A33-year-old single man who said he was an IIT graduate and was employed in London, took an early retirement and moved back to Delhi. He shared his story on Reddit, listing the “reasons” behind his decision, and his post went viral after it was shared on X by San Francisco-based Debarghya Das.
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Debarghya, in fact, explained the Reddit user’s story in the caption of his post concisely. “A 33-year-old single IITian working in London moves back to ‘retire’ in Delhi after ~$1.5-2.5M in savings, or ₹12-20cr,” he said.
The six reasons why the Reddit user decided to “retire” in Delhi were illustrated by Debarghya in his caption. They are: “Being with parents, house help, cheaper, declining social life abroad, bearish on the UK economy, getting an arranged marriage in India.”
See Debarghya’s post here:
The Reddit post was also shared by Debarghya. The title of which reads, “FIREd by 33. My straightforward story to an early retirement.” In the comments section of Debarghya’s post, he explained that FIREd here, is an acronym for “Financial Independence, Retire Early — so he does not plan on doing a job.”
“33M, single. I’m unsure if this will be helpful for people but thought I’d add another data point. I’m not comfortable sharing some details e.g. net worth, but I’ll try and put it in qualitative terms still,” the IIT graduate said in his Reddit post.
Here are the six reasons explained in detail by the Reddit user who decided to move to Delhi by taking an early retirement from his London job.
CAREER
In his Reddit post, the man listed his educational qualifications and also shared details of his career graph: “I graduated from IIT Delhi in EE/CS in 2012. Worked in an investment bank as a quant for four years in Bangalore. Then I moved to London with another investment bank and worked with them for 5 years. Then, I was at Tech for approx 2 years. In total, I worked for 11 years. Mid-last year I decided to move back to India for various reasons and figured I didn’t need to do a job any more if I lived in India. So, I decided to retire from the life of employment. TC through the years: 2013 – 35L INR, 2016 – 60L INR, 2017 – 150K GBP, 2020 – 250K GBP, 2023 – 350K GBP.”
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BURN RATE
After he decided to move back to India, he made an estimate of his annual expenses that would help him “live a comfortable life in India.”
“When I was moving to India, I decided I would live with my parents for some time, as I hadn’t lived with them for the last 15 years, and don’t know when I will get an opportunity like this again. Due to living with my parents, my burn rate is a lot lower than X, it’s currently 0.25-0.5X. My biggest recurring expenses are cabs, restaurants and my gym membership. One-off expenses are flights to visit people in other parts of India and projects like a recent wardrobe upgrade,” he said.
BACK TO INDIA
In his post he said he always “hoped to return to India” in the long run. This is because he wanted to be there for his parents, live a settled life because it is “easier in India”. Also, he added that he never felt he “could feel comfortable retiring in a place like UK given how expensive it is.”
CURRENT LIFESTYLE
“The more I think about it, the more I feel that there are mostly three main priorities in life – Health, Relationships and Wealth. I’m prioritising Health and Relationships a lot more now,” he said.
PORTFOLIO
Saving was one of his main priorities, he said, adding in his Reddit post, “Interestingly, I didn’t do enough investing during most of my 20s. I especially didn’t invest in the markets for most of my 20s as I didn’t buy into the “markets go up, just dollar cost average into them” rhetoric. Working in investment banks also made it a bit difficult to invest due to conflict of interest related restrictions, so mostly ignored it. My main priority was to make as much money as possible, save as much of it as possible and not lose it.”
LONG-TERM GOALS
He also listed some of his long term goals that he would try to achieve after settling in India. They include: “Find a partner and start a family”, and “Adopt 1000 kids”.
The user also shared his story in an audio podcast, named, The Ordinary Indian Podcast. However, the Reddit post went viral after X user Debarghya Das shared this story on his account, which invited mixed reactions from X users.
As soon as the post went viral on X, it garnered nearly 5 lakh views, prompting mixed reactions from X users.
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“Does he need to do a job in India? Or can live off savings and passive income,” a user asked. “One can actually move to some remote place as well, which is 2–3 hours from the city. I believe to stay away from pollution, surrounded by nature,” another individual said.
“If health is a big concern, then the air quality in Delhi is the real elephant in the room,” another comment reads.
