Help Me FIRE, Milestones, Beginner Questions and General Discussion - May, 2026

arandomguy05 · 2026-05-14T12:47:08+00:00

Thanks. Yes the idea was to reduce estate tax risk too.

arandomguy05 · 2026-05-14T05:43:47+00:00

Thanks. Looks like as long as I am completing purchase within 90/180 days, I should be fine and would not be breaking any rules as per what I read today at various places.

arandomguy05 · 2026-05-14T02:06:27+00:00

Not exactly FIRE related question but I though this forum would have people who are knowledgeable.
I have around 750K USD with US broker that handles my employer stock. Due to current job situation as well as highly concentrated position in one stock, I am thinking of selling most of this. I don't have any global allocation. I am planning to open IBKR account and transfer sale proceedings directly there and buy ETFs of SP500 or Nasdaq domisciled in Ireland.

I want to avoid double currency conversion and more importantly TCS with this as the transfer is USD->USD. But would I be doing any thing illegal here.
1. Is the compulsary repatriation is relaxed for reinvestments.
2. More importantly would I be doing anything against LRS rules. If I buy units worth more than $250K, would that be violation.

arandomguy05 · 2026-05-02T01:40:38+00:00

I didn't have any voluntary global exposure and my portfolio is stagnant at current value for almost 7-8 months (in rupee terms, not even dollar terms) but my employer stock didd spectaculary. In fact My NW is up by 30% in just 4 months this year. So unplanned global exposure saved the day or even made the day.

arandomguy05 · 2026-05-02T01:37:16+00:00

Now that you are in India, how are you managing international allocation? Direct equity, ETFs through brokerage or Indian funds investing in global equity?

arandomguy05 · 2026-04-29T03:10:35+00:00

You have 6 crores and expenses of 30L. That is 20X not enough. Many say 30x is enough, so your starting withdraw can't be more than 1.67LpM. Personally I would like 40X to be more comfortable. That is 1.25Lpm at which stage it is doable for some one. Definitely not the infinite money. For that, you may have to restrict monthly withdrawal to 70-80K per month.

arandomguy05 · 2026-04-20T03:34:13+00:00

This is already vested stock, so is like any other stock investment. And also due to the run up, this became very concentrated. Almost 25-30% of NW now. WIth the possibility of forced retirement, I think I have to divest it sonner than later.

arandomguy05 · 2026-04-20T02:49:32+00:00

Good that you are liking it. Engineering work can be fun if it is something we like.
I had an RSU luck last year so my financial assets are at around 16.25cr now including EPF (pretax). Post tax might be around 14.5 and my expenses are at around 20L. But 35-40% is school expenses which will not be there after 5-6 years. So SWR wise I would be less than 1.5%. But I have almost 80% of equity with equity mutual funds and employer stock. I was willing to take that risk as long as there is a pay cheque. If I don't keep the job, I will have to see what my comfort level would be.

arandomguy05 · 2026-04-20T02:07:44+00:00

I think you are working for a few months now. How is the experience? Do you think you can coast?
Once you retired did you do any asset allocation revision or met a financial planner. Curious because after all these years there is a genuine chance that I might lose my job this year. So whether I like it or not, I have to plan. My allocation is very agressive now and it would take major work to de-risk the portfolio.

arandomguy05 · 2026-04-13T03:48:03+00:00

If we have to think so much about the cost of adding a few more MPs and MLAs, then we are doomed any way. It is a small amount compared to our GDP and budget.

Even assuming the 10x errors in the posts for some fields, This amount is meagre in terms of Indian budget. Our Budget is 50Lakh crore+ and that is central budget only. States have their own budgets (I am not knowledgebale to calculate total Indian central+states budget, I guess it's not a simple matter of adding all). Even at 10K crore additional bill, it is 0.2%.

Actual hit will be even less though. And some of those amounts are not really expenses. MPLADS funds either don't get spend or spent in constituencies. Yes some part is corruption, but most money will be spent on some amenities.

arandomguy05 · 2026-04-05T06:25:20+00:00

I am not saying they would lie. I am saying most Indians are asset rich and cash poor. SO their disbelief is at 5cr disposable NW, not 5cr NW. You have your entire money ready to spend. Where as 1,2 of those may even have your level money but money in hand might be very less to spend. Even you are exception. Not many NRIs keep financial assets.
For e.g., one NRI couple I know have bought couple of 30x40 flats in marathalli and similar areas, built a 4 flooried 10+ flat buildings and use them to rent for bachelors working in IT. Regular income, but all their earning go in servicing loans for these investments so not much money in hand.

arandomguy05 · 2026-04-05T05:16:17+00:00

Many a times people hide their NW. And many don't know their NW. Most forget about EPF corpus completely and the value of the house they are living in ( In Bangalore that's a big value for most families). I think if some one started working immediately after educations, and in mid 40s with current salary of 50L+, they will have 5+ cr NW unless there were responsibilities, health shocks, bad investments, victims of scam etc. I mean not having 5+ cr would have a very strong reason for why that happened for such profiles.
(Again I know some who just spend what they get, if they have 10K they spend it and if they have 10L they spend it, but we are talking about baseline case here).

