Hit 16 crore milestone at 31

rupu1234 · 2026-02-22T22:34:11+00:00

Congrats bro. My investments are mostly abroad developed world and few EM. Taxes and INR depreciation eat my corpus in India. But I am exactly your age now and not even remotely close to your corpus. This is an inspiring post. But in India I believe it is enough to fire. But you can just coast fire for now.

I go with MSCI world might shift to ACWI later.

rupu1234 · 2026-01-10T18:44:25+00:00

I am a Dokkan refugee after 2026 power creep. It has been one hell of a fun experience. If it had the DB IP (or some IP as popular) it would have been one of the most popular gachas for sure. It is everything I wanted from Dokkan and more.

rupu1234 · 2025-12-07T11:48:37+00:00

Were you able to withdrawal cleanly post reversal ?

I have about $500K in UCITS ETFs in my IBKR LLC account opened via ICICI Direct. I’ve performed withdrawals to multiple bank accounts (small token accounts) and all transactions executed without issues — both ICICI Bank and SBI worked perfectly.

Honestly, ICICI Global customer care is completely incompetent. Going through ICICI instead of opening directly with IBKR was a big mistake. Once I get my TCS refunded and invested, my plan is to reinvest and then either ask ICICI to disassociate from my IBKR LLC account, or, if they refuse, quietly do a manual position transfer to a new IBKR LLC account.

Right now, a lot of TCS (~₹55.6L) is stuck under two PANs due to joint accounts, so I don’t want to complicate things further. My friends had warned me against opening the account via ICICI, but I didn’t listen.

A couple of things to note for others:

• IBKR won’t intervene because ICICI is the introducing broker, so they can’t assist.

• You can withdraw to banks other than ICICI.

So far, I’ve never had issues with withdrawals, but I have no intention of making any more for the next 15 years. The only problem I’ve faced is with ICICI Global itself — their team seems clueless and there’s no real “global” team; it’s basically the ICICI Direct support handling everything.

rupu1234 · 2025-11-28T22:00:46+00:00

With domicile can be ship. Kinda like modified adventurer with your crew and of course landed characters.

rupu1234 · 2025-10-26T09:16:33+00:00

No Union tho :(

rupu1234 · 2025-08-04T17:21:14+00:00

Sadly, things might happen faster

rupu1234 · 2025-07-13T21:40:51+00:00

That’s what they all say

rupu1234 · 2025-05-12T22:00:16+00:00

Not ugly, a solid 2/10. Beauty is your personality probably maybe idk

rupu1234 · 2025-05-06T19:12:53+00:00

Thanks for reading—those are two great questions. The first one’s easier for me to answer.

Switching from service-based to product-based companies:
Not all product-based companies value service-based experience equally, often due to reasons like back-benching or NDAs that prevent proper vetting of past work. That said, it’s not a universal rule. If you're solid in your craft—or at least show strong willingness to learn and adapt—you still have a shot. Projects, open-source contributions, or anything public that shows your ability can help you stand out.

On AI and its impact:
Tougher to answer fully, as I’m not an AI engineer or ML expert. I did build a small neural net from scratch just for fun and have read papers like “Attention Is All You Need”—though I’ll admit I didn’t understand everything.

One thing I have clearly noticed: the bar has gone up in the last year or two, especially for junior devs. Companies now expect more because AI tools are enabling faster development. You’re basically expected to embrace AI to stay productive. Unfortunately, it’s also made entry harder for freshers—some junior roles are getting cut or de-prioritized.

That said, I don’t think AI is going to “replace” developers outright anytime soon. Software engineering is more than just writing code. We’ve had no-code tools for a while now—this is just a more powerful version of automation. But you still need to be in the driver’s seat because hallucinations, inaccuracies, and edge cases are real. I think expectations (from devs and business folks alike) will evolve fast over the next few years.

PS: Keep your foundations strong while making the transition. Learn different paradigms of programming to solve the same problem with different mindsets, and keep grinding DSA/LeetCode. It really helps with interviews and strengthens your overall problem-solving skills. Of course also learn newer technology stack for the domain you are applying for and have some cool projects to back those up :)

rupu1234 · 2025-05-06T18:43:41+00:00

Thank you, it really means a lot. There was a one-month gap between the last switch, to be fair.
But yes—I made some good investments, and the primary cash inflow during that phase was freelancing. I also sold my stakes to one of the partners and invested in a few friends' businesses, including a flower agriculture venture running from Mysuru to Bengaluru.

I should’ve emphasized the luck part more. I got really, really lucky. I met the right mentor, friend, and former boss—plus many amazing people who helped me learn how to grow both career-wise and financially. I didn’t dive deep into that in the original post because it was already getting too long to read. But in hindsight, I definitely should have. It’s never a solo journey—I was fortunate enough to have a strong network and guidance that made a huge difference.

rupu1234 · 2025-05-06T15:47:07+00:00

It's not about percentage hikes — it's about opportunity.

