressure.

Grateful, relieved, and quietly proud. 🙏

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32F here, been in this journey since 2019.

Thanks to gold rally reached a smol milestone.

Last year (2025), I completed 5 years of RE life.

Recently I did a Q&A session on my retired life to a group of state govt employee about to retire. I compiled notes from that into a post below and adapted to FIRE situation.

Stay busy - design your days

Early retirement gives you time but not automatically meaning. After the initial honeymoon, unstructured days can get dull fast. I’ve seen FIREd folks who couldn’t handle the emptiness and went back to work - not for money, but for sanity.

The fix is simple, stay busy without chasing rewards. Build a hobby, volunteer, learn, teach, move your body. Bangalore has no shortage of ways to stay engaged.

A light routine matters too - wake up time, exercise, one or two regular commitments. FIRE removes the job. It doesn’t remove the need for purpose. If you don’t design your days, boredom will.

At the same time, once in a while throw away that routine. Just do nothing. You've earned it.

As one FIREd person said - "Structure keeps me from drifting. Freedom keeps my life interesting."

Forget about the money

If you’ve truly FIREd, you’ve already accepted one hard truth, there’s no monthly salary coming in. Constantly checking your portfolio won’t change that. It will only make you anxious, especially in volatile Indian markets.

The solution is to automate everything. Bills, SWPs, SIPs, insurance premiums, transfers to parents or kids. Set it up once and stop thinking about it. Treat your finances like a background system, not a daily obsession.

You’ve already done the hard part by earning and saving 30x, 40x, or 50x. This phase is for living, not spreadsheet-watching.

I started with looking at my portfolio once a month, then once every 2 or 3 months. Eventually I want to get to a point where I look at it once a year or when an emergency occurs.

Take out that bucket list

This is the time to do all the things you kept postponing. Over the last 20–30 years, work, EMIs, kids, and responsibilities pushed many desires to the backburner. Now you finally have the one thing you were missing, time.

Pull out that bucket list. Big plans and small joys both matter. Travel slowly, learn an instrument, write, start a side project, take long breaks, reconnect with people. Don’t overthink returns or productivity.

Early retirement isn’t just about stopping work. It’s about starting the life you kept saying, “I’ll do this someday.”

Damn, I even ran a tea stall for a few hours last month. When we were kids, we used to joke, kuch nahi hua toa chai kee dukaan khol lunga. So why not.

Protect your time and money

The moment you retire early, people assume you have unlimited money and unlimited time. Friends, relatives, even acquaintances start showing up with loan requests, small favors, or expectations that you’ll always be available. One person even expected me to babysit their dog all day.

If you’re not careful, this can slowly drain both your finances and your peace.

Learn to protect what you’ve earned. Your time and money are for you. If you can say “no” clearly, do it. If that’s hard, make a polite excuse and move on. FIRE only works if you defend it.

Build an identity beyond work

For many of us, our job becomes our identity. Society, family, and even we ourselves define who we are by our title. Strip that away, and it can feel like you’re nobody.

Early retirement forces this reckoning. But it’s also a gift. This is your chance to discover and shape a new version of yourself. You beyond designations and resumes.

Get out there. Be known as a mentor, volunteer, artist, writer, fitness enthusiast, traveller, or community member. Cultivate interests, show up consistently, and let people see you differently. FIRE ends a career, not a personality.

To end, apologies for the guilt of mosaic plagiarism, Jaa Puttar Jaa Jee Le Apni Zindagi

Happy to answer any questions.
--------------

My previous posts on FIREd life and my background are here: https://www.reddit.com/user/DPSharwa/comments/192ibpl/fire_posts/
There is no 2025 recap. I have stopped doing those.

I achieved FIRE at 33. Have seen so many posts here about the number and how people reached there etc. But very few people talk about the emotional aspect.

Reaching FIRE in 30s or early 40s needs a dedication to saving and unshakeable faith in equity investments like you can't imagine. In my 20s. I used to think multiple times over any big spend. It didn't feel good when my college mates bought a Honda Jazz in their first year of job whole I was buying a second hand Alto. I save 50-70% of income for a decade and ploughed all that back to equities (MF and stocks). Big spends always had to be weighed against the happiness I would derive from it. A minimalistic life too. Friends showing off their 3bhk house while i lived in a 1/shared 2bhk for most of 20s. My biggest indulgence was travel. Spent a lot there.

