Networth is 34 lacs at age 21

used AI for formatting. just raw thoughts.

not bragging, not a flex.

I hope you guys try to understand my thoughts/mindset here.

posting here coz on personal finance india channel, generally people are a little judgemental and would be like oh you make so much money and still unhappy etc. etc.

also: I have just tried to dump my thoughts and feelings here, so sorry but it doesn't really follow any proper flow. it's just hapazard raw feelings.

let me also warn that I am coming from a position where in right now I do not have a financial responsibility towards anything so I am able to do this.

I’m 21M.

I’ve realised I’m extremely frugal. Not in a “saving is good” way… but almost to a point where I struggle to spend even when I can afford to.

Background matters here — middle class family, and financially things haven’t been great for the last 5–7 years. My father’s been facing losses, there aren’t any meaningful investments, and overall there’s no strong financial base.

Because of that, I’ve developed a very conservative mindset with money.

In my head, there’s always this fear — what if I don’t make good money later? What if this current phase doesn’t last? So whatever I’m earning right now, I feel like I need to save and invest as aggressively as possible so I don’t get screwed 3–4 years down the line.

At the same time, there’s another side — I just want to be rich. Not “comfortable”, not “settled”. Proper rich. And early.

I don’t want to wait till 40. I’d rather go all in right now and try to get there by 25.

I understand compounding, but I don’t have a big starting base or generational wealth. So my logic is: build a large corpus early, then let compounding actually work.

Right now, I’m making ~4L/month (last 4–5 months, earlier it was much lower). (plus profit share which at current levels is 60k/month to be paid bi annually agreed from March.) Freelancing, working with a marketing agency in Denmark — recently became COO.

I live at home, so expenses are minimal. I save ~90–95% of what I make.

Current net worth is ~30.5L (34.5L once March payment comes in). If things continue like this, I might hit ~75–80L by end of 2026. Maybe 1cr if everything goes perfectly (feels unrealistic, but still).

I’ll turn 22 this November.

Some things that might sound weird:

I could’ve paid my college fees (~2.5L total), but didn’t. My father paid. He could afford it, even though things aren’t great.

My thinking was — why reduce my capital right now when I can grow it instead? (If things were actually bad, I would’ve paid.)

I recently bought a MacBook M3 (16/512). Cost me ~64k after GST + rewards.

I spent DAYS optimizing the cost… and even after buying it, I kept overthinking whether I should’ve spent that much.

My total lifetime income (excluding March pending) is ~32L.

Total expenses: ~1.88L.

So ~95% savings rate.

Breakdown roughly:

Laptop ~75k

Phone (after selling old) ~14k

Gifted mom a phone ~16k

Food + family stuff ~20k

Clothes ~5k

Upskilling ~13k

etc

Also, my father has loans, drinks/smokes a lot, business isn’t doing well… so there’s always this underlying fear that if something goes wrong, things could get messy quickly.

That probably adds to why I don’t feel comfortable spending.

People say “enjoy your 20s”. Spend, live life, etc.

But I feel like if I go hard for just 2–3 years — extreme saving, aggressive investing — I can give myself a massive head start. Like genuinely be way ahead of most people by 25.

At the same time, I don’t know if I’m overdoing it or thinking too extreme.

Career-wise — I was a strong student (school + college topper, gold medal in BCom Hons). I could go for an MBA, but honestly it makes zero sense financially right now.

For me, MBA cost isn’t just fees — it’s:

Fees

2 years of lost income

Lost compounding

Total impact would easily be 1cr+.

So I’m skipping that for now.

One more thing — even though I’m earning well right now and have a strong position (I handle pretty much all systems/workflows/automation in the company), I still have this constant fear that it can stop anytime.

I’m on hourly pay. If work reduces, income drops. That fear is always there.

That’s also why I’m saving like crazy.

I don’t even know what I’m looking for here — validation, criticism, perspective… maybe just someone who gets this mindset.

Because IRL, I can’t really talk about this with anyone.

Would like to know — does this thinking make sense? i understand the general consensus of save but also enjoy etc. but if I can get enjoy whole life with family by living frugally for 2-3 yrs, isn't it worth it?

i mean most of my non family business friends are either doing MBA with -30lacs networth, even if they get 40lpa package, their living cost will be high + emi, so net savings reduces.

they might make good money after 7yrs, sure. but in those 7yrs, I can build a huge corpus by using my method.