Discover the story of Ravi Handa, who retired early at 38 with 12 crores. Join us for insights on personal finance, early retirement, and life after retirement. Uncover Ravi's secrets to financial success & much more.
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I'll have to check for the exact number, but It is around 12 crores.

Before this, whenever I used to go to my in-laws, it was a 2-day, 3-day trip.

So when he was a 1 year old kid, I barely got any time to spend with him.

As a matter of fact, today I was talking to my parents, I spoke to my sister, she said, what are you doing?

It's quite possible that tomorrow morning we will go to Gurgaon.

Was there a goal or number which you were aiming for?

Earlier I used to think that maybe I can do it in 7 crores.

Then when it became 7 crores, I said no, let's do 1 thing.

I never thought about this, that what will happen if the child has to study outside.

I believe the number is 30 times your regular annual expenses plus whatever long 1 time expenses that you can think of.

So 30 into 25 lakhs that becomes 7.5 crores.

Another crore for the kids education, that becomes 8 and a half crores.

Another 50 lakhs or 1 crore, some sort of a buffer that comes to 9 and a half.

So I thought that once I hit 10, it should be okay.

And then after 10, I kept doing it for greed.

When it happened that fine, this is enough.

Let's take 10 crores, how is the pay divided?

4 out of 10 crores, which is 1 crore rupees, they are in liquid funds, ultra short term funds, your cash is in the bank, in extremely liquid and extremely safe assets.

Another 1 crore is in ICICI's balance advantage fund.

The remaining 8 crores, 80% is in equity mutual funds, 20% is in debt mutual funds.

There are bonds, Vintwealth bonds, they come again under that category.

When you were working, what were the things you were not okay with the most, which could have led to you retiring early?

Even when I was not working, you can say that you could

That freedom, that opportunity of switching off.

Tell us a bit about your journey to getting retired early.

It was called Handa ka Fanda which was in the cat coaching space.

So once the business started picking up which was around 2014-15, we could have upgraded our lifestyle a lot.

We could have had a lot of international trips.

Because me, as well as my wife, we both are not the type of personality that we spend a lot on these things.

So our savings rate was always quite a lot.

Whatever we saved, we invested a huge chunk of it, almost everything in equity.

So, if I had a lakh rupees left in a month, I invested that.

If I had 3 lakh rupees left in a month, I invested that.

Because it was a business, we had unpredictable income.

After that, they gave me a very good salary,

which is the sort of salary which I would not get anywhere else.

But the cash component put it a little over 1 CR and if you include the ESOPs etc.

After a year, I went to my boss and said that you are paying me a very good salary and I am doing a lot of work.

I don't have the faith to work this hectic.

So, can we do this that you give me 50% of my salary and 50% of my work.

I teach for 100 hours, now instead of 100 hours, I will teach for 50 hours.

Then I worked for 6 months on that 50% route.

Then I thought that there is no benefit in this.

There was a certain period which was left on the minimal amount of time that I need to work.

But great guys, very understanding guys, they said that if you don't have faith in doing this work, then there is no point.

Acquisition by Unacademy a big part of or a contributing factor in retiring early?

Because a little bit from the financial front because it did give me a certain amount of liquidity.

But till the time I was running my business, there is no exit route.

You can't leave it because you have to run the business.

After the Unacademy acquisition, it was simply that now I have a job.

If I leave the job, the salary that is coming, that salary will be stopped.

Were there any wants which you decided to let go of in order to choose to retire early?

Ever since I bought a Honda City, 2 years later, I feel like I took the wrong curse.

I didn't buy a car for the roads of Jaipur.

You need a Fortuner for the roads of Jaipur.

But then I also looked at the fact that in the last 7 years, it's been 7 years since I've owned a Honda City, I've driven it for 25, 000 km in total.

So what's the point of buying an expensive car?

So these sort of trade-offs need to happen, they do happen.

As you said, you don't have to buy a Fortuner.