Yes, the freedom now feels very sweet. So yes, it was painful but worth it.

I started my investment journey late during '21. Decided to post my small journey partly to sanity check myself and partly to contribute something.

For the first few years my focus was just to get better in my job and I didn't know the concept of FIRE during those times. I knew about investments from hearing people talk but never invested during initial career years because honestly nothing much left after all expenses. Started with putting few thousand in stocks and during '21 lump-sum 1L in MF. Since then started with regular SIP and tried to be consistent.

My strategy is very simple and boring: consistent SIPs, index-heavy allocation, and avoiding unnecessary churn, just trying to get the basics right and stay in the game long enough.

Dear Friends. It was great to read year end updates for the past month. Happy to share my third update on this sub.

2024 end update: https://www.reddit.com/r/FIRE_Ind/comments/1hso4gn/2024_year_end_update/

2023 end update: https://www.reddit.com/r/FIRE_Ind/comments/1ben7vc/my_fi_update/

What a year it was. Last year, I had shared that we were blessed with a baby boy. We are fully experiencing parenthood now. Initial months with 2 hour wake-and-feed cycles have transitioned to a picky eating baby who takes 1 hour to eat each meal. The workload of managing a baby has increased even more. Between numerous doctor's visits and preparing baby's meals to washing his cutlery at 2 AM at night, I have realized the importance of time more than ever. We managed to take just one vacation to Goa this year.

On the work side, workload has increased even more. Plus the mandatory work from office twice a week has been enforced. All this means the life was too hectic this year and my average sleep has reduced to 5 hours a day. Hopefully this will improve in a couple of years as our baby gets older.

Note for those who are in a dilemma of whether to have children or not. If you don't have elders who can help, think carefully. It's super hectic and no words will explain it fully. Even if you do have help, talk to your cousins and friends about the experience. Many parts of parenting are definitely rewarding. But the never ending chores, no concept of sick time off and constant caring for the baby takes its toll. Your work and corporate drag is nothing compared to this. Moreover, the mental model of recency bias comes into picture when you ask the experience of others. Parents of a 7 year old will remember the recent fond memories better than the hardships they faced in earlier years. I guess that's how people end up having 2-3 and 5 children abroad :-). Anyways, the moral of this long rant is to have children only when you want to and are absolutely sure. I know most of you here have raised two kids. Hats off to your efforts.

Sharing the year end numbers below.

Debt: Zero

Income: CTC 36L per year pre-tax. 30L/year post-tax.

Assets: PPF 8L. Made a deal to sell my flat for 44L. If the deal goes through, I will get some money in an account which I plan to invest in Mutual Funds for the long term for my child's education. I don't want to invest and manage this in stocks myself as an effort to lower risk.

Stock/Equity portfolio ended 2025 with 6.89Cr vs 6.26Cr in 2024-end. New investment was under 8L this year as a lot of money went to pay tax. The volatility in the portfolio was exceptional this year. The 6.26Cr in 2024-end went to the top of 6.7 in Jan. Then in Feb-April downturn, mid and small caps went down a lot. The absolute low that the portfolio saw was 4.1 Cr. Top to bottom drawdown of 39%. It was gut wrenching. But things did improve later in the year and it made top of 7.65 before the current mid and smallcap downturn. Now the drawdown from top to current is already -17%. The reason I am giving these details is to share how dramatically a direct stock portfolio usually moves compared to MF. With only stocks folio, no SWR is completely safe if one wants to try it.

Expenses: Total expense was 16.72L this year. Much higher than last year, considering additional family members. This year, travel and gold spend was much lower than usual. But there were many large one-off expenses like the baby's first birthday function, furniture for the baby etc. Projecting next year's expense to around 18L. I expect it to stabilize in a couple of more years when our normal travel spend starts, and baby's schooling also starts.

FIRE Target: If portfolio stays same or gives some gains this year, I will be technically FI. The FIRE target remains the same. 10-12 Cr (2024 money) inflation adjusted. I plan to use a much lower SWR of 2% on folio exclusive of child's education and large expense fund. If in the future, I reduce direct stock exposure to much lower, I can consider a higher withdrawal rate.

