29-Year-Old With Rs 75 Lakh Savings, Rs 38 Lakh Salary Ask If Retirement At 35 Possible

A 29-year-old professional earning Rs 38 lakh per year has sparked debate on Reddit after asking whether he can afford to retire at 35. Asking for advice, he took to the r/IndianPersonalFinance subreddit, and revealed that he currently has Rs 75 lakh in savings. In a post titled "career switch decision", he outlined his finances, which included a Rs 38 LPA package, a monthly take-home of about Rs 2.32 lakh, plus employer contributions of Rs 27,000 to his PF and Rs 11,000 to NPS. He also mentioned he already has health insurance and a term policy in place.

The reason he's asking now is that he's been offered a $60,000 annual contract role, which is roughly Rs 56 lakh at current exchange rates, but he said it doesn't have any benefits like PF, NPS, insurance, or gratuity. He's weighing whether the higher headline pay is worth giving up the safety net.

"The reason why I'm inclined towards switching is that by all means I want to take retirement at 35," the professional wrote.

"I am married, and my spouse earns enough to take care of herself. I have term insurance and health insurance for the entire family."

"Currently have 75 Lakh in savings and 3 lakh of emergency fund, monthly expenses are max capped at 75k/month, no rent as the work is remote and I'm living in my hometown with parents."

See the post here: 

Career switch decision
by u/LegitimateAnnual8610 in IndianPersonalFinance

He asked, "Should I take up new role?" or "Is retirement at 35 possible?"

In the comment section, Reddit users pushed back with reality checks. Many pointed out that retiring at 35 means funding more than 50 years of expenses, and Rs 75 lakh won't stretch far with inflation.

Others said the $60k offer sounds better in gross terms, but losing PF, NPS, and insurance diminishes the advantage unless he invests the difference aggressively.

"Your new CTC would be around 55 LPA, significantly above the current 38 LPA. Since it's a contract role and based in India, you can show 50% revenue as expenses without having to submit any bills. That reduces tax liability significantly. Doesn't matter on PF. NPS, you can contribute 50k from your end. Retirement at 35 depends on what you want your corpus to be. Realistically, in 6 yrs, you have to get to around 3 Cr additional corpus assuming avg salary growth and expenses," one user commented.

"I work in a similar manner. You should totally go for it. You'll get the benefits of section 44ADA, and earning in US dollars is great because it will appreciate right," another user suggested.

"Let's say you live till 80, that's 45 years without income and 75k/month withdrawal at 9% inflation, plus let's assume you somehow generate 12% annual return on your investment... To last till your 80, you will need 2.5 cr of today's investment, and after 6 yrs it will be app 4.5 cr, so... Yeah take risks," a third user wrote.