Hey folks, I'm sharing my own lower‑middle‑class (LMC) situation for research – please don't doxx me.
Basic info:
1. Living in a Tier‑2 city in UP
2. 20 years old
3. 12th passed
4. Main skills: software, cloud and data systems
5. Other skills: basic electrician work, data entry, cooking
6. Single parent father, former security guard, now unemployed because of alcoholism
7. Staying in a 250 sq ft colony flat
Assets & income:
1. Savings: ₹20 000, income ₹18 000 per month, expenses also ₹18 000
2. Phone worth ₹14 000, laptop ₹24 000, monitor ₹3.4 k
Income source: Freelancing for a startup, building a data‑lake product for their services. I took the gig for peanuts because I had no other option after three months of unemployment that wiped out my savings. I tried to negotiate a better contract, they said they'd pay more if I could bring them ₹10 crore revenue, I said no thanks and am ending it this week.
Education: Started working after 10th – family needed money – did odd jobs like cooking at weddings, helping an electrician, then bought a second‑hand laptop and learned basic coding. Completed 12th via open schooling. Enrolled in an online data‑science program from IITM (no loan options for online degrees). Saved ₹20 k for the qualifier exam last year.
My plan: build the products I've been making for others, sell them, and find a regular job after this contract ends.
A day in my life: Wake up, eat eggs, drink lots of coffee, start working, chat with friends, jerk off, have dal & rice, sleep. Workout sometimes.
That's the optimized LMC version of my life – without tech exposure most would end up as labour, cook, mechanic or delivery guy.
As someone in the IITM DS course, I'd suggest a BCA or BCom instead. The IITM degree is extremely long – each backlog adds about four months because you have to repeat the exam for even a single mark. There are no textbooks, so after a point you just watch lectures. Repeating a course costs double, and if your CGPA drops below 6 you can't move to the degree level. The fee jumps from ₹4,000 per course to ₹8,000 per course if you repeat.
How are your expenses ₹18k? I live on rent and my total comes to at most ₹10k, and my salary is just ₹10k.
Bhai, seeing your struggle makes me feel ashamed that I kept playing the victim card even when things were handed to me. I'm older but you're wiser. Proud of you, bhai.
Oh the contradictions.
When I started reading your post I expected poor English given your background, but it's actually well written. Your technical skills are far ahead of many young adults I know who come from reputed schools and have parents who are professors, doctors or engineers. I admit I'm biased – you're so technically competent you could earn crores for a hiring company, which makes me wonder why you're not earning crores for yourself. Oh right, that's your plan, I forgot. You eat eggs in the morning, drink coffee, and manage ₹18‑20k earnings while supporting family – that's fancy. Very few with such limited resources can afford that.
Last rant: Salary is the least risky and therefore the least rewarding. Company owners take all the risks – they have skin in the game, employees and freelancers don't. Capitalism isn't perfect but it's better than socialism.
I hope you're putting at least ₹500 into a broad‑based index fund every month.
Wow man, which batch are you in? When the IITM data‑science course launched I also tried to register. I was just thinking about that course and my life situation today, and then I saw your post this evening.
I sincerely hope things get better for you. You definitely deserve a good life. More power to you, OP.
Why is it marked NSFW though?
The 'lol' does a lot of heavy lifting. You seem like a really cool person! Best of luck.
Proud of you, brother. I faced the same at 21 – my father was paralysed and my mother schizophrenic. I managed house chores, my father's repairing business, and my education, taking care of both parents. My father's better now. I'm 25, in Bangalore, still grinding hard. Not earning much yet but still pushing. We'll make it out, brother. More power to you.