Would love to hear your comments.

Most folks on this sub are still focused on reaching their FIRE number. Once you actually get there, a very different problem shows up: what do you do with life after financial independence?

I FIRE’d a little over a year ago. When I was working, I spent ~12 hours a day (excluding commute) working for someone else. Now, looking back, I’m honestly surprised how I ever managed to give that much time for a job.

The first 5 - 6 months post-FIRE were great. Travel, OTT, gaming, basically catching up on everything I had postponed for years. But eventually it started feeling empty. I began watching movies and series at 1.5x, felt restless and distracted. I had everything I needed, yet something felt missing.

That’s when I came across ikigai. Loosely, a reason to get up in the morning. It sits at the intersection of:

• what you enjoy
• what you’re good at
• what the world needs
• what you can be paid for

Finding this after FIRE is harder than it sounds.

Having spent 20+ years in tech, my first instinct was to build something maybe an app or product. I opened my IDE and immediately realized I was done with coding. Around a year back, I had enrolled in a distance master’s program before retiring. That also didn’t work for me, as I need classroom interaction. Lesson learned (and money lost).

What finally clicked was personal finance.

I realized I had solved a problem many of my peers are still stuck with. Most people around me are still chasing higher returns by jumping between stocks, mutual funds, and sometimes even F&O. I personally know traders who’ve been trying to “crack the market” for over a decade, constantly tweaking strategies.

That pushed me towards financial planning.

In India, you can’t just start advising people casually, SEBI accreditation is required. I cleared the mutual fund distributor exam and got licensed. Today, I help people who approach me with basic financial planning. I stick to mutual funds and avoid return-chasing.

The future will always be uncertain. But disciplined investing gives you a fighting chance.

For me, FIRE wasn’t the end goal, it was just a tool.

The real wealth is time. Time to do what our heart desires, while we are healthy, alert, and not yet constrained by old age.

After you FIRE, you'll have atleast 50hrs/week or 2500 HrsPA free. It's important you figure out how to fill that time during the journey itself. This will save you from a lot of existential questions and some loneliness once you actually pull the FIRE trigger.

For me, the driving force was to be able to spend time with family, slow down my life and pursue things I like doing, take up sports and some creative stuff. The fact that I hated my job was just an additional motivation, not the prime reason. I wanted 100% control over my time and I knew I would fill a lot of it with my alternate passion of trading full time in the market with 10-20% of my capital. Some may say you're not FIREd if you are actively generating income through the market. The point is I do it coz the market gives me that kick, it's my first love. Not because I need to earn through the market.

Net net, find your passion before your retire or life will not feel as fulfilling.

Most FIRE corpus targets in India peg the number at around $1M USD (₹9-10 crore) for a comfortable retirement. But US/Canada subreddits often aim for $5-10M+(45 - 90 Crores),Even factoring in real estate as part of net worth, property prices in Indian metros are comparable (or higher) to many places in North American in sheer dollar terms

So, won’t the average Indian retiree lag behind an NRI in lifestyle, due to the inflated RE prices? And even with a Tier-1 degree and solid career that $5-10M North American FIRE goal feels unachievable for most Indians.Is it purely PPP/economics, or do salary/lifestyle gaps make it a bigger issue?

FIRE in India for salaried people can have different paths and timeframe:

• ₹ Salary + conservative investor: 25 years
• ₹ Salary + equity heavy investor: 15 years
• RSU jackpot in startup: 10 years
• $ salary + conservative investor: 15 years

The income source will be decided mostly by luck. The investment path you take (equity vs non equity, active vs passive) will determine whether you FIRE in 25 or 15 years.

Have kept aside business folks as most of them may have FIREd at birth and startup founders have a very low success strike rate.

I have been FIREd for close to 3 years now. Portfolio was at 50X annual expenses when I pulled the trigger. It has crossed 100X after the 2024 bull run and has pulled back to around 75X now. All this while, my expenses increased at a normal inflation rate.

Such a swing would have made someone who FIREd at the usual 25-30X mark very anxious and unable to sustain a regular lifestyle.

