Earning ₹1 crore a year may seem like the ultimate financial milestone, but a Bengaluru-based chartered accountant has explained why it may not be enough to make someone rich.
Taking to LinkedIn, Meenal Goel, a former Deloitte and KPMG employee, reflected on a lesson that changed her view of money. She recalled working at KPMG and believing that earning ₹1 crore a year would be the moment she could finally call herself rich.
“Back when I was making ₹100,000 at KPMG, I thought hitting ₹1 crore would make me rich. I couldn’t have been more wrong,” Goel wrote in the LinkedIn post. She said that as the years passed, she realised that financial discipline – not a high salary – is what ultimately determines whether a person builds lasting wealth.
To explain her point, Goel compared professionals with very different salaries. She wrote, “Today I see software engineers earning ₹50 lakhs but saving LESS than government employees earning ₹12 lakhs. Let that sink in.”
“Less than 2.3 lakh Indians earn over ₹1 crore annually. That’s just 0.16% of our population. But here’s what most people misunderstand: You don’t need a ₹1 crore salary to become a crorepati,” she added.
Goel explained that the biggest obstacle to building wealth is lifestyle inflation, where spending rises alongside income. She illustrated this with examples of people upgrading from a ₹20,000 monthly rent to ₹70,000, replacing an Activa with a BMW on EMI, or swapping home-cooked meals for daily Swiggy orders.
“Every time income increases, lifestyle inflates automatically… Your raise disappears before you even notice it,” she wrote.
Goel added that reaching a ₹1 crore corpus is possible even without an exceptionally high salary. “With a 10% yearly hike and 12-15% investment returns, hitting ₹1 crore in 10 years is genuinely possible for a salaried person. No IIT degree. No rich parents. Just discipline,” she wrote.
She further said that a ₹1 crore corpus generating around ₹1 lakh in monthly passive income could cover 60-70% of a person’s EMIs. “That’s actual financial freedom,” she said.
Concluding her post, Goel predicted that India could add 1 crore new crorepatis by 2030. However, she argued that the real question is not whether becoming a crorepati is possible, but whether people can keep their lifestyle expenses under control long enough to achieve that goal.
(Also Read: ‘Don’t let a 4-year degree dictate a 40-year career’: IIT graduate’s career advice divides internet)
What did social media say?
The post struck a chord with many professionals who echoed Goel’s views on financial discipline and wealth creation.
One user wrote, “Very true. One practical way to control lifestyle inflation is to treat every salary hike as an investment opportunity first. Increase your SIPs and savings before increasing your expenses. If your investments grow with your income, your lifestyle will improve naturally without compromising long term wealth creation.”
“Income creates opportunity. Financial discipline determines the outcome. Two people can earn the same salary and end up with completely different levels of wealth over time,” commented another.
“Lifestyle inflation is one of the few expenses that grows quietly. The earlier you control it, the easier it becomes to turn salary growth into wealth creation,” wrote a third user.
“Lifestyle inflation is something most people underestimate. Building wealth isn’t just about earning more, it’s about keeping more. Great reminder,” said another.
