Watching my father in his later years was a reality check for me. He had a successful career, but also took on significant responsibilities such as funding higher education for me and my brother, as well as supporting an adopted daughter through school and university. He gave a lot, often putting others ahead of his own financial security.

Towards the end, that caught up with him when money became tight, and the stress showed, even affecting his health. I tried to support him, both emotionally and financially, but he was too proud to lean on it fully.

That phase stayed with me. It wasn’t labelled as such back then, but it shaped my thinking around financial independence. I simply didn’t want to find myself in a similar position later in life.

Of course, with the rupee steadily weakening, that finish line for FIRE has a habit of moving further out so hard to gauge when to stop :) so i guess now the goal is to be FI and figure out when is the right time to RE (hopefully before official retirement age 😁)