And how much can you elevate lifestyle, how much you can't elevate, and how does that determine that how much your retirement changes because of it.

When we started doing well financially, that was 2014-2015, We moved to Jaipur.

My peer group is either in Baleno or Siaz.

If I look at my batchmates, my batchmates in Bangalore or Bombay, they are all in Mercedes.

If I was in Bangalore, I would be living in a flat or a house, the price of that flat would be at least 3 times that of this flat.

The car I was driving would be at least 3 times that of my current car because all my friends were driving the same car.

If that had happened, it would have been a very different scenario.

As a parent, do you have expectations or not?

If he has an aim of becoming an engineer, brilliant.

If he has an aim of becoming a footballer, Brilliant.

If he has an aim of becoming a footballer, brilliant.

If he has an aim of becoming an IITian, that's a problem.

Because my parents were government servants.

If I didn't do that, then there were no NIFT courses at that time.

At that time, it was not like that you will join MIT, still your career will be so much that you run your life.

You can't go to Canada, there are 190 more countries.

If you are talented and can get IIT without doing any grant work, then you can.

If you are so talented that you can get IIT, then you will get admitted to MIT, then you can go to MIT.

Many other colleges which become open to you, It's just that they cost a lot more.

You have been very strongly opinionated about 1 thing, which is having your own house, whatsoever shape, but having your own house, if you are deciding to retire.

Absolutely, I mean I don't have a single percent doubt in my mind.

And if you say that no, no, by renting I will save 3% and 5% If you say this to me on an excel sheet, I won't believe you.

These decisions are taken based upon what you feel like.

These decisions are explained to others based upon the

But in the end, it's an emotional decision.

Justification Justification is people, people have found a justification to fly a plane in 9-11 in a building.

If you are smart enough you are able to rationalize.

Early on, you had given a sense that it is frustrating at times, it fluctuates.

Now, what are the most visible cons of retiring early?

This is such a huge surprise and a shock to me.

Matlab mujhko umeed nahi thi ki itna jhatka lagega.

So my wife I didn't expect it to be so shocking.

So my wife is in Calcutta right now, today.

I was in Calcutta, I stayed there for 3 weeks.

When I used to come back after 3 days, no 1 asked me, why do you want to go back?

But a huge part of my identity was related to my work.

Once you remove that, it's not just in other people's eyes, in my eyes itself, I plenty of time feel, is this the right way to live your life when you are not doing anything productive, you're not adding value to the world.

This thing also brings in a certain amount of anxiety about money.

I can very easily afford an Apple smartwatch.

But before buying it, I forgot how much it cost.

I get it for 2500-3000 and the steps count for that too.

So I don't think about buying an Apple Watch.

In that sense, the real freedom is in keeping your needs minimal.

If there are no needs, there will be no fun.

If you're having fun in less need and you are that person, and it's happening.

Figure out what you enjoy and spend on it.

People project it as complicated because that's how you get views on YouTube.

Go talk to your bank's relationship manager.

What percentage of your take home income you are saving?

Then are you investing a bulk of that in equity?

You need to read the book Let's Talk Money by Monika Hallan.

You need to read the book Money Wise by Deepak Shanoi.

And you need to read psychology of money by Morgan Housel.

There are people who are not happy with their current job.

And yet they want to achieve early retirement.

So what is 1 advice or what couple of advice would you want to offer to them?

See, early retirement is an extreme solution.

If you're not happy with your job, try changing companies.

The second level of it would be try changing the line that you are working in.

Another very, very good option, which I would recommend to people under maybe 30 or 35, changing countries.

A lot of these job and career problems exist because you are in India.

You go to, you know, some of the European countries, you go to the US or the Canada, a lot of this gets taken away.

It is running away from an unsolvable problem, which is your career.

You can't do anything when all the options are over, like mine.

After living in Jaipur, I won't get a job to teach.

I'm almost 40 years and I can't change my career.

