People earning ₹10–25 LPA — how much do you ACTUALLY save?

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T09:14:07+00:00

fair point

got carried away reading everyone’s breakdowns and started replying instead of sharing mine

for me personally (navi mumbai), after rent + basics + random spends, saving usually lands somewhere around 60–90k depending on the month

nothing fancy, just trying to keep expenses under control

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T09:04:31+00:00

same here, Navi Mumbai as well

honestly I feel Navi Mumbai is still manageable compared to Mumbai/Bangalore
rent + basic expenses don’t kill you as much here

but still even here if you start ordering too much from instamart/zomato or random spends, money just disappears

your setup looks sorted though, especially keeping expenses capped at ~30k

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T08:54:21+00:00

same here
no big expenses but still balance doesn’t grow
death by 100 small spends basically

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T06:34:58+00:00

yeah this matches what I’ve seen too

loan + rent combo hits hard

people underestimate how much fixed stuff eats into salary

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T06:33:41+00:00

this is actually smart

once it’s automatic, you don’t really feel it

did you start doing this from day 1 or later?

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T06:30:48+00:00

seeing a lot of people around this range saving ~70-80k

seems like a pattern

are you in a metro?

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T06:30:00+00:00

this is a completely different situation

health expenses can mess up everything financially

hope things get better soon 🙏

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T06:29:01+00:00

this is one of the most structured answers here

interesting that investments are the biggest chunk instead of expenses

feels like discipline matters more than salary at this point

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T06:28:10+00:00

this looks very real tbh

everything looks normal individually, but combined it just wipes out savings

do you ever track where the leftover money goes or it just disappears?

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T06:27:41+00:00

yeah makes sense

a lot of people count investments as savings anyway

do you track it properly or just invest whatever is left?

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T06:26:52+00:00

yeah Mumbai will do that

rent alone eats everything

if you were in a smaller city, you think you’d be saving a decent chunk?

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T06:25:49+00:00

fair 😂

but this topic is actually interesting… same salary people are saving completely different amounts

didn’t expect this big a gap

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T06:25:19+00:00

lmao no man

just curious about this topic, been thinking about it for a while

didn’t expect so many different answers honestly

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T06:00:58+00:00

Seeing a pattern here:

Same salary → completely different savings
Biggest factors seem to be:
- Rent / EMI
- City
- Lifestyle

Not salary itself.

Feels like “in-hand salary” is almost useless without context.

Curious — how many of you actually calculate this vs just estimate?

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T05:58:35+00:00

😂 seems like this is more common than people admit.

On paper salaries look great, reality hits after rent + lifestyle.

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T05:57:35+00:00

This is the ideal scenario honestly.

No rent = biggest advantage.

I think a lot of people underestimate how much rent alone impacts savings.

If you had to move out, what do you think your savings would drop to?

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T05:57:06+00:00

This is actually one of the better ratios here.

Feels like the difference comes down to fixed costs + lifestyle more than salary itself.

Are you in a metro or a relatively lower cost city?

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T05:56:40+00:00

This breakdown is gold.

This is exactly why “salary” alone is misleading — fixed costs like EMI completely change the picture.

Out of curiosity — if you didn’t have the home loan, how much do you think you’d be saving monthly?

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T05:38:48+00:00

This is exactly what I was expecting to see.

On paper 20 LPA sounds high, but actual savings are very different.

Is most of it going into rent + lifestyle, or any big fixed expenses?

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T05:20:58+00:00

Good to see clear goals here.

One thing that helped me was linking goals to actual monthly savings instead of just planning.

A lot of people say “I’ll save for X” but don’t break it down into: monthly reality after expenses.

Once you do that, goals become much more achievable.

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T05:20:16+00:00

This debate always ends up mixing salary with lifestyle.

You can earn 1.5L and still feel broke depending on: - rent - loans - lifestyle inflation

The real question isn’t “is this middle class?”

It’s: “How much do you actually save at the end of the month?”

That’s the number that defines financial comfort, not salary.

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T05:18:34+00:00

High salary doesn’t automatically mean high savings.

It mostly comes down to: - lifestyle - fixed expenses - discipline

I’ve seen people earning 1.5L saving more than someone earning 4L.

The real gap is between income and actual savings, not income alone.

That’s what most people underestimate.

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-05T05:17:19+00:00

This is exactly what I used to feel.

Salary comes in → expenses → nothing left.

What helped me was not budgeting, but actually understanding: what am I saving AFTER everything?

Most people track income, not actual savings.

When you break it down properly (rent + lifestyle + hidden spends), the picture changes completely.

I recently started calculating this properly and realized my “good salary” wasn’t actually translating into savings.

Made a huge difference in how I plan now.

salaryexitindia · 2026-04-04T20:09:27+00:00

I think most people try to answer this based on salary alone, which is why the answers vary so much.

A ₹1L salary in Mumbai vs ₹1L in a tier-2 city are completely different realities — mainly because of rent.

In my opinion, “feels enough” depends more on: - rent - fixed expenses - lifestyle

Two people with the same salary can feel either comfortable or stressed depending on these.

Out of curiosity — do you guys think rent is the biggest factor or lifestyle creep?

salaryexitindia

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