Guides

Short, specific pieces on how money actually behaves — what compounding does to a portfolio, why the minimum payment on a credit card is a trap, which tax regime wins and at what deduction level. Each one links to the calculator that proves it.

• Asset allocation, and why "100 minus your age" is a poor starting point

  Allocation should follow when you need the money and how large a fall you can sit through — not your birthday.

  investing, planning, allocation · 2 min read

• Averaging down — when it is a strategy and when it is a story

  Buying more of a falling stock lowers your average price. Whether that helps depends on a question most investors avoid asking.

  investing, stocks, behaviour · 3 min read

• Buy Now Pay Later feels free because you never see the bill all at once

  BNPL splits a purchase into three or four tidy slices, and each one looks manageable. Stack six of them and you are running ₹30,000 a month in invisible EMIs at rates that make a credit card look gentle.

  debt, bnpl, spending, traps · 4 min read

• Working out your FIRE number, and why 25× is optimistic in India

  The rule of 25 came from a study of US markets with 3% inflation and a 30-year retirement. Here is what changes when you apply it to a 45-year Indian retirement.

  fire, retirement, independence · 5 min read

• Capital gains tax, and the holding periods that change everything

  The same profit can be taxed at two very different rates depending on how long you held. Knowing the boundaries is worth more than most investment decisions.

  tax, investing, capital-gains · 3 min read

• Funding a degree that has not been priced yet

  Education inflation runs at 8% to 10%. A ₹25 lakh course today is ₹79 lakh in fifteen years. The maths, the glide path, and the products to avoid.

  planning, education, goals · 5 min read

• Corporate FDs: what the extra 2% is actually paying you for

  A 9% company deposit against a 7% bank deposit is not free money. It is unsecured lending with no deposit insurance, and the history of what happens when it goes wrong.

  corporate-fd, fixed-deposits, risk · 5 min read

• The five years you skip at the start cost more than any five years after

  Delaying a SIP by five years does not cost you five years of contributions. It costs you the five most compounded years, which is usually about half the final corpus.

  investing, compounding, time · 5 min read

• What missing the ten best days costs

  Market timing requires being right twice. The arithmetic of missing a handful of days explains why almost nobody manages it.

  investing, behaviour, sip · 3 min read

• How a credit card turns ₹50,000 into ₹1.4 lakh

  Card interest is quoted monthly, compounds daily, and starts the moment you pay less than the full amount. Each of those three facts costs money.

  debt, credit-cards, interest · 3 min read

• The minimum due is a product, and you are what it sells

  Paying 5% of the balance on a card charging 42% a year takes over a decade to clear and costs more than the original purchase. The mechanics, and how to get out.

  debt, credit-cards, traps · 5 min read

• What actually moves a credit score, in order of weight

  Five factors decide the number. Two of them account for most of it, and the one people worry about most barely registers.

  credit, basics, borrowing · 2 min read

• Crypto tax in India: 30% flat, no set-off, and the 1% TDS you forgot about

  India taxes crypto gains at 30% with no deductions except the cost of acquisition. Losses cannot be set off against anything. And every sale — even at a loss — triggers 1% TDS. The maths, plainly.

  tax, crypto, investing · 5 min read

• Snowball or avalanche — which way to clear multiple debts

  One method is mathematically optimal. The other is finished more often. The right choice depends on which failure you are more likely to have.

  debt, loans, behaviour · 2 min read

• The emergency fund — how much, and where it should not sit

  Six months of expenses is the standard answer. The right number depends on how replaceable your income is, and most people size it against the wrong figure.

  planning, savings, basics · 3 min read

• VPF: the best fixed-income rate most salaried people never claim

  Voluntary Provident Fund pays the EPF rate on money you choose to add. The ₹2.5 lakh taxable-interest threshold is the one line that decides how far to push it.

  retirement, epf, vpf · 5 min read

• EV vs petrol: the full cost over five years, not just the fuel saving

  EVs save ₹1 to ₹1.5 per kilometre on fuel. But the upfront premium, battery replacement risk, insurance, and resale collapse change the five-year maths considerably.

  car, ev, fuel, spending · 6 min read

• A 1% fee does not cost you 1% — it costs you a quarter of your money

  Fees compound exactly the way returns do. Over thirty years, a one percentage point difference removes a startling share of the final corpus.

  investing, costs, funds · 2 min read

• FD laddering — liquidity and rate, without choosing between them

  A single large fixed deposit forces a choice between access and yield. Splitting it across maturities removes the choice almost entirely.

  savings, fd, deposits · 3 min read

• You just lost your job — the financial checklist for the next 72 hours

  Layoffs happen fast. The financial response in the first three days determines whether the next six months are manageable or catastrophic. This is the order of operations.

  emergency, budget, job-loss, planning · 5 min read

• FIRE in India: the numbers behind retiring at 45

  The Western FIRE playbook assumes 4% withdrawal rates and no inflation above 3%. In India, you need a different set of numbers — and the corpus is larger than most online calculators suggest.

  fire, retirement, investing, wealth · 5 min read

• Your first salary arrived — here is what to do in the first 30 days

  The first paycheck sets the pattern for the next ten years. Open the right accounts, start the right habits, buy the right insurance, and automate the right transfers — in order.