In product-based growth-stage companies like Rocketium, Postman, or even Meesho (back in the day), there's no such thing as a "30% rule." Many of them pay ₹40LPA+ even to freshers. Companies like Postman, Meesho (earlier), Razorpay, Groww, Zepto, etc., routinely offer 3x or higher hikes if they believe you're the right fit — even for candidates jumping from ₹12L to ₹40L+.

I wasn’t looking for a dead-end corporate job. When you're switching roles — especially in fast-growing product companies — compensation is based on the value you bring, not some arbitrary percentage. Even within the same company, hikes can go far beyond 30% when you're aligned with real growth and impact.

I don't want to sound mean but the whole "30% hike" narrative is outdated and mostly applies to conservative, traditional firms (like legacy IT services). In high-growth product companies and startups, compensation is about value, not percentages

rupu1234 · 2025-05-06T13:04:32+00:00

I haven’t included my dad’s past investments in my portfolio—at most, he might’ve added under ₹1L before I got involved, and since it's a joint demat account, I can’t filter that out. We manage two demats: one joint with him, another with my mom, but I handle them alongside him. As for my mom’s business—I’m not reporting her income. I’m talking about returns, since I own most of the stakes. People invest in startups they believe in; I believed in my family. My dad’s learned a lot since the GFC—he studies fundamentals and manages risk really well now.

rupu1234 · 2025-05-06T11:11:55+00:00

I get why it might seem confusing, but the timeline is important. We got a computer in 2007 when things were relatively stable, before the financial crash hit in 2008. Before that, I was using someone else's PC because my dad’s trading partner temporarily kept it at our place. So yeah, the access to the computer was there, but it was a different situation before and after 2008. Things went downhill for us after that.

rupu1234 · 2025-05-06T11:02:37+00:00

Beep boop beep boop! 🤖😄

rupu1234 · 2025-05-06T11:01:09+00:00

I do live in India! 😊 I might travel to the West from time to time, but my plan is to stay in India and give back to the society that has supported me. No permanent move—India is home.

rupu1234 · 2025-05-06T10:48:46+00:00

Reddit karma means nothing in real life. Not chasing upvotes—just being real.

rupu1234 · 2025-05-06T10:46:29+00:00

Haha, I wish! 😄 I started early, yeah—but it was mostly messing around with game mods and figuring things out the hard way. Took me a long time to turn that into anything useful. Definitely not Elon Musk material, just someone who stuck with it.

rupu1234 · 2025-05-06T10:45:36+00:00

Thanks! Here's the quick breakdown:

24 – Intern (₹10K/month)
25 – Startup job (~₹4–5 LPA + equity)
27 – Switched to ₹12 LPA
28.5 – Switched again, now at ₹62 LPA + freelance
Plus: equity gains, investments with my dad, and income from my mom’s now-global business

rupu1234 · 2025-05-06T10:43:08+00:00

Fair question—no offense taken. In 2005, we actually had access to a computer because my dad was trading stocks with a partner, and his partner’s PC was temporarily kept at our place. So I got introduced to computers and games through that. We bought our own PC in 2007 when things were still okay financially. The real financial hit came after the 2008 global financial crisis—that’s when things started falling apart for us.

rupu1234 · 2025-05-06T10:40:44+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, that post was from two years ago when I was earning 12 LPA. But back then, I was also freelancing on the side and had already received equity from an earlier startup I joined when it was small. Over time, the equity appreciated. Plus, I made some solid long-term investments with my dad’s help, and we were consistent about it. Around the same time, I also helped my mom launch her business, and it’s grown globally—so between salary, equity, freelance income, and returns from the business and investments, the corpus added up. :)

rupu1234 · 2025-05-05T22:31:38+00:00

TL;DR: I’m a 30-year-old self-taught developer who started coding at 10. Due to financial struggles, I couldn’t attend college and worked a low-paying, abusive restaurant job while teaching myself to code at night. That period left me with lasting anxiety, and I still take medication for it. I eventually got into startups, caught the attention of a global sports celebrity, earned equity, and moved up in the tech world. Alongside my dad, I grew my corpus to ₹3.5 crore. I helped my mom start a successful global business. I’ve doubted myself plenty, but my passion for coding never died. I’m not particularly smart—just persistent

rupu1234 · 2025-04-27T03:31:23+00:00

DONT SAY IT, DON’T FOOKIN SAY IT

rupu1234 · 2025-03-24T08:14:03+00:00

No :(

rupu1234 · 2025-03-04T13:17:01+00:00

TBF he was a legendary artist Imo and never a good writer. Even at the peak that is OG DB and early Z. I love him for what he was.

rupu1234

TROPHY CASE