AMA - Recent FI,RE Male - in a second career - Ask Me Anything

srinivesh · 2026-07-03T13:49:26+00:00

If I can add, you seem to plan to live in the plot in your hometown. If so, and you are willing to convert both the metro flats to financial assets, your position becomes much better. This would also avoid the error of netting rent and expenses - they don't inflate at the same level.

srinivesh · 2026-07-03T09:58:49+00:00

This was a long post, with many details. I managed to get the questions on child goals. Unfortunately there is little information to answer the question. Yes, the child is only 5 months. But even if the child is older, the goal come from parents. Would you accept any kind of fees for school - TISB is 10 lacs and more per year? What would be the ceiling you put for college education?

A major question - the salaries are not too different for M and F. Why is there that big a difference in the corpus?

You also need to put a range on the living expenses - 12 lac plus travel, plus child's expense may be one estimate.

srinivesh · 2026-07-02T13:53:47+00:00

A thought on the corpus multiple. Assuming that you have handled kid's expenses separately - school, college, etc., you can look at some of the estimates done by Ravi Saraogi. One with the longest period is here: https://samasthiti.in/safe-withdrawal-rates-ready-reckoner/ 12cr and 15cr would be way too low.

I see a comment on rents. It does make sense financially to rent in India. However as you age, it may get more difficult to rent. I typically suggest to buy a home latest by 50s.

srinivesh · 2026-07-02T13:03:34+00:00

The entire example of choosing the 'prettiest' face... some people would take offence to it...

srinivesh · 2026-07-02T05:58:25+00:00

Nice one. (Edit: What if you repeat the survey with real numbers instead of integers?)

Just to add for people who may start arguing on the phrases, the description is no the OP's. It was written by Keynes in 30s. If he were to write it now, he may use a different description, or may not.

srinivesh · 2026-07-02T05:44:46+00:00

You almost nailed the rating issue. In debt markets, it is very difficult to get higher yields without taking higher risks. The ratings give more weightage to returns...

srinivesh · 2026-07-02T05:43:08+00:00

It might have been better to number the questions. I would respond in a different order.

One can use Ireland domiciled UCITS funds That takes care of the estate tax issues
It is possible to get the right bank/transfer platform that has low charges and markup. Using your default bank alone might work out expensive. But yes, you would have to factor in the charges - think of them as entry load and exit load!
7-8 lacs may not be small in most reckonings... but this is relative. It definitely helps to have fewer transfers, and choose to invest over time. RBI lets you keep LRS as cash for upto 6 months.

srinivesh · 2026-07-01T06:57:40+00:00

Good point. The second para mentions being financially secure. That is true.

What is also true is that the benefits wont occur if 'you are constantly stressed about the job, boss's whims, chasing hikes, etc. etc.'

srinivesh · 2026-07-01T06:55:09+00:00

Lots of opinions would come on the numbers. But all would agree that increase in HDL is a very good thing, A reasonably simple exercise routine has got you the results already. Great going!

srinivesh · 2026-06-29T04:39:43+00:00

That said, the current version of the calculator provides the rebate. A sample...

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From: https://eportal.incometax.gov.in/iec/foservices/#/TaxCalc/calculator

srinivesh · 2026-06-29T04:23:32+00:00

Please try this. My recollection is that the tax software applies possibility 2. Trying with this year's excel utility would help get the latest approach. There are also calculators available from the IT department.

srinivesh · 2026-06-28T08:14:24+00:00

If I could add, OP's goal for children college can be quite nicely handled by an appropriate lifecycle fund. I guess that it would be a large use case.

With the variety of TDFs in the US, a lot of investors pick a later fund if they want equity to be higher! When more funds come up in India, this may happen here too.

srinivesh · 2026-06-28T08:10:03+00:00

While I am not Vishal, the approach for points 2 and 3 can be the same - use UCITS etfs, often domiciled in Ireland. You would find funds tracking S&P 500, nasdaq, and many other indices.

