I’m 28 years old. My parents have a vision for my “sustainable future”
• My father wants me to buy a house
• My mother wants me to complete the CFA program
On the surface, these sound like practical, long-term career/life moves. But wait, Indian parent’s are not that chill. There is also a hidden agenda – both of them want my arranged marriage profile to look stronger 🤣
Like an open minded person, I decided to run some numbers (Yeah I enjoy opening Excel even on weekends :P) On the house part, now I’m totally against the idea – at least in the current tax system of India. Through my political activism work (and with help from my friend Kishan Singh Negi & Chandra Shankar), I came across the concept of Georgism. Land prices in India are NOT sky-high because of population, limited resources, or even corruption. They’re high simply because there is no land tax or inheritance or wealth tax.
We pay 18% GST on everything from mobile recharge to health insurance, to MBA fees. But elites + black money holders holding acres of land pay 0% tax on it. In many countries, a 1% annual tax on the market value of land keeps the price-to-income ratio around 5-10x. In India, with no such tax, hoarding and speculation are rewarded and affordability is destroyed.
So I invited my friends Aditya Reddy & Chaitanya A. to run some numbers:
• Option 1: Buy → Rent = ₹0, but EMI = ₹1,00,000 for 15 years
• Option 2: Rent → Rent = ₹30,000, invest the remaining ₹70,000 via SIP in a Flexi-Cap fund
Over time, the SIP route can leave you with ₹1 crore+ or 30% extra corpus with liquidity & flexibility. I’m not saying “live on the moon.” I’m saying rent the same house you would buy & you keep the lifestyle and utility, without the handcuffs.
My rule of thumb:
• In today’s system, Mutual Fund SIP + Rent > Buying house
• Buy only when you have ~80% of the home value in cash (not happening unless you are 40 with ED, Diabetes & Grey Hair)
• The burden of paying ₹1 lakh every month to SBI (who anyways give free loan to millionaires) just for the mental title of “khud ka ghar” – isn’t worth it.Comment “Excel/Interested” if you want the crude/basic model.