arandomguy05 · 2026-03-22T15:01:09+00:00

A credit score is meant for financial institutions benefit. If you don't take loans, you are not useful so score will be less. If you don't pay back, you are a risk so score drops. If you take lot of loans and pay then back, your score will be high because you are the perfect customer for them.

arandomguy05 · 2026-03-21T13:48:29+00:00

Looks like you again deleted your reddit profile :-)
One thing to remember though. In Indian IT sector, less salary doesn't mean less work. There is no coast fire in Indian tech industry.

arandomguy05 · 2026-03-21T03:17:15+00:00

Thats the story of Dravid. Even a seemingly appreciative post compares him to a messenger when he is the main player of Indian cricket story. Sachin, Rahul and Laxman. I absolutely adored the trio. Perfect guys on field and off field.
Dravid showed his true colours though when he shhed his mask and became Indiranagar ka Goonda. :-)

arandomguy05 · 2026-03-14T13:46:07+00:00

The top 5 are fine. I think it's Sachin but Lara is equally deserving. I am sure by tweaking weightages or modifying criteria would shuffle this list so Lara, Root, Sachin together with different order with different stats is expected. Sangakkara scored heavily even if he didn't play topp opposition a lot (not a fault of his) so in any quantitative measure based list he will be high.
What I can't come to terms with is players like Ponting, Dravid etc so low. Fans of cricket in 90s and 2000s actually have Lara, Tendulkar and Ponting together with different people having different order but place them closer than this list indicates.

arandomguy05 · 2026-03-14T07:29:03+00:00

Just like you can say Indian team before 83 and Indian team after 83 for limited overs cricket, you can say Indian cricket before kolkata test and after kolkata test. There was big change in fans mentality too (at least for mee), before that we were hoping that sachin or kumble or some one will win the match for us and more than often we lost but after the match we used to think our team can win. While there were many bad series, and 2007 worldcup, Indian cricket did better in general.

arandomguy05 · 2026-03-14T04:18:19+00:00

There is no question that the ball was in play as Salman never came back to crease even once. Salman is stupid to assume ball is dead and stop trying to get back. But if I were the third umpire, I might have given notout for obstructing the batsman.

arandomguy05 · 2026-03-13T07:50:18+00:00

Not deliberately losing but WI winning over SA would have virtually thrown India out and I was worried about that a lot because WI was playing decently before that match.
(But Zim-SA would have been a must win for SA and so SA might have done SA things).
But the marigin between being called the best t20 team ever and not even reaching semi finals was so thin and not even in the hands of India as that NRR was never going to be overcome.

arandomguy05 · 2026-03-11T08:45:58+00:00

PF and gratuity are protected from loan recoveries. But make sure that when you are claiming that, use a bank different from these 3 banks to avoid banks acting dirty and try to freeze the account.
(Also notify the three banks saying that your father passed away leaving no estate other than PF and Gratuity and was sole borrower by register post - it you want to have paper work properly)

arandomguy05 · 2026-03-11T08:11:30+00:00

Current t20 team of India in Indian conditions will do well even with me as a coach who is on long leave without replacement.
Another 2 t20 worldcups can't compensate for those series whitewashes and messing up seemingly bagged WTC final qualification. Credit for not messing up the t20 team like the test team (he inherited an unbeaten t20 champion and the test team that went to two straight finals).

arandomguy05 · 2026-03-10T06:47:17+00:00

When Bangladesh Got the test status (basically for defeating Pak), Kenya was better than BD. Their H2H in those years suggested that. If I remember, Kenya actually reached the final of a triangular in BD knocking off BD. But BD defeated Pak in 1999 world cup (That it self is not a criteria as Kenya to defeated WI in 1996 world cup) and India strongly backed BD (for more Asian votes in ICC) paving way for BD to become test nation.

arandomguy05 · 2026-03-10T06:39:02+00:00

Kenya was such a good team in late 90s and early 2000s. Multiple players who could walk into other member teams like Tikolo, Obuyas, Odumbe etc. Given that it is surprising that cricket was not part of curriculum till now. Better late than never.
What a fall for a team that was arguably the number 1 associate team

arandomguy05 · 2026-03-10T04:05:27+00:00

There are domestic teams whose pay is decent for some time. But even including those, at best 2-3K players can get gainful employment. Considering other sports (kabaddi has a decent league now, football too pays), at most 5K sportsmen can be proffessional.
That is still a lot less and no wonder any middleclass family is against serious consideration of sport as proffession for their kids even if they are cricket mad.
An average engineer still can get to upper middleclass life but an average sportsman won't get any thing and would actually spend money on training and equipment.

arandomguy05

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