A 21-year-old Reddit user shared an emotional post after discovering his father’s old payslips. His father who is now in his 50’s and almost earning ₹1 trillion a year, earned just fine ₹3.2 lakh a year in 2010. Still, those were the happiest years of their lives, the user recalled.
The family went to shopping malls every week, watched movies, ate, bought designer clothes and even had game consoles like PSP, iPod and Xbox 360. Dad provided them all with this modest income.
The son said his father never let them feel financial pressure, managed everything quietly while keeping the home full of laughter.
Around 2017-18, things changed. The trips stopped and the tension slowly gave way to joy. Even as his father’s income skyrocketed, so did the distance within the family. Fights became frequent, conversations became less frequent, and emotional warmth faded.
“Now she makes almost 1 million a year but no one in the house is happy. There are constant fights. I know there have been fights before but now I feel things much more clearly,” wrote a Reddit user.
“I don’t think I could be like him. He protected us from stress when we had very little. And now that we have so much, I feel like the family is falling apart,” he added.
Now his parents barely speak and he himself feels distant.
“My parents barely talk. I barely talk to them. I’ll probably move out after college. Everything is so overwhelming,” the user wrote.
Reaction on social networks
“If you think about it. People still earn 3.2lpa and somehow manage. It must have been a comfortable salary back then,” replied one user.
“People starting their professional journey with three times their LPA salary is still normal… and getting a job in this market is actually a luxury in itself,” another user wrote.
One user commented: “3.2LPA in 2010 is around 9LPA in 2025, which is close to 70,000 a month. So it was never the bottom line for your family. People are living comfortably on 70,000 with their families even though they are paying rent right now.”
“People change with age, responsibilities and stress, so what you’re going through happens in many households. But that doesn’t make it any easier,” said another.
“Why do you think money is the reason for this condition? Does he have any bad habits, such as adultery, which is quite common among middle-aged men?” another user asked.
