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Pattu Sir has been a huge inspiration and learning model for many of us. Thank you for your work for the DIY community. And also, many thanks for this opportunity.
My FIRE Journey & Dec 2025 Portfolio Snapshot
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Background
- Name: DM
- Age: 33
- City: Mumbai
- Family: Wife and mother (second mother); planning for one child in the future
- Closest extended family: elder sister, brother-in-law, and nephew
- Current dependents: wife and mother (future child planned)
Basics covered –
- Term Insurance myself 1.5 Cr
- Wife 1 Cr
- Emergency Fund – 6 months (Planning for 12 months)
- Health Insurance – 25 lakhs CARE Advantage and 1 Cr HDFC Optima Secure (becomes 3x in 3 yrs). Both are family floater plans
FIRE Number
- Primary FIRE benchmark: 25× annual expenses
- Equivalent to ~300× monthly expenses
- Personally targeting ~33× as a conservative buffer
- Child education, higher studies, and other long-term goals are planned separately, not mixed with the core FIRE corpus
How I Started My FIRE Journey
I started working in 2015 at age 23, immediately after graduation, and began investing from my first salary (~₹25,000/month).
My initial investments were through regular mutual fund plans, was (₹6000-8000/month), guided by a trusted mutual fund distributor who helped me understand the foundations of investing — goal-based planning, asset allocation, discipline, and long-term thinking. I still value and maintain that relationship.
Over time, curiosity turned into deep interest. I consumed podcasts, books, articles, and research obsessively, to the point where investing became a big part of my life. With experience, I’ve realised that while knowledge is essential, detachment is equally important — too much involvement often leads to unnecessary decisions.
My early portfolio was simple but diversified, with a mix of large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap funds. Investments increased gradually through consistent SIPs rather than big one-time bets. Post-2020, after building sufficient understanding, I shifted largely to direct plans and index funds.
Professionally, I work in a teaching / test-prep role — a stable but slow-growing field with no extraordinary income spikes. There were years of salary stagnation and even cuts, especially around COVID. Despite this, income growth in recent years has been uneven but meaningful:
- 2022 → 2023: ~30%+ increase
- 2023 → 2024: ~35–40% increase
- 2024 → 2025: ~25% increase
Across the last four years of marriage (since Aug 2021), I’ve managed an average savings rate of ~35-40%, driven more by discipline than high income.
A meaningful part of my financial position today is also shaped by unfortunate personal losses. I lost my mother in 2016 and my father during the second COVID wave in 2021, just before my marriage. My wife has also lost both her parents. Because there are only two of us, some assets eventually came to us through inheritance — not due to extraordinary wealth, but due to the absence of dependents.
I believe it’s important to acknowledge this honestly. My current ~25x position in my early 30s is a result of early investing discipline, steady saving, parental support, and circumstances, not financial genius.
On income growth: The double-digit percentage growth is largely due to starting from a relatively modest base. Working in a slow-growth industry allowed for higher percentage appraisals (around 20–25%) during my early years.
Beyond my salary, I have focused on building a direct blue-chip stock portfolio for dividends. However, because dividends are taxed at slab rates in India, I pivoted my incremental investments in 2025 toward REITs and InvITs to build a more efficient passive income stream. Currently, this passive income covers about one month of post-tax expenses. The long-term goal is for these distributions to cover all our monthly expenses in 10–15 years. Additionally, I recently started writing for FynPrint, which provides a small side income.
It is important to note that income is not linear. We currently receive rent from one property, but since it was purchased for self-use, that income will eventually stop. Furthermore, my wife is on medical leave and we are planning for a child, so our household income may dip while expenses rise. This is why I am aggressively building interest, bond, and distribution-based streams now—to ensure our portfolio remains resilient during these phases.