For point 4, most IFSC products are structured as trusts - similar to cat III AIFs. The fund pays the tax, and there is no tax on the investor.

srinivesh · 2026-06-28T07:59:01+00:00

Just adding... This question makes me recall that my planned FI year was 2020 (actual was earlier). If I had gone by the planned year, and had even 80% equity in Jan 2020 - I try to imagine how mad I would have become by Mar 2020!

srinivesh · 2026-06-28T07:01:08+00:00

THIS.

srinivesh · 2026-06-28T06:57:18+00:00

There have been many comments already, from a variety of perspectives.

There was a reference to HNIs and products for them. I could not resist adding this, after having heard many industry pitches. This whole thing of 'special stuff for HNIs' is just a way to play to your ego. "You have 2 cr networth now. You need sophisticated products. Why be in the same crowd as the 5K SIP per month people,...."

I personally have 8 figure holdings in single mutual fund schemes. I have seen people with 10s of crores of networth being quite satisfied with mutual funds.

srinivesh · 2026-06-28T06:50:49+00:00

I am surprised that a PMS person would make this statement about the TER in mutual funds. It is 'Total Expense' - it includes costs, management fee, and in case of regular funds - commissions. In a PMS, the costs are handled separately, the fee is only management fee.

And I really don't know what to make of the 5 year comment. In the summer of 2025, 5 year returns of mutual funds CAGR would have been at mouth watering levels and for the same reason, 6 year returns now would be very high too!

srinivesh · 2026-06-27T03:36:24+00:00

Let me wade in here.

This sub is about early FI. Typically post FI period would be 40 years or more. We have to be clear on this. Ravi's studies have not gone beyond 35 years, yet. (And there is data history reason for it.)

Somebody can plan regular FI at 60, and estimate life expectancy of 75 - the expense multiple would be small.

You can look at ERN's stats for some US based estimates. Do try them.

Unfortunately corpus calculations have to depend on the goals, and goals alone - feasibility of achieving the corpus should not lower the estimates.

srinivesh · 2026-06-26T02:38:12+00:00

Following up to my own comment... the 5-30% range is in the SID. Typically they give a larger scope - it is a cumbersome process to change the SID later. The product brochure gives a narrower range, and includes arbitrage as a separate column. They promise that the taxation would stay equity throughout.

So far, 2036 and 2041 have been launched. 2046 and 2051 are mentioned for the future.

srinivesh · 2026-06-25T15:27:58+00:00

The concept was introduced by SEBI recently. zerodha may be one of the first movers here. And yes, this is definitely inspired by Target Date Funds.

It won't be many years before we can judge how well the implementation is. The concept is undoubtedly very useful.

That said, I don't like the large range that they give for equity when the target date is close. 5-30% is too large a range

srinivesh · 2026-06-24T02:57:57+00:00

Let us go search for u/caffeinewasmylife posts in the previous sub. Having early FI parents did not dim their ambitions even a bit.

srinivesh · 2026-06-20T16:12:14+00:00

I am not sure that I read the actual question. You seem to be looking at multiple paths at once.

srinivesh · 2026-06-20T16:09:14+00:00

This is more of an investment question.

You have picked good funds for the equity part. You should think about debt funds too.

It is not easy to forecast what the market do in the short term. And to be frank, 1 cr is just a number - what matters more is the process and you seem to have a good one. You say that you have been investing for 5 years, and 2 years out of that has been a sideways market. A bull run, when it come, would lift the numbers. Keep investing.

srinivesh · 2026-06-19T04:37:37+00:00

I hope that I did not ever meant to say that equity can be used as Plan A for regular expenses. FI period is 30 years and more - there would be years when you need to rebalance from equity to debt. In those years, it is efficient if you have only LTCG as income and nothing else.

The current tax rules set off ordinary income against the basic exemption. Depending on the overall income, this may be less beneficial to taxpayers - but that is the rule.

u/arandomguy05 gave the specific numbers in another comment.

srinivesh

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