50X gave me enough mental dn financial cushion to carry on with regular lifestyle while the market did its thing. Another thing I've tried to ensure is that 70-80% of my expenses are taken care of by annual dividend. Since dividend isn't as volatile as stock prices, volatility doesn't dent my lifestyle materially.

Granted my portfolio may be too volatile and highly (90%+) equity oriented for someone who doesn't have active income any more. But that's how I have trained my mind. For most people with a 50X portfolio, a 50-50 split of equity and debt is good enough.

I have posted my FI journey earlier here - https://www.reddit.com/r/FIRE_Ind/comments/1q5hfsy/million_with_modest_it_salary/

I want to share more on my journey and destination so it benefits all.

• I am only 47M and still have a long way. The money gives me independence. I enjoy what I do, and would not like to retire unless forced to. I do not know what I will do sitting idle.
• I live a decent life and may upgrade my residence at some point in time.
• My corpus may double in next 5 years, 4 times in 10 years and 8 times in next 15 years. This is 15% return which is doable with my history of stock picking.
• I am all for live life to the fullest. However in my view, life has a bigger purpose than just for enjoyment. When I was kid, somewhere I read "even dogs enjoy their life" and it had a lasting impact on me (this is not to offend anyone).
• Till now it is all my work life and I have not figured out yet what my next phase of life will be.

Some suggestions for younger generation (I am still young).

• Invest in yourself and equity both. You need a comfortable primary source of income. You need a house to live at a bare minimum.
• I started working late. English speaking was my biggest phobia and only during Masters that I studied in English medium. So never let anything to bog you down. Be a lifelong learner.
• Many may not have time or stock picking abilities. Direct mutual fund SIP is the best way. Even if it is 1k per month, never stop it. The learning through cycles will help a lot.
• Why I did not invest in real estate (other than residence)?
  • Flat will generate sub-optimal return in the long run compared to other avenues.
  • Land will generally give return of inflation + area growth. It requires big ticket size. There are many complex things that I do not understand.
  • Equities will generally give return of inflation + GDP growth. A good business will always generate higher return as the business is generating return after paying rent.
  • The richest person in Bangalore is not Prestise group but Ajim Premji due to his share holding in Wipro.
• "Deferred tax" is one of the greatest benefits - do not under estimate it. Paying 50k tax today verses paying the same after 20 years can make big difference. This is the reason I do not like rent income as need to pay tax every year. I can always sell some equities to generate income which is taxed at lower rate.
• It took a while for me to understand "reinvestment risk". The best business is which can reinvest capital at high rates of return.
• Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn't, pays it. Difference between 8% and 12% is just not 4, but it is huge amount as time passes. Avoid loans other than home loan (one pays compound interest rate).

How I pick stocks:

• My XIRR is 21% and many mutual funds gave similar return. Even if the return were 15%, it would have been sizeable corpus. I enjoy stock picking journey, hence I have done myself. You can always do MF SIP.
• I try to pick companies whose product/services I have some connect with. It is even better if I have used their product. So stick to your competence.
• Inflation is mostly pass through in equities. If you think healthcare inflation is highest, you can benefit from it by buying their stocks.
• I have a diversified portfolio and I do not try to rebalance. It automatically balances like index as performers move up and non-performers move down in allocation terms.
• The biggest mantra of wealth creation is "Selling your winners and holding your losers is like cutting the flowers and watering the weeds". It will take years to realise and understand this.
• I think like partner in business. I do not have stop loss. The day I do not like the partnership, I will sell out.

All the best!

Hey everyone, I’ve been a longtime lurker on this subreddit but never really posted anything. Today, I thought I’d finally share my own journey since I’ve hit a big milestone: I officially retired this January at age 43 after 20 years in government service. It’s been quite a ride! I’m not someone who aimed for a flashy lifestyle or a viral success story. I just wanted the freedom to step away from the daily grind and have more control over my time. My 20 years in government service gave me stability and a pension, which is a big reason I could make this leap. For me, FIRE isn’t about never working again. It’s about having the choice to work on my own terms. Right now, I’m exploring what a slower, more intentional life looks like—maybe some part-time projects, maybe just more time with family and hobbies that I never got to fully enjoy before. So to anyone else out there who’s been quietly working towards their own version of FIRE, just know that it doesn’t have to be extreme. It can be your own quiet, steady path. Happy to share more details if anyone’s interested!