How Far I’m from FIRE
- Without factoring child education and other future goals, I am technically FI at ~25× today
- Personally targeting ~33×+ before calling it fully comfortable
- FIRE for me is about optionality, safety, and simplicity, not quitting work at the earliest possible moment
Current Portfolio Snapshot (Dec 2025)
Overall Portfolio XIRR: ~16.8%
Asset Allocation
- Direct Stocks (India): ~27–28% | XIRR ~12.6%
- Indian Equity Mutual Funds: ~17% | XIRR ~15%
- Short-term Debt Funds: ~11% | XIRR ~7%
- International Equity (ETFs + MFs): ~10% | XIRR ~22%
- REITs & InvITs: ~4.5% | XIRR ~24%
- Gold: ~15%
- ~12% physical
- ~3% via ETFs (to be increased gradually)
- Capital Gain Bonds: ~15%
- From house sale proceeds
- Maturity in 2028, to be reinvested largely into debt funds
Portfolio Philosophy
- No leverage
- No F&O or speculative trading
- Built for survivability first, returns second
Lessons Learnt & Suggestions
Key Lessons
- Investing in yourself (skills & health) has the highest ROI
- Asset allocation matters more than fund selection
- Simplicity and patience beat constant optimisation
Top Suggestions for Someone Starting Today
- Invest in skills and income growth first — savings compound only if income grows
- Respect asset allocation — don’t go all-in on equity
- Separate insurance from investments
- Adequate health insurance, term life cover, emergency fund
- Avoid traditional endowment / ULIP-style products
Life After FIRE
- Helping people simplify and understand their finances
- Reading more books
- Playing badminton regularly
- Exploring and experimenting with different kinds of coffee
- Living a low-stress, low-noise, low-envy life
One Piece of Advice to My 18-Year-Old Self
Build skills early, invest early, and never compare your journey with others.
Reader stories published earlier:
As regular readers may know, we publish a personal financial audit each December – this is the 2024 edition: Portfolio Audit 2024: The Annual Review of My Goal-Based Investments. We asked regular readers to share how they review their investments and track financial goals.
- First audit: How Suhas tracks his MF investments and reviews financial goals.
- Second audit: How Avadhoot Joshi evaluates his investment portfolio.
- Third audit: How a single mom is on track to financial freedom
- Fourth audit: How Gowtham started goal-based investing & took control of his money
- Fifth audit: Why my financial independence & early retirement plans were postponed by four years
- Sixth audit: How Abhisek funded his marriage & is on track to financial freedom.
- Seventh audit: How Rohit’s early struggles defined his investment journey
- Eighth audit: Why my investments are still on track despite job loss and lower income.
- Ninth audit: How a retirement planning calculation scared me to take action
- Tenth audit: I made several investment mistakes but have turned my life around.
- Eleventh audit: My net worth doubled in the last financial year, thanks to patient investing!
- Update: How I achieved investing nirvana.
- Twelfth audit: My financial journey: from novice to goal-based investor.
- Thirteenth audit: My journey: from a negative net worth to goal-based investing.
- Fourteenth audit: From Fixed Deposits to Goal-based investing in MFs.
- Fifteenth audit: My 10-year financial journey – mistakes made and lessons learnt.
- Sixteenth audit (part 1): How I achieved financial independence without mutual funds or stocks.
- Sixteenth audit (part 2): Lessons from my financial independence journey and future investment plans.
- Seventeenth audit: How I plan to achieve financial independence and move to my native place
- Eighteenth audit: I used the current bull run to reduce my mutual funds from 14 to 4!
- Nineteenth audit: How a conservative investor created his financial plan
- Twentieth audit: I plan to achieve financial independence by 46; this is my master plan
- Twenty-first audit: I have made many investment mistakes but am on course to financial independence by 45.
- Twenty-second audit: I felt worthless six years ago but have achieved financial stability today
- Twenty-third audit: My financial journey was directionless until age 40: this is how I made up for lost time
- Twenty-fourth audit: Why I increased equity MF investments by 275% and reduced PPF contributions.
- Twenty-fifth audit: How I track financial goals without worrying about returns
- Twenty-sixth audit: I am 24 and started investing 1Y ago, but what am I investing for?
- Twenty-seventh audit: How we plan to achieve a retirement corpus 50 times our annual expenses.
- Twenty-eighth audit: I thought equity investing was a gamble, but now I aim to hold 60% equity for retirement
- Twenty-ninth audit: My journey: From 5 lakhs in debt to building a corpus worth six years in retirement
- Thirtieth audit: My investment journey: From random purchases to a goal-based portfolio
- Thirty-first audit: My investment journey: from product-driven to process-driven
- Thirty-second audit: How a young couple is trying to balance travelling and investing
- Thirty-third audit: My journey: From Rs. 30 bank balance to financial independence
- Thirty-fourth audit: Our journey: From scratch to a net worth of 18 times annual expenses.
