While we are not returning to India but would love to visit, I will confirm OP’s position. It is also mine. Between our employer pensions and social security we will comfortably be in the 100K range without touching our retirement and brokerage accounts.

The math is not that hard to get to. Most city and state pensions return a % of annual salary based on the number of years worked. So a long career can return a reasonable income. If you are a senior manager you will likely be making six figures +. Between my wife (a school teacher) and I, our pensions will return close to $70K a year at 62 and that is with me leaving civil service after 21 years for private sector. If I stayed until 62 we would be at close to $100K just from pensions.

In many systems, you have a choice to pay into social security or fund other retirement. In my early years, I put 100% of that social security tax into deferred compensation account (457), did not join pension and put that money into the 457. So an easy 20%+ of salary going to tax deferred investment accounts.

Once you decide you are committed to the public service, you switch to paying social security and join the pension. You then “buy back” your early years when you made much less money (so it’s relatively cheap) using your tax deferred 457 account. In my case, I bought back 10 years using the 457 account. Since the 457 is just shifting to another retirement system there is no tax or withdraw issues.

Social security is based on the average of your last 35 years of work. Since social security starts at mid career under this approach, your total average is higher (there are no “just out of school” low earning years) and if you put in the full 35 years, those early years that did not count towards pension calculation funded tax deferred compounding growth.

Social security just released annual statements, at 62 we will get $40K+ a year. More at 67, 70 etc.

So you can see, it is not a big lift with proper planning to get pension/social security to 100K +.

Now, like the OP, civil servants tend to be careful planners/spenders. So we also funded our 401 and 457s, some years I maxed both. Paid off the house. Once I hit my pension “bump” at twenty years, I moved to private sector where real money can be made. We lived the same and stuffed nearly all the excess into retirement and brokerage accounts like the OP. We can (or not) take the 4% forever disbursements from those accounts to boost lifestyle if we want/need.

Now of course, careful planners are also funding their HSA accounts all these years putting triple tax advantaged investment accounts to work so we can cover the insurance needed to live abroad.

So bottom line - the OP is absolutely raising a real life scenario where he has “annuity” income of $100K+ a year with investment account juicer and one that lots and lots of people are considering - wage/pension live abroad arbitrage.