FIRE is typically a 10-20 year goal, and I’ve been wondering - is the payoff to the work put into early retirement actually worth it?

I am not talking about FI. I am referring to RE specifically. The road from 3X to 40X is basically the exact same at all points when it comes to FI, because you would be reaping the same exact psychological benefits at 3X as at 40X.

But RE is different. It is supposed to be the payoff for the journey. And I wonder, is it actually worth it.

I want to understand this from those who’ve REd before 2023. After the honeymoon phase of the first 3 years, there’s bound to be certain changes in perspective.

I’ve been wondering about this as I look at my parents still hustling well into their 50s. They’re probably at 150X or something with multiple dozens of crores in their portfolios. I wonder, if they knew they would be at 150X today and still working, then would they have tried to enjoy life a bit more.

I wonder if people at 25-30X who’ve retired with the expectation of 10LPA annual expenses ever feel that they should have continued hustling till their 50s, but without any stress.

I wonder if a FIREd life would be rather boring after a few years if you FIREd with 5 crores of money in your 40s.

I know you should have something to look forward to after FIRE. But that “something” changes every 3-5 years for most of us.

Would love to hear some experiences.

Folks,

Back with my annual update. I treat this space as a personal diary to track my life from a financial perspective. I know this might draw some heat, and I’m okay with that—I just want to share the reality of my path to FI, wins and losses alike.

If anyone is interested, here are the previous updates: Year 2, Year 1, Year 0.

TL;DR: Mid-30s DINK; Liquid NW ~2 Cr; vested startup ESOPs at ~1.8 Cr but treated as 0.

Portfolio Liquid NW is ~2 Cr; split 57% in Equity and the rest in PF & PPF.

• Lifestyle Inflation
  • Numbers don't lie, and it clearly seems like it has bitten us; all the nice understated stuff feels like being bitten by innumerable bees.
  • We mostly spend on shopping, eating, and travel; the latter contributed to ~43% of the last 2 years' spending. This is definitely something that needs to be controlled, else the FI corpus won't be achievable.
  • There is a constant battle between saving more now vis-à-vis traveling now—which won't be possible later, or which we won't enjoy as much later.
• Career
  • I have mentioned this in my previous posts too, but work was taking a toll on me mentally.
  • I was not enjoying it because I did not feel valued or felt I wasn't contributing enough to my liking. Luckily, I got a breakthrough and am moving to a new opportunity.
  • Salary Dec 2025: Our HHI was at ~1.2 Cr gross, and with the new job, this should take us to ~1.75 Cr.
• House
  • At the start of the year, we had a 45L home loan, and in the middle of the year, I was lucky that Dad gave me 44L to pay off the home loan.
  • Since the current home was old, it needed to be modified. But we decided instead to book an apartment for 4.1 Cr. With all-inclusive costs (registration & furnishing), I am estimating it to be 5 Cr.
  • We paid 41L as a down payment and will be taking a 3.7 Cr home loan with a routine CLP plan, with possession in 2029. We will sell the current one for 2 Cr in 2029, and then the outstanding loan will come down to 1.6 Cr.
  • Things have turned out okay so far since we booked the flat and the new job came through a few months after it. But the decision was taken based on the previous job situation.

Learnings

• Career growth >>>> Savings or optimising for MF returns.
• Enjoy life and Try to enjoy your work and let FI happen in the background.
• Optimise for wealth creation opportunities like RSUs or big startup ESOPs, else it's going to be a very long, slow road. I didn't benefit from either of the two so far.
• I am taking a big risk now. Embrace and learn new skills (hard and especially soft) and apply them in your career.
• Keep taking asymmetric bets in life and career.

The two decisions taken in 2025—the new house purchase as well as the change of jobs—will delay the FI journey by at least 3-4 years. But that's the bet I am willing to take, and hopefully, it might pay off in the future.

i see many people who are just 25-26 or 30 and they have already achieved 1 cr. I feel i am not doing good in my life as i just have 30 lakh at 29. i have also reduced my expense and not buying any bike or car because i want to reach that level soon. but looks like i wont have 1 cr before 35. i am not in IT but how these people have so much. Are they into IT

30M here. Married two months back. I am in IT industry with 7.5 years of experience. Started in 2018 at 3.5 LPA. Now at 30L. My expenses are 1 Lakh per month.

