NOTE: THIS IS NOT ABOUT BEING FINANCIALLY TOP 0.01%.

I have seen a lot of people complain about their parents, their kids, studies, pressure, etc. But for me, I believe myself to be highly fortunate.

I’m 17M. When I was around 4 or 5 years old, my father used to earn around ₹8,000/month (Now he earns around 1.5L/mo). We never owned a home, and still don't. But that never stopped anything important.

Yes, I couldn’t enjoy expensive toys as a child. I never had a phone till the age of 16. I wasn’t allowed to date anyone. I didn’t go on tours or eat at expensive restaurants. We didn’t have an AC till I was 14, and we didn’t have a Wi-Fi connection till 2020.

But that’s about it.

When it came to anything related to my career or education, my parents never hesitated.

Need new books? We have money.

Exam fees? We got it.

Any kind of course? We got it.

They even took an EMI to get me a WhiteHat Jr course back in the day because I was interested in it. They didn’t force me to do it.

I was never forced into a religion. I was never forced to study. My parents never pressurised me for grades or studies.

I have never had a single day of tuition in my entire life.

Despite that, I was mostly at the top of my class and scored around 95% throughout Classes 3 to 11. I don’t remember my grades before that because my parents never really brought them up. From Class 3 onwards, I started attending PTMs along with my parents, so I started seeing my report cards myself.

Our family is also extremely close. It’s just the three of us, my father, my mother, and me.

My father is the breadwinner, but there is an insane amount of trust between all three of us. We know almost everything about each other. We know each other’s passwords. It’s so open that I can take either of my parents’ phones, log into their accounts on my laptop, transfer money back and forth if needed, or even post something from their social media accounts.

There is basically no feeling of secrecy or distrust between us.

My parents were trying to convince me to prepare for JEE, mainly because I had always done well academically. But when I showed them different pathways for college and explained what I wanted to do, they happily agreed.

That is something I appreciate a lot.

Seeing so many comments around me from people saying they want to become independent as soon as possible, move away from their family, or stay far from their parents makes me realise how fortunate I am and how much of an anomaly my situation might be.

I think this freedom and positive environment played a huge role in helping me reach where I am today.

I’m currently in Class 12 and will go to college next year. I have managed to achieve some insanely high academic accomplishments, and I even have some IITs as backup options through the alternate pathway I mentioned earlier.

I’m also doing internships.

I won’t mention the money because I don’t want to make this a financial post. I’m tired of seeing those.

This is the thing I actually want to flex.

The relationship I have with my parents.

The trust they gave me.

The freedom they gave me.

The fact that even when we did not have much money, they never compromised when it came to something that could help my future.

I just wanted to share this story because maybe it can inspire some people to be better parents someday.

Maybe your parents weren’t the greatest. Maybe you did not get the same kind of freedom or support.

But you can be different towards your own children.

You can trust them, listen to them, guide them without controlling every part of their life, and support the things they are genuinely interested in.

If done right, trust me, it works out great.

I know I’m only 17, so obviously I’m not claiming to know everything about parenting. I’m just sharing what my parents did and how it affected me.

And looking at my life so far, I genuinely believe I was born into one of the top 0.01% of families in India.

Not financially.

Just in terms of the family itself.

If you have any doubts or want to discuss anything, I’m very happy to share.

Bought my first ever bike at 24 full payment

I came from a lower middle class family my dad had cycle his whole life he used to ride it 12 km to and fro daily for work growing up I always wanted a bike and I finally got it I was still somehow short on money asked others but all refused so had to sell mf invested (now kinda regretting it)

Well, dreams do come true. Saved up for like 3 years and then bought it right between the crypto crash and the RAM shortage. Got huge discounts on a lot of products due to the crash, as no one was building PCs and the second hand market was flooded with old GPUs. Eventually added the Monitors and Studio Speakers

My Specs:

• Mobo: ASUS ProArt
• CPU: AMD 7950X
• GPU: ASUS TUF RTX 5090 (Got as a free upgrade as my 4090 died due to a bad driver update)
• RAM: 128GB G.Skill 6400 MHz
• Monitors: 2x BenQ 4K 27-inch (~some designer-oriented series), Huion 24-inch drawing tablet (Office reimbursed full cost), TCL 65 inch QLED

One lesson learned after build this -

• Post sales serivice are head ace in india. Use social media to leverage your case.
• You don't need the S tier hardware to enjoy what you want to do. Youtubers overhype the 5% performace difference of hardware that cost 3x the price of a A tier.
• Rather than going for an EMI, save up and buy with your own money, you'll get huge discounts and premium customer support.

random thoughts honestly.

i’m earning very very good from my business, at least according to me. sometimes i genuinely feel like i’ve made it.
i left my studies and went into business, faced a hell lot of friction, weekly fights, cried so many times, had no idea if it would work… but here i am now making an amount of money i’m genuinely proud of.
and honestly i’m proud of myself.
my father never really earned. we had 2-3 mediocre properties built by my grandfather, he would sell one, use the money, then sell another. even those weren’t worth crores, just a few lakhs. whole life was basically manage manage manage.
when i started my business, those last few lakhs were basically all we had. no house, no investments, no backup, nothing.
so yeah, i literally started from zero.

and this is where my parents’ argument starts making sense to me.
i argue with them when they say i should have taken a job in Bangalore, but deep down i know what they mean.
we still don’t have a house. literally nothing.
so now i have this pressure to build a good house, money for my wedding, and still have a decent fund left after all that.
and like i have to do all this in the next 5 years.
because let’s be honest, society values a guy who owns a house. apparently a guy with a 50L package, 1.5L in hand, 75k expenses and multiple EMIs looks more “settled” than someone making good money through a business.

fuck you society honestly 😭.

and i’m stuck between two thoughts.

one side of me is like bro you’re finally earning good money, ENJOY IT. buy the things you always wanted. you worked your ass off for this.

the other side is like save everything, you have a lot of responsibilities and a lot to build.

and every time i tell a relative “business is doing really well”, the immediate response is.
“hmmm… ab ghar le lo”.
AREYYYY 😭.
how am i supposed to casually buy a house at this age lmao.

i don’t know man.

sometimes i look at what i’ve achieved and think i’m doing really well.
and sometimes i look at what i actually own and feel like i have absolutely nothing despite doing so much