There’s a moment in the movie “Life in a … Metro” where one character asks a simple question: “If you sat in your car and waited for every single traffic signal on your route to turn green before you left home, would you ever actually go anywhere?” You wouldn’t. Because that’s not how a journey…

“Don’t burn your house to smoke out a rat.” It is an old proverb, but its relevance has never faded. Literally, it means destroying something valuable in an attempt to solve a relatively small problem. In practice, it describes situations in which the solution causes far more damage than the original issue. Recently, I was…

Every strong house needs a foundation before you decorate the rooms. In money, that foundation is just two things: term insurance and health insurance. They quietly hold up everything else. But here is the strange part. Nearly half of Indians still do not have term insurance, and most who have health cover have too little….

A friend recently asked me to review her father’s finances. He’s 75, with a liquid net worth of ₹3.5 crore, but every rupee is quietly held for the generation that comes after him. Meeting him reminded me of a story. About the author: Abhishek Kumar is part of a freefincal’s curated list of fee-only financial advisors and a fee-only…

I once watched a client stare at his portfolio for three full minutes, certain his screen had frozen. His net worth hadn’t moved in six months. “What’s happening here?” he finally asked. It wasn’t broken. It was working exactly as designed. He had just hit the cruellest stretch of the entire wealth-building journey, which is…

Humans are mimetic creatures. Whether it’s career paths or lifestyle choices, we subconsciously mirror the people we admire. In the world of investing, this usually means looking at the titans — the Warren Buffetts, the legendary fund managers, or the “FinTwit” star who retired at 35. Those who understand that these are exceptional, unrepeatable characters…

Let me tell you about two neighbours. Sharma ji started a few mutual funds 15 years ago, then got busy with life and basically forgot about them. Never checked, never sold. The SIP just ran every month like a quiet tap filling a bucket. Verma ji was the active one. He read, he watched videos,…

If you open YouTube/Instagram in India today, the algorithm feeds you a very specific dream. A young guy in a polo t-shirt sits in front of a laptop. He draws a few lines on a chart (Technical Analysis), presses a button, and 10 minutes later, shows a screenshot: Profit: ₹5,200. The Pitch: Why work 9-to-5…

Have you ever tried to sell something on OLX—maybe an old phone or a piece of furniture? You list it for ₹15,000. You think it is a fair price. It has served you well. Then, the messages start coming in: Bhaiya, ₹5,000 cash? or Last price ₹6,000. You get angry. You feel insulted. You think…

Most retirement planning focuses on the “Magic Number”—the total corpus. But the day you stop working, the game changes. You stop getting credited on the 1st of the month, which helps you meet all your expenses. Instead, you need to plan to get that money into your account from the corpus you have accumulated. To…

There is a scene in the classic Bollywood movie Baghban that haunts an entire generation of Indian parents. Amitabh Bachchan’s character, having retired and spent his entire provident fund on his children’s settlements, sits at home. He asks his son for a small amount of money for glasses. The son sighs, rolls his eyes, and…

Mr Sharma (a pseudonym for perhaps your father, uncle, or neighbour) is a success story of the great Indian middle-class dream. He grew up in an India of scarcity—ration cards, waiting years for a telephone connection, and job security being the ultimate prize. For 40 years, he worked tirelessly in a PSU or a corporate…

Many NRIs living in the Middle East may be making a simple but expensive mistake with their Indian mutual fund investments. They continue holding their mutual funds for years without periodically realising their long-term capital gains, assuming they can redeem whenever they want. On the surface, this may not seem like an issue. But if…

The setting is familiar. It’s a cousin’s wedding, a Diwali card party, or a quiet Sunday lunch. You are enjoying your paneer tikka when Sharma Uncle—a distant relative, a retired neighbour, or perhaps your own Chacha ji—corners you. After five minutes of polite small talk about your job and marriage prospects, the pivot happens. Beta,…

In the world of personal finance, there is a silent disease that kills more wealth than market crashes or recessions. It isn’t ignorance. It isn’t inflation. It is Hyper-Optimisation. It is the irresistible urge to shift your money from an instrument giving 12% to one that might give 14%. We call this the 2% Itch….