From ₹1K gigs to ₹70 lakh hustle: Techie quits moonlighting to reclaim Life
Coming from a tier 3 university and with a non-traditional engineering background, his 2022 stunner revealed he had been moonlighting for most of his career. Last year, he was juggling two remote contracting roles, one with an Indian startup and the other with a US-based firm, earning around Rs 70 lakh a year.
But the torture was very severe. His schedule often extended to more than 10 hours on weekdays, with additional work extending into weekends. Although working from home made dual roles possible, it came at a cost: “My social life was basically zero,” he admitted.
There is a lot of money but no savings
The engineer explained that despite his high income, he currently has no savings or investments; This was a detail that surprised many readers. Instead, he channeled his earnings into huge assets, including property worth Rs 1.3 million, which he brought in loan-free. The technician explained that he also had a car loan, but the interest rate was low. He also built a home gym and bought a gaming laptop; both were largely unused due to time constraints.
In terms of financial planning, he has taken out a term insurance policy (2022) and health insurance (2024) for himself and his parents, but admitted that he has no mutual funds or equity investments.
Strategic exit for tax savings
Recently, a salary increase from his US employer to around Rs 74.5 lakh led to a big decision: He left his startup role in India.
The move wasn’t just about reducing workload. Staying below Rs 75 lakh would allow it to benefit from Section 44ADA presumptive taxation, reducing the tax burden to around Rs 8 lakh per annum, it said. “Otherwise, I would have to earn Rs 20 lakh more to make the extra work worth it,” he noted, sarcastically adding that it would feel like “working extra for taxes.”
From Rs 1,000 per month to Rs 6.2 lakh per month
The engineer’s journey is as striking as his current income. He started an Android development business while still in college, paying just Rs 1,000-2,000 per month, often working all night to balance studies and work.
Over time, he gained expertise in Python, backend development, and platform engineering, contributed to the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) as both a student and mentor, and worked at a unicorn startup, although he never broke traditional big tech interviews or focused on data structures and algorithms (DSA).
A pause to rethink priorities
Now that he’s stepping back from a role, he says he finally has time to think about health, relationships and life beyond the rules.
With an arranged marriage likely toward the end of the year and a more stable routine ahead, she questions whether she’s “over-optimizing with money.”
“I love developing software,” he wrote, “but I barely have time to learn new things anymore.”