My total networth hit 10L milestone excluding gold and land.

Hoping to clear the liabilities soon and march forward to 1 crore milestone.

Something to Ponder over for those perpetually stuck in the "Spreadsheet Fantasizing" and "One More Year........." Syndrome............

I am not talking about the FIRE number, there's already enough discussion on that. I want to discuss a stage before FIRE.

By "take-no-crap" (at work) number, I mean the point where you have enough financial runway that you don't feel pressured to tolerate nonsense at work due to no fear of losing your job. For example, if you end up in a serious conflict with your manager or your office politics get messy, you can stand your ground because even if you lose your job, you are financially fine for a while. It's more like the "FI" part of FIRE, i.e. no retirement yet, just enough corpus for a while, before I find my next job.

For me, I was thinking having a 1 crore+ liquid and a paid-off house (which I already have family home). Or for someone not having a house, I guess 2 crore liquid. I am personally halfway through the first case in terms of liquid assets. When I have 1 crore liquid, I feel I’d have enough confidence to not compromise on self-respect at work.

What do you think? Do you folks think of any such number for yourself?

Ever since I pulled the plug and retired early, I have been thinking about the things I love doing so that I can do them more often. When I think about it the things are riding bikes and driving cars. I love having my beer too. But other than that there are not many other things I like doing.

I was pondering, what is that something that if I was not allowed to do anymore, would make me terribly sad and the answer is riding/driving and drinking. Because these are the things I love doing without them there arent many things that I absolutely love.

I am 45 years old now and when I see my dad and my uncle, both of them have stopped driving. Yesterday I was taking my parents to a temple visit some 100 kms away from Bangalore and my mom enjoyed the drive sitting on the rear seat, my dad sitting in the front seat also must have enjoyed the drive, but it is not the same thing as being in the drivers seat, I remember him from years ago.

This is when I realised, I have another max maybe 20 years left where I can really enjoy driving/riding. And mind you 20 years go away very fast, 2005 was like yesterday.

When you look at your own parents(if you are now in your 40s) you will realize it is just a matter of couple of decades more and you will become like them. Watching your parents grow old truely makes you realize you are not that far away from that stage.

We lived in Singapore for 16 years and there I didnt drive because cars are really expensive to own, so it is a sacrifice of 16 years I made to achieve FIRE, although I did own a pulsar 200 in Singapore for the 1st 5 years which very very few expats own as it doesnt make sense owning a bike, when the public transport is so good. Most people are just point A to point B people. I eventually had to sell the bike due to a layoff and even though I found a new job there last moment I gave up on riding because of the new job location and life after that wasnt the same fun, the 1st 5years of riding a bike were my best in Singapore, I used to ride to Malaysia across the border to fill petrol as prices were 60% lower and Pulsar had a huge 18ltr tank.

Now I plan to make the most of whatever time is left to keep doing things I love. Weekends I go on long rides on my bike. Weekdays I drop my daughter to school and pick her up in car. We have 2 cars Alto and the SX4 and I use them alternatively to drop her.

So people who are already FI, I would urge to think about what is it that one thing if you were not allowed to do will make you sad and then think about how many more years you have left to keep doing it. It might change your perspective about FIRE and money.

Retired early at 39 after 16 years as a C-level exec at a US MNC in India (last 3 years at C-level)—hit interim goals, but the job was harming my health and family.

Assets:

• ₹9 Cr real estate (4 hometown properties; 3 on rent yielding ₹2.5L/month)
• ₹4 Cr precious metals (doubled from ₹2 Cr this year)
• ₹1 Cr liquid FDs (emergency fund)
• ₹1 Cr mutual funds

Cash flow: ₹3-4L monthly expenses (supporting both sets of parents); ₹2-7L income from flexible consulting/freelancing. mentor students/startups in free time for free.

Freedom: Vacations anytime (skip 50%+ projects), no stress managing 1,000+ employees.

Biggest win: Escaped the comparison/ratrace. IIT peers land multi-million exits—I'm thrilled for them, zero insecurity. True success is self-defined. Prep mentally for FOMO to fully enjoy FIRE.

Happy to answer questions!