I have so many social responsibilities that I can't leave the country.

That is why early retirement is the road that I'm taking.

If you have any option, Don't go down on this road.

Yes, save money, try to become financially independent so that you can live a better life.

Obviously, early retirement and financial independence are 2 very, very different things.

Good for you, good for your family, good for your life.

Early retirement is a last resort when you have no other option left.


Speaker 0: Hi, please come in.

Speaker 1: What's your current net worth?

Speaker 0: I'll have to check for the exact number, but It is around 12 crores. On good days, it goes up to 13. On bad days, it goes down to 11. Hi, I am Ravi Handa. I am 39 years old.

And last year, I decided to retire. So you retired at the age of 38?

Speaker 1: Yes. How do you see it going right now?

Speaker 0: So I have been married for 10 years. Before this, whenever I used to go to my in-laws, it was a 2-day, 3-day trip. Now I go, I go for a month, a month. Okay, fine, no problem. I can stay there.

I have a 2 year old kid. So when he was a 1 year old kid, I barely got any time to spend with him. So he goes to a play school for an hour. I sit there for an hour. I don't have any problem.

When his hour is over, I bring him back. As a matter of fact, today I was talking to my parents, I spoke to my sister, she said, what are you doing? Come tomorrow. It's quite possible that tomorrow morning we will go to Gurgaon. Why?

Because my sister was calling. So let's go.

Speaker 1: Was there a goal or number which you were aiming for?

Speaker 0: Earlier I used to think that maybe I can do it in 7 crores. Then when it became 7 crores, I said no, let's do 1 thing. I never thought about this, that what will happen if the child has to study outside. I believe the number is 30 times your regular annual expenses plus whatever long 1 time expenses that you can think of. So 30 into 25 lakhs that becomes 7.5 crores.

Another crore for the kids education, that becomes 8 and a half crores. Another 50 lakhs or 1 crore, some sort of a buffer that comes to 9 and a half. So I thought that once I hit 10, it should be okay. And then after 10, I kept doing it for greed. When it happened that fine, this is enough.

Then I decided to pull the plug.

Speaker 1: Let's take 10 crores, how is the pay divided?

Speaker 0: 4 out of 10 crores, which is 1 crore rupees, they are in liquid funds, ultra short term funds, your cash is in the bank, in extremely liquid and extremely safe assets. Okay. Another 1 crore is in ICICI's balance advantage fund. Right. That has another 1 crore.

The remaining 8 crores, 80% is in equity mutual funds, 20% is in debt mutual funds. There are bonds, Vintwealth bonds, they come again under that category.

Speaker 1: When you were working, what were the things you were not okay with the most, which could have led to you retiring early? Even when I was not working, you can say that you could

Speaker 0: enjoy the weekend slowly. I didn't have that mental makeup. That freedom, that opportunity of switching off. So I took this way out.

Speaker 1: Tell us a bit about your journey to getting retired early.

Speaker 0: So I was in a regular job till 2011-12. Then I started my own business. It was called Handa ka Fanda which was in the cat coaching space. So once the business started picking up which was around 2014-15, we could have upgraded our lifestyle a lot. We could have had a lot of international trips.

We could have had a much better car. We could have had a much bigger house. But we never took those things. Because me, as well as my wife, we both are not the type of personality that we spend a lot on these things. So our savings rate was always quite a lot.

Whatever we saved, we invested a huge chunk of it, almost everything in equity. So, if I had a lakh rupees left in a month, I invested that. If I had 3 lakh rupees left in a month, I invested that. Because it was a business, we had unpredictable income. Unacademy acquired me.

After that, they gave me a very good salary,

Speaker 1: which is the sort of salary which I would not get anywhere else. What salary did Unacademy offer?

Speaker 0: I cannot give you the exact numbers. But the cash component put it a little over 1 CR and if you include the ESOPs etc. That put it a little above 1.5 CR. I worked with Unacademy for a year. After a year, I went to my boss and said that you are paying me a very good salary and I am doing a lot of work.

