Lifestyle inflation

No treatment of FI would be complete without a section on lifestyle inflation. While inflation affects everyone and is not under your personal control, lifestyle inflation is something we all can control. Lifestyle inflation refers to the common phenomenon of increasing spending shown by people as their incomes increase. While it should be nobody's goal to spend the absolute minimum that you deprive themselves of most joys that can be bought, it cannot be the other extreme where you spend without a care in the world just because you can. There are no specific numbers here for reference - but a rule of thumb can be to keep the savings rate steady - or increase it with the passing of years. Of course some level of lifestyle inflation is impossible to avoid - for example when you have a family. Thats alright - dont fret over it. Just dont go berserk and let your expenses continuously rise faster than your income.

At any given point, if you are not sure what are realistic returns you may want to consult the folks over at r/IndiaInvestments.