Achieving Financial Independence: A Reader’s Journey to FIRE by Dec 2025

Published on / By M. Pattabiraman Twitter: @pattufreefincal

Published: April 24, 2025 at 6:00 am

Last Updated on May 6, 2025 at 10:53 am

First, I would like to thank you for sharing your views and guidance with all those who want to achieve a peaceful retirement and financial goals.
I have been reading your articles since 2018, especially when you gave an alert on Franklin Templeton Ultra short-duration fund, where you highlighted the risks involved and its NAV fluctuations. It was an eye-opener for me as I had invested in it, thinking it was low risk, and a prominent mutual fund investment platform in Chennai also suggested it.
So, before Franklin announced the closure of all its debt funds (short-term, low-duration, etc.) in 2020, I redeemed my amount from this fund based on your analysis. Unfortunately, I didn’t do the same for my other Franklin investment in another debt fund—a duration fund. Anyways, Thanks once again!
About this series: I am grateful to readers for sharing intimate details about their financial lives for the benefit of readers. Some of the previous editions are linked at the bottom of this article. You can also access the full reader story archive.

Opinions published in reader stories need not represent the views of freefincal or its editors. We must appreciate multiple solutions to the money management puzzle and empathise with diverse views. Articles are typically not checked for grammar unless it is necessary to convey the right meaning and preserve the tone and emotions of the writers.

If you would like to contribute to the DIY community in this manner, send your audits to freefincal AT Gmail dot com. If you wish, you can publish them anonymously.

Please note: We welcome such articles from young earners who have just started investing. See, for example, this piece by a 29-year-old: How I track financial goals without worrying about returns. We also have a “mutual fund success stories” series. See, for example, how mutual funds helped me achieve financial independence. Now, back to the reader.

During Corona, when the market crashed, I increased my equity investment from a mere 10% to 45% until 2024 (now reduced to 38% on April 25). From then on, I have maintained this overall equity percentage in my combined portfolio. Thanks to a few years of market growth, I think I will achieve FIRE by Dec 2025, but I see new expenses propping up.

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I am in the same age group as Pattu sir (45 to 50). I have lived in Bengaluru for the last 20 years, working in the software industry in private employment. I haven’t stayed abroad for any longer duration, and all my savings are from my and my wife’s Indian salary. She stopped working in 2024. I have only one son (a teenager) to provide higher education.
I’m observing that my electronic and lifestyle expenses are high, such as TV, Fridge, Inverter, car (< 10 lacs ), etc. All these were a luxury for previous generations; these are a must for my generation and future ones. So, I have to create a goal only to account for this, as we have to replace it every 3 to 8 years due to wear and tear.
* In total, I have 12 financial goals –
Usual ones:
i) Retirement – As my industry is shaky due to the emergence of AI & massive layoffs, it is uncertain for me. So, I have considered retirement from work by next year as my goal and have reached the target. 45% equity, 55% debt
ii) Son’s higher education – 4 years away – mostly balanced advantage fund and debt fund, 60% equity
iii) Property corpus (my flat, 18 years old) – considered next year as a goal, it has got my 50% equity and 50% debt
iv) Son’s marriage (> 10 years away) – only equity, can be repurposed for my son’s career funding
v) Travel – mostly in equity savings fund
vi) emergency corpus – mostly in an arbitrage fund

Based on my circumstances, I have created these goals also – which are predominantly in debt funds + equity savings

vii) & viii) Health corpus – separately for my parents and myself,
ix) Electronics (Smart phone, Smart TV, fridge, washing machine, etc.) – these have been become a necessity now, and recurring
x) Lifestyle – car
xi) Insurance premiums (health, life, car,) for 20 years recurring payment – these come to more than 1Lac per year and
For above 11 goals, I have achieved the financial goals target what I had set. Probably my assumption would have been conservative in arriving at that numbers (especially retirement monthly expenses ~60K per month & higher education)
xii) As an experiment folio, I invest in a wealth goal (which is purely equity with 10-year goal) in midcap150 index fund of any excess amount if I have without any worry or obligation. This is done after reaching all above goals, as I had started late in equity from 2016 onwards and didn’t much time/money left to shift to a higher percentage in equity. I had to balance risk and investment amount.
Since employment is not guaranteed in private sector, I had to create separate goals in 2019 and allocate some of my existing debt funds to that goal. In that way, I had to do the reverse of what you have been saying – first identify financial goals, and then select the fund matching that goal. I retrofit my debt funds matching the goals, so it won’t be perfect I would say.
* I’m seeing that the next generation is not worried about expenses. They take this lifestyle for granted. In that way, I feel FIRE goal is not reached for anyone as new expenses are going high as your son/daughter is growing up
* I didn’t have a proper medical insurance with a higher cover. Although I took a base cover from Manipal Cigna for 5Lacs during corona period, this I need to increase. But there are some complications in taking it up due to PED for my wife. Now, I am thinking to take a separate higher cover only for my son and myself and use the base cover only for my wife.
* My combined mutual investments for all my goals are spread into a) 18 different Equity investments – predominantly in hybrid equity and balanced advantage funds and in b) 9 different debt funds. I had high number of debt funds initially (<2 Lacs limit in each fund), after I had quit stock investing in 2008 crash, which I had moved them to equity since 2018. In 2024, I had consolidated few of equity funds also. This I am planning to reduce further as we are approaching my goals and need to redeem them. So, I think I’m ok here.
My mutual funds investment is 73%, EPF/PPF – 21%, Fixed income deposits – 3.5% and direct stocks – 2.5%
I don’t have any SIPs running now as I have stopped all in Dec 2024 and invest to maintain equity % to balance my monthly EPF. Because I had achieved my financial goals and I wanted to consolidate before investing further
* I’m trying to resist adding any new funds (momentum, alpha, etc.) and try to consolidate any future investments in the existing funds alone. I keep reading your articles to avoid this urge!
* I have taken 2 separate Life covers (term insurance) for myself – Canara HSBC and LIC for 1Cr each. and my wife separately for 50Lac from TATA AIA.
* Improvements in my investment folio:
–  I have one ULIP running taken in 2021, which will stop in 2026
– I will try to minimise the amount of funds needed. At the same time, I found that I could not redeem my money when the Franklin fiasco happened, and 2 of my funds (Franklin short term and low duration, each had < 2 Lac investment) were frozen from withdrawal. So, for any mutual fund house, they didn’t want to withdraw large amounts of money from them. Compared to that amount, after achieving FIRE, I have huge investments in each fund house, ranging from 5 lac to 40 Lac. So that haunts me when I want to consolidate my folio
– I have invested in the stock market directly after 2020 (when the market crashed during the coronavirus pandemic). I re-entered it when I lost money during the 2008 bull run and quit. I’m still positive in April 2025 (8% XIRR), but it carries unnecessary risk after the recent crash in many stocks in the Jan-Mar ’25 period.
– I have start to switch money from equity to debt as I approach my goals, but I have already have high % in debt folio
– I have started to increase my emergency fund corpus (from 12 months) to 36 months, due to uncertain environment in software industry.
– Medical insurance is costly & difficult to get it later, so it’s better someone in 35-40 range to take a min base cover
– I need to educate my wife on these investments.

Reader stories published earlier:

As regular readers may know, we publish a personal financial audit each December – this is the 2023 edition: Portfolio Audit 2023: The Annual Review of My Goal-Based Investments. We asked regular readers to share how they review their investments and track financial goals.

These published audits have had a compounding effect on readers. If you would like to contribute to the DIY community in this manner, send your audits to freefincal AT Gmail. You can also publish them anonymously.