High costs of Living. Anyone feeling the pressure?

Hi Grapeviners, I don’t think I’m a bad person but I do consider myself superior to some friends from same background who I earn a lot more than. Do you also feel this superiority, or are you indifferent?

I am a fresher earning roughly 1 cr post tax. I started investing a little late but I am now consistent with my SIPs which I started at the age of 8 by saving 500 a month of my school bus fare and pooling a ride in my father's car with a step up of 10% every year. There was no driver so that we could save some money and put it in a fixed deposit every year. I stay at my home so that I can save some rent. I don't get the privacy that a fresher looks for because my family is mostly out of the country and I had to get 24 hrs house help. But I am okay with it. Nobody gets everything. Now I am paying around 48 lacs as income tax. What am I doing wrong and how to spend money wisely. And how can I make sure that I get paid according to the market standards and not get exploited by the system. PS: is buying a new iphone 15 worth it as gold plated iphone 15 pro max is very costly.

Basically want to know how you guys strategise and manage spending. Few questions to make this easier 1. Are you single/married? 1.5 Do you have impulsive spending issues? 2. What’s the spending + investment + necessities + savings split? 3. Are y’all targeting “FIRE” or just winging it? Been making this much for a while now, married too, zero generational wealth. Somehow we’ve got very bad financial discipline and manage to save only under a lakh per month in Bangalore. Feel we should be doing better :/

Been in Bangalore for 6+ years and love everything the city has given me. This city ( more like people here) taught me what software engineering and product sense is, how to entrepreneurs function, whats a 100X coder like. Made many memories, weekend trips to nearby places were so nice. Dated, moved in and then married my girlfriend, adopted a dog. So Bangalore has given me a lot. But in hindsight it takes a way a lot also - 1. Everybody is in constant work mode, even in parties its just about who is doing what 2. Everybody is in loot mode here - i have seen locals pay less for veggies/fruits in front of me, then the veggies apparently have lead in them 3. Rents/builders/brokers/roads - we all know whats up with them Though it was nice initially, now i feel like even after earning so much ( ctc > 1cr) if i just spend it all here ( monthly expenses ~2lacs same is with all my married friends), what is the point even. Hence making a move to slow life now, where you get a house with garden for 25k and fresh veggies and you can actually develop some relationship with community. This urge to always outperform in career is not really needed, we all eventually work towards savings and hence if i earn less but spend even lesser, its more or less the same thing for me. But i dont want to live in a matchbox, travel 1 hour to meet a friend, eat a roti for 150bucks and be in constant anxiety about climbing the ladder. All i want is to focus on health, and sit in a garden in some sunshine with my wife and my dog and enjoy a cup of tea. So yes, I AM DONE. Moving to a tier 2 ( more like tier 2.5 town ) Happy to answer any questions if anybody has any.

Back in 2013 .. i thought if I will be able to make 50k a month thats more than enough to sustain a family of 4 back in the day.. But now I see folks even earning 1lpm and struggling with finances .. they don't own a house.. Have we all started to live the false rich life ? I don't think making 2LPM or even over that... and living just on that makes you rich .. I do think in order to be rich one should look at his bank balance.. investments and assets which are generating regular income for him/her ... What do you guys think??

So many folks are speaking out (or bragging who knows🤷) about their monthly/yearly paychecks. Just curious, for all single folks who are receiving a hefty wad of cash every month: 1. what do your general expenses look like? 2. what do you like to spend it on the most? Here's my monthly breakdown(jab hum employed hua karte the🥲): rent(coliving PG)- 12k transport- avg. 1.5k food- avg 7k gym & stuff- 7k parties- 5k misc- 2k TOTAL- 34.5k out of 80k in-hand Apart from the general expenses, once in a while, I'll indulge in buying a good perfume of around 5-6k. The 2 most costly purchases I made were a new laptop(asus vivobook)- 50k & prs electric guitar & accessories- 82k What about you?

1. Real estate (invested value) 2. Liquid cash 3. Other Investments (invested value) The wealth should not be inherited. I'm 30. No house, 10L in cash and 5L in mutual funds. No inherited weath.

I come from a poor background, but somehow I worked extremely hard and now I earn decently well (above 60 LPA cash). My problem is- I don’t mind spending on others. In fact I don’t even think twice before taking my card out and buying things for family or friends. I have also lent money to multiple people when they are in need of help (total close to about 2-3 lakhs). But it doesn’t bother me even a bit. I don’t even care about whether I’ll get it back or not. But, when it comes to me, I find myself struggling so much and questioning my decision to buy things even as cheap as INR 200-300. And most of the times I find myself going extra miles to save a few bucks. In fact, I also recently downgraded from a bigger to smaller apartment, because I have been doing so much maths around saving 7-8K a month. Maybe there is some part of me that feels that I don’t deserve any of this. Anyone has any idea how to fix this?

I am a middle class boy. Working in Banglore. I am earning 1.5L every month from last 3 yrs. But still I don't have a penny saved. I have to give all my money to my parents. They have huge debts and to avoid extra expenses i am working from home. It is killing my social skill but i am prioritising money over my social skills. I see my friend going to trips all around the world and while me scrolling through Instagram all the time looking at their photos. Still using my college phone and not upgraded to i phone, Uninstalled all shopping apps for unnecessary shopping are some steps I took to save extra money. The point is sometimes i feel proud to help my family to come out of this situation, but in the other hand i am losing the most important time of my life. I really feel this time i pushing me back by 5 yrs and really don't know what to do...