Part 1: Before the Shift (2013–2021)

In 2012, I left Punjab for Bangalore. I had a B.Tech, big dreams, and no job. What followed were eight long months of struggle — no callbacks, no interviews, just waiting.
I still remember the date — March 3, 2013. I had almost lost hope. A friend told me about a walk-in drive. With zero expectations, I went.
Somehow, I bagged an internship that paid ₹8,500/month.
It felt like a lifeline.
Three months later, I was offered a full-time role at ₹10,000/month. After nine months, it became ₹1.8L/year. Not much for Bangalore — but I was grateful.
I gave everything to that role.

✈️ Indonesia: Life Abroad

Two years in, something unexpected happened — an onsite opportunity in Indonesia.
I didn’t overthink. I said yes.
For the next two years, I lived in Jakarta. Worked hard. Explored. Grew up.

For the first time, I had money left over after expenses — even after spending lavishly.
I even started saving — though it just sat idle in my bank account.

Not glamorous. But quiet progress. A small sense that maybe, just maybe, life was moving forward.

🎓 A Sacrifice That Changed Everything

Then came a decision I’ll never regret.
My younger brother wanted to study abroad. My parents couldn’t afford it.
I could — just barely. So I gave him almost all of my savings.
He was off to chase his dreams.

That moment changed how I saw money.
It stopped being mine.
It became a tool — to move people forward.

🌧️ The Mumbai Years

Next came Mumbai.
Culturally, it was a shock. Financially, a disaster.
I was earning 75% less than I did abroad — but still living like I had Indonesian money.

Monsoon cabs. Fancy lunches.
I once spent half my salary hosting a birthday party for colleagues.
I was trying to belong to a version of myself that looked ‘successful’.

💸 My Stock Market Disaster

In Mumbai, everyone talked about stocks.
I opened a Zerodha account. Followed influencers and “big investors.” Started copying them. Watched news. Traded daily.

I thought I was investing.
I wasn’t. I was gambling.

I poured in everything I had.

And then came 2018.
The bear market wiped out almost all my savings.
I froze. Panicked. Prayed it would recover.

In the middle of that chaos, I found voices like D. Muthukrishnan on Twitter — calm, clear, no hype.
I kept reading.

Eventually, I stopped lying to myself.
I sold everything. Took the loss.

400+ trades. ₹2.6 lakhs gone.

But I gained something far more valuable:

Don’t lose money — even if you don’t make any.

I stayed away from the markets for a while.
But by late 2019, the itch returned — this time quieter, more cautious.

I picked a few blue-chip stocks. Held them. Minimal churn.
The Coffee Can style felt doable.
It wasn’t perfect — just peaceful. And that felt like progress.

🛫 2018: A Risk That Paid Off

By 2018, I was still unmarried and in Mumbai.
Life felt stuck — expensive, fast-paced, draining.

I needed a change. Not just a new job — a new environment.

So I took a risk: resigned without another offer, and started searching — this time with one goal: move back to Bangalore.

I still remember booking a flight to Bangalore for the final round of an interview.
I had no backup.
But it clicked. I got the offer.

40% hike. Same city where it all began.

That moment felt like a win.
A small one — but a clean, honest one.

💍 Marriage and Money

In 2019, I got married.
As expected, finances took a hit — wedding expenses, cultural expectations, and a dozen things we didn’t question at the time.

It all felt normal then. Today, we’d think twice.

But marrying the right person changed everything.
We shared the same core values: simple living, no pressure to impress, no need to perform for the world.

To put it in perspective: when we got married, our only savings were in EPF — around ₹5 lakhs. Not much, considering I had been working for six years by then.

Around this time, I also started thinking about money differently — not just in terms of savings, but in terms of freedom.
But we didn’t yet have the financial base or clarity to act on that feeling.

🔁 Burnouts, Breakdowns, and a Slow Awakening

By mid-2019, burnout hit hard. My job had turned toxic and required me to travel.
I quit — again, with no backup plan.

Something else came up quickly.
But deep down, I was drifting.

No structure. No clarity.

Somewhere in that fog, I discovered the idea of financial independence.
It wasn’t a lightning moment — more like a quiet pull.

I dug through old FIRE blogs, deep Reddit threads, quiet voices on Twitter.
The idea of freedom — not just from work, but from noise — stayed with me.

But I couldn’t act on it yet.
We had no real savings apart from EPF around 5 lakhs.

Then came 2020.
COVID.
I crashed — mentally, emotionally. Everything felt heavy.
The chaos outside — and inside — became too much.
The headlines. The WhatsApp forwards. The stories of loss. It overwhelmed me.

I quit again at the end of 2020, this time with no plan at all.

Just floating — through days, through jobs, through confusion.

But I kept reading.
FIRE became a silent companion — a thread of sanity, a sense of direction even when I felt lost.

After a 4-month break, I joined a startup.
The role was new. The money was better. Life became fast.

I finally started acting on what I had read — SIPs.
But the foundation wasn’t there.

No asset allocation. No long-term view.
Scattered efforts — driven more by guilt and fear than clarity.

The pace felt unnatural.
The hustle, the pressure — none of it resonated with how I wanted to live.
After 13 months, I quit — for the third time in four years.

Brave? Foolish? I still don’t know.

🧘 The Turning Point

Looking back, 2020 to mid-2021 was the lowest stretch of my life.
COVID. Too many jobs. Too many exits. Too little clarity.

I had gained weight. Lost routines. Sleep was broken.
My mind — dull and tired.

But maybe that discomfort was necessary.
Because somewhere in that darkness — something shifted.

A small fire lit up inside me.
And it was enough to begin again — slowly.

👣 Thanks for reading Part 1 of my FIRE story.

🧘‍♂️ No hustle. No hype. Just slow, simple progress.
📖 Read Part 2: After the Shift (2021–Now)