I don't have the faith to work this hectic. So, can we do this that you give me 50% of my salary and 50% of my work. Since I am a teacher, it is very simple. I teach for 100 hours, now instead of 100 hours, I will teach for 50 hours. Then I worked for 6 months on that 50% route.

Then I thought that there is no benefit in this. I went back to my boss. There was a certain period which was left on the minimal amount of time that I need to work. But great guys, very understanding guys, they said that if you don't have faith in doing this work, then there is no point. And that is when we parted ways.

Speaker 1: Acquisition by Unacademy a big part of or a contributing factor in retiring early? Yes, definitely.

Speaker 0: Because a little bit from the financial front because it did give me a certain amount of liquidity. So obviously that played a role. But till the time I was running my business, there is no exit route. You can't leave it because you have to run the business. After the Unacademy acquisition, it was simply that now I have a job.

If I leave the job, the salary that is coming, that salary will be stopped.

Speaker 1: Were there any wants which you decided to let go of in order to choose to retire early?

Speaker 0: Yes. I drive a Honda City right now. I... Ever since I bought a Honda City, 2 years later, I feel like I took the wrong curse. I didn't buy a car for the roads of Jaipur.

You need a Fortuner for the roads of Jaipur. So I really want to buy a Fortuner. But then I also looked at the fact that in the last 7 years, it's been 7 years since I've owned a Honda City, I've driven it for 25, 000 km in total. I don't drive a car. So what's the point of buying an expensive car?

So these sort of trade-offs need to happen, they do happen.

Speaker 1: As you said, you don't have to buy a Fortuner. And how much can you elevate lifestyle, how much you can't elevate, and how does that determine that how much your retirement changes because of it.

Speaker 0: When we started doing well financially, that was 2014-2015, We moved to Jaipur. My peer group is either in Baleno or Siaz. If I look at my batchmates, my batchmates in Bangalore or Bombay, they are all in Mercedes. If I was in Bangalore, I would be living in a flat or a house, the price of that flat would be at least 3 times that of this flat. The car I was driving would be at least 3 times that of my current car because all my friends were driving the same car.

If that had happened, it would have been a very different scenario. I might not be able to retire.

Speaker 1: As a parent, do you have expectations or not?

Speaker 0: Absolutely not. If he has an aim of becoming an engineer, brilliant. If he has an aim of becoming a footballer, Brilliant. If he has an aim of becoming a footballer, brilliant. If he has an aim of becoming an IITian, that's a problem.

Speaker 1: See, you are an IITian, I am too. We both know what it did for us, right? True. But then, what are those faults? Where is it failing you?

I

Speaker 0: was forced to do that. Because my parents were government servants. If I didn't do that, then there were no NIFT courses at that time. At that time, it was not like that you will join MIT, still your career will be so much that you run your life. It is like that, go abroad.

You can't go to America, go to Germany. You can't go to Germany, go to Canada. You can't go to Canada, there are 190 more countries. Or

Speaker 1: If you are talented and can get IIT without doing any grant work, then you can.

Speaker 0: Absolutely not. If you are so talented that you can get IIT, then you will get admitted to MIT, then you can go to MIT. Many other colleges which become open to you, It's just that they cost a lot more. I can afford that.

Speaker 1: Go there. You have been very strongly opinionated about 1 thing, which is having your own house, whatsoever shape, but having your own house, if you are deciding to retire.

Speaker 0: Absolutely, I mean I don't have a single percent doubt in my mind. And if you say that no, no, by renting I will save 3% and 5% If you say this to me on an excel sheet, I won't believe you. These decisions are taken based upon what you feel like. These decisions are explained to others based upon the

Speaker 1: spreadsheet. But in the end, it's an emotional decision.

Speaker 0: It is. All decisions are emotional decisions. Justification Justification is people, people have found a justification to fly a plane in 9-11 in a building. All decisions are emotional decisions. You later rationalize.

