New Delhi, Sept. 29 -- "I've exhausted my savings in funding my daughter's MBBS education. Her post-graduation is still left. At the age of 55, I will start saving for retirement from scratch. I will retire with no corpus, or perhaps never retire," said an attendee at the Mint Money Festival in Bengaluru on Saturday. His story, shared during a session on FIRE, or Financial Independence Retire Early, underscored how unrealistic the idea can feel in India, weighed down by education costs and family obligations.

FIRE is a global movement that has captivated young professionals with its radical promise: work and save aggressively in your 20s and 30s, so that by your 40s or 50s, you no longer need to earn a living. The concept, popularized in...