A 44-year-old techie has shared how he walked away from his job after building a ₹6.5 crore investment portfolio, saying that he didn’t retire from his profession but from years of burnout.
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“I’m 44, married, with an 11-year-old son. I completed both my UG and PG engineering from a Tier 1 college and spent almost my entire career in startups. There were even months when I worked without a salary because I believed in the company,” he wrote, adding that his wife has always been a homemaker, making him the family’s sole earning member.
The techie said that he never planned to pursue Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) until his last job pushed him to rethink his priorities. He said that he joined a startup through a referral, but the workplace turned out to be highly toxic. “The culture was toxic, politics was everywhere, and I was working 14-hour days, six days a week. My sleep collapsed. I ended up with borderline diabetes, high blood pressure, and a huge belly,” he shared.
“In 2023, I finally stopped and looked at both my health and finances,” he added.
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The techie admitted that he wasn’t always serious about financial planning, but one decision made a huge difference. He said that he began investing aggressively through SIPs in 2018 after consulting a financial advisor. A year later, he said that his startup where he worked was acquired and his ESOP payout amounted to around ₹1.4 crore.
He shared that instead of spending money, he stayed invested. Then, by April 2026, he said that his investment portfolio had grown to ₹6.5 crore, with around 60% invested in equities and the remaining 40% in debt funds, liquid investments and provident fund savings. He also revealed that his family’s annual expenses are around ₹14 lakh and that they own a home in a Tier 1 city.
“The math was simple. I had enough. So I quit. Three months later, I don’t miss work,” he wrote.
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The techie said that he has lost weight, his sleep is improving, and his blood pressure is also in control. He shared that he now spends his time meditating, exercising, being with his family, researching LLMs and contributing to open-source projects.
“I didn’t retire from engineering. I retired from burnout,” he said.
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The OP also shared a few lessons from his experience.
He advised young professionals to decide their FIRE target early, saying he wished he had done so at the beginning of his career. He also regretted never negotiating his salary, believing that decision may have cost him crores over 2 decades.
The techie said avoiding lifestyle inflation made it easier to invest consistently, while owning a home reduced the amount of money he needed to retire. He also acknowledged that he was fortunate because both sets of grandparents plan to fund his son’s higher education, reducing a major future expense.
“I may work again if I find something meaningful. or choose not to. Right now, I’m finding more meaning in spending my time on my own terms- with my family, learning, building, and contributing to open source,” the techie concluded.
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