If you are smart enough you are able to rationalize.

Speaker 1: Pros enough, I understood retirement. Early on, you had given a sense that it is frustrating at times, it fluctuates. Now, a year has passed, right? Now, what are the most visible cons of retiring early?

Speaker 0: Depreciation in social value. This is such a huge surprise and a shock to me. Matlab mujhko umeed nahi thi ki itna jhatka lagega. Bahut chodi chodi jeene hai yaar. So my wife I didn't expect it to be so shocking.

It's a very small thing. So my wife is in Calcutta right now, today. I was in Calcutta, I stayed there for 3 weeks. Then I

Speaker 1: got a

Speaker 0: little bored, so I came back. When I used to come back after 3 days, no 1 asked me, why do you want to go back? Now I need to explain myself. What will you do when you go back? You don't have any work there.

And these are people who love me. These are people who like me. But a huge part of my identity was related to my work. Once you remove that, it's not just in other people's eyes, in my eyes itself, I plenty of time feel, is this the right way to live your life when you are not doing anything productive, you're not adding value to the world. This thing also brings in a certain amount of anxiety about money.

I'll give you a very simple example. I wanted to buy a smartwatch. I can very easily afford an Apple smartwatch. But before buying it, I forgot how much it cost. 25, 000 or 40, 000.

Should I spend so much? What's the point? I get it for 2500-3000 and the steps count for that too.

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 0: If I was working...

Speaker 1: So you don't think about it.

Speaker 0: So I don't think about buying an Apple Watch. It's just 25, 000. I'll get it in 2 days' salary.

Speaker 1: In that sense, the real freedom is in keeping your needs minimal.

Speaker 0: No, there's nothing like that. If there are no needs, there will be no fun. I mean, you need to have...

Speaker 1: It's relative, right? If you're having fun in less need and you are that person, and it's happening.

Speaker 0: Okay. Prioritize the fun. That's the thing. Figure out what you enjoy and spend on it. 16 year old royal salute.

Do I really like it? Do I really enjoy it? Yes, buy it. Its finance is not as complicated. People project it as complicated because that's how you get views on YouTube.

Speaker 1: And that's how you also make money.

Speaker 0: That's how you make money. Yeah. Go talk to your bank's relationship manager. I don't know what he will send you. What percentage of your take home income you are saving?

That's the most important thing. Then are you investing a bulk of that in equity? That's the second most important thing. You need 7 days of your time. You need to read the book Let's Talk Money by Monika Hallan.

You need to read the book Money Wise by Deepak Shanoi. And you need to read psychology of money by Morgan Housel. Take 7 days, read these 3 books. You don't need anything else.

Speaker 1: There are people who are not happy with their current job. Right. And yet they want to achieve early retirement. Right. So what is 1 advice or what couple of advice would you want to offer to them?

Speaker 0: See, early retirement is an extreme solution. If you're not happy with your job, try changing companies. The second level of it would be try changing the line that you are working in. Another very, very good option, which I would recommend to people under maybe 30 or 35, changing countries. A lot of these job and career problems exist because you are in India.

You go to, you know, some of the European countries, you go to the US or the Canada, a lot of this gets taken away. Early retirement is not a good thing. It is an escape. It is running away from an unsolvable problem, which is your career. You can't do anything when all the options are over, like mine.

I only know how to teach. After living in Jaipur, I won't get a job to teach. I won't get a job to teach cats. I'm almost 40 years and I can't change my career. I have so many social responsibilities that I can't leave the country.

I don't have any other option. That is why early retirement is the road that I'm taking. If you have any option, Don't go down on this road. Yes, save money, try to become financially independent so that you can live a better life. Obviously, early retirement and financial independence are 2 very, very different things.

Focus on becoming financial independent. Good for you, good for your family, good for your life. Early retirement is a last resort when you have no other option left. This is a test.

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Asking Him How He Retired Early With 12 Crores