A Gurgaon man has gone viral on LinkedIn after sharing a brutally honest post about how expensive it is to maintain a luxury lifestyle in the city.
Vaibhav J., who owns a ₹3 crore house in one of Gurgaon’s posh areas, started his post by saying, “I own a house in Gurgaon. I need ₹7.5 lakh/month just to breathe.”
He then shared a detailed list of his monthly expenses, which shocked many people:
- ₹2.08 lakh EMI for the house
- ₹12,000 maintenance for the fountain
- ₹60,000 EMI for a luxury car
- ₹65,000 school fees for his children (international school)
- ₹30,000 for occasional foreign trips
- ₹30,000 for domestic help (cook, maid, driver)
- ₹20,000 for dinners and club nights
- ₹12,000 for grooming and clothes to fit in
- ₹10,000+ for small, random purchases
- ₹15,000 for gifts and weddings — which he called the “fake smiles tax”
Altogether, these add up to ₹5 lakh a month in spending. But since income tax takes around 30%, he says you’d need to earn ₹7.5 lakh a month (or about ₹90 lakh a year) just to keep up.
He also admitted he hadn’t saved money or bought insurance. “And I haven’t even eaten yet,” he joked, ending with the line: “This is not a top 1% income. It’s a top 0.1% burn rate.”
Reactions Online
The post got a lot of attention, with people reacting in different ways. Some agreed, calling it an eye-opener. Others joked about lines like “foreign trip proof-of-life.” Some reminded him that the actual tax might be even higher, saying you’d need a salary of at least ₹1.2 crore per year.
Some were critical too. One person said, “If you can buy a ₹3 crore flat, you are financially stable. So stop the drama.”
Another person shared their memory: “Over 10 years ago, I lived in DLF Phase 2, then Phase 5 — it wasn’t this costly back then.”
Others simply pointed out that Gurgaon may be expensive, but still has its own charm — except for the bad weather and pollution.
The post has sparked a wider conversation about lifestyle inflation, peer pressure, and what it really means to live “well” in urban India.