- Thirty-fifth audit: From a net worth of Rs. 6000 to auto-pilot goal-based investing
- Thirty-sixth audit: How I retired from corporate bondage at 46, two years ago!
- Thirty-seventh audit: How I learnt to keep it simple and build a net worth 19 times my annual expenses
- Thirty-eighth audit: How Abhineeth plans to achieve financial independence and build a house.
- Thirty-ninth audit: How Sahil plans to achieve financial independence by efficient tracking
- Fortieth audit: My Journey to a Ten Crore Portfolio
- Forty-first audit: Burdened with debt for several years, I am now aggressively investing in equity
- Forty-second audit: From Engineer to Librarian after Financial Independence and Early Retirement (FIRE)
- Forty-third audit: I lost six months’ income in F&O and ditched it for systematic investing
- Forty-fourth audit: My retirement plan to handle the harsh realities of the IT industry
- Forty-fifth audit: My investment journey: mistakes, 10 years of MF investing and recovery
- Forty-sixth audit: My MF portfolio is worth six crores despite multiple mistakes
- Forty-seventh audit: Saving, Investing, and Running Marathons: My 25-year Journey to Financial Independence
- Forty-eighth audit: Never Too Late to Start: How I Became Financially Savvy at 40
- Forty-ninth audit: My Investment Journey to a net worth 29 times my annual expenses
- Fiftieth audit: How I audit my portfolio without tracking returns
- Fifty-first audit: Financial Lessons Learned During and After a PhD
- Fifty-second audit: Investment & Financial journey of a 23 year old
- Fifty-third audit: The system I use to draw income and spend after retirement securely
- Fifty-fourth audit: From Start-Up Employee to Millionaire: A Success Story of Resilience and Smart Investing
- Fifty-fifth audit: 25-Year-Old Software Engineer’s Investment Journey: From Stocks to Mutual Funds and Beyond
- Fifty-sixth audit: Crossing the Million Mark: Our Journey to the First Crore
- Fifty-seventh audit: Navigating Market Volatility: How an IT Professional Transformed His Investment Approach for Retirement
- Fifty-eighth audit: How Sahil achieved a 10X retirement corpus by efficient portfolio tracking
- Fifty-ninth audit: How I achieved financial freedom by 45 without onsite assignments or ESOPs
- Sixtieth audit: Building Wealth on a Government Salary: Lessons Learned
- Sixty-first audit: Minimalism, Index Funds, and Staying Calm: My Investing Journey at 28
- Sixty-second audit: Building Wealth and Breaking Barriers: How Swati Took Control of Her Financial Future
- Sixty-third audit: My financial journey: How I missed the Compounding Bus!
- Sixty-fourth audit: My MF investment journey: From thematic funds to a 3-fund portfolio
- Sixty-fifth audit: From Debt to ₹1 Crore Liquid Net Worth: My Journey of Financial Awareness.
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.
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Dr M. Pattabiraman (PhD) is the founder, managing editor and primary author of freefincal. He is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has over 13 years of experience publishing news analysis, research and financial product development. Connect with him via Twitter(X), LinkedIn, or YouTube. Pattabiraman has co-authored three print books: (1) You can be rich too with goal-based investing (CNBC TV18) for DIY investors. (2) Gamechanger for young earners. (3) Chinchu Gets a Superpower! for kids. He has also written seven other free e-books on various money management topics. He is a patron and co-founder of “Fee-only India,” an organisation promoting unbiased, commission-free, AUM-independent investment advice.Our flagship course! Learn to manage your portfolio like a pro to achieve your goals regardless of market conditions! ⇐ More than 3,500 investors and advisors are part of our exclusive community! Get clarity on how to plan for your goals and achieve the necessary corpus no matter the market condition!! Watch the first lecture for free! One-time payment! No recurring fees! Life-long access to videos! Reduce fear, uncertainty and doubt while investing! Learn how to plan for your goals before and after retirement with confidence.
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