A Bengaluru techie earning ₹1.8 lakh a month recently shared how a sudden family medical emergency made him realise that a high salary did not necessarily translate into financial security.
In a Reddit post titled "I was living like a fake rich techie making ₹1.8L/month, until an ICU emergency exposed how broke I actually was", the user said that two years ago, he believed he was "crushing it" financially. He lived in a gated society in Bengaluru and invested ₹80,000 every month through systematic investment plans (SIPs).
However, the techie said that things changed when his father suddenly collapsed and was admitted to an ICU. "The hospital demanded a ₹2.5L deposit upfront for the ICU," he wrote.
He said that the situation became particularly difficult as his primary credit card was already maxed out after he bought a laptop, while his savings account had only around ₹32,000. The techie said that his mutual fund investments also could not immediately help because of redemption timelines and delays involving the third-party administrator (TPA).
"I spent 1:30 AM frantically calling distant relatives to borrow cash via UPI while sitting in a cold hospital hallway," he recalled.
{{/usCountry}}"I spent 1:30 AM frantically calling distant relatives to borrow cash via UPI while sitting in a cold hospital hallway," he recalled.
{{/usCountry}}"Earning a high salary meant nothing when I had zero liquid cash," he added.
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Social media reactions
The post sparked a discussion on emergency funds and financial planning among young professionals.
One user wrote, "Usually people build emergency funds before investing the money anywhere. your 6 months of living expense should be in your emergency fund, which should grow as your income, expense and family grows. On top of that, one should have best health insurance and term plan as well. This is like ABC level basics of finance. Still young earners miss it, including me. I have made mistakes like this before. Income is not a problem for you OP, just learn basics before you invest."
"sorry you had to go through this. but 80k monthly SIP with just 32k in savings is not a practical investment decision. always keep atleast 3 months of salary as savings," commented another.
"Earning 1.8l and still having only 32k in your saving account and 80k per month SIP nd no concept of emergency fund. bro after everything goes normal book a session with some good financial advisor to manage your funds," wrote a third user.
"High income doesn't mean financial security. Always keep a decent emergency fund liquid , even if it slows down my SIPs a bit," suggested another.
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)