  budget, salary, beginner, planning · 5 min read

• Your daily Swiggy habit costs more than a SIP that builds ₹15 lakh

  A ₹350 Swiggy order looks like dinner. Placed four times a week, it is ₹5,600 a month — enough to fund a SIP that grows to ₹15 lakh in ten years. The numbers, and a realistic middle ground.

  spending, food, habits, lifestyle · 3 min read

• Gold ETF, digital gold, or SGB: which one you actually own and what you actually pay

  Three ways to own gold without a locker. Each has different costs, lock-ins, tax treatment, and — critically — different answers to the question 'what happens if the platform shuts down.'

  investing, gold, comparison · 5 min read

• Gold in a portfolio — what it does, and what it does not

  Gold produces no income and has no earnings. That makes it a poor growth asset and an unusually good one at a specific job.

  investing, gold, allocation · 3 min read

• Gratuity — the formula, the 4-year-8-month rule, and the tax cap

  A benefit most employees only think about on their last day, when the eligibility rule has already been decided by their resignation date.

  salary, gratuity, employment · 3 min read

• Your health insurance will reject the claim you need most, unless you read page 47

  Health insurance brochures show the sum insured. The policy document shows the sub-limits, co-payments, waiting periods, and exclusions that determine what you actually get. Here is how to read the parts that matter.

  insurance, health, planning · 5 min read

• Health insurance — the six clauses that decide whether you are covered

  Sum insured is the number everyone compares. The clauses that determine what you actually receive are further down the document.

  insurance, protection, health · 3 min read

• Home loan balance transfer: when the rate cut is real and when it is a mirage

  Switching your home loan to a lower rate saves lakhs — but only if the remaining tenure is long enough and the transfer costs do not eat the saving. The breakeven calculation most people skip.

  loans, home-loan, saving · 5 min read

• The four-second decision that costs ₹34 lakh

  Loan tenure is chosen quickly, almost always to make the EMI comfortable. It is the single most expensive number in the whole transaction.

  loans, mortgage, home · 2 min read

• How compounding actually works (and why the last decade does most of the work)

  Compounding is not a steady climb. Most of the money arrives in the final stretch, which is why the starting date matters more than the contribution size.

  investing, basics, compounding · 2 min read

• How discounts are designed to make you spend more

  A discount is a pricing tool, not a gift. Five mechanics that reliably increase total spending, and the two questions that defuse all of them.

  spending, behaviour, discounts · 3 min read

• You are not "in" a tax bracket — and the difference is worth knowing

  The most common tax misunderstanding is that a raise can push you into a bracket and leave you worse off. Slabs are marginal, and here is what that means.

  tax, income-tax, basics · 3 min read

• How much you need to retire, and why the usual number is too small

  Most retirement estimates fail on the same two inputs — inflation applied to the wrong figure, and a horizon that stops too early.

  retirement, planning, inflation · 3 min read

• Sizing an emergency fund for your actual life, not the textbook one

  Six months of expenses is the standard answer. It is right for almost nobody exactly. How to work out the number that fits your income, your dependants and your insurance.

  emergency, savings, planning · 5 min read

• How much term cover you actually need, worked out properly

  Ten times income" is a sales heuristic. The needs-based calculation gives a different number, usually a larger one, and it can be done in ten minutes.

  insurance, protection, planning · 3 min read

• How recurring deposit interest is actually calculated

  Every RD instalment earns interest for a different length of time, compounded quarterly. Here is the actual formula, worked through with real numbers.

  savings, rd, deposits · 3 min read

• How to calculate your net worth (and what the number is actually for)

  Net worth is assets minus liabilities, but the useful version counts things most people leave out and ignores things most people wrongly include.

  planning, net-worth, basics · 3 min read

• Your EPF is probably your largest asset, and you have never looked at it

  The employer contribution is not all going where you think, and one decision at every job change quietly costs people lakhs.

  retirement, epf, salary · 3 min read

• Why most active funds lose to the index they are trying to beat

  It is not that active managers are bad at their jobs. It is an arithmetic constraint that binds before skill enters the picture at all.

  investing, funds, index · 2 min read

• Inflation is the only expense you never get a bill for

  At 6% a year, half your purchasing power is gone in twelve years. Here is what that does to salaries, savings and retirement targets.

  inflation, planning, basics · 2 min read

• A second flat, priced honestly against an index fund

  Buy price against sell price is not a return. Once stamp duty, maintenance, vacancy and illiquidity are counted, most residential property underperforms — here is the arithmetic.

  real-estate, investments, roi · 5 min read

• What to do with a raise, in the two weeks before it arrives

  Lifestyle inflation happens by default, not by decision. Splitting the increase before it lands is the only intervention that reliably works.

  budget, salary, lifestyle · 5 min read

• NAV tells you nothing about whether a fund is cheap

  A fund at ₹10 is not cheaper than one at ₹500. The unit price is an accounting artefact, and the NFO industry depends on people not knowing that.

  investing, mutual-funds, nav · 4 min read

• A mutual fund NFO at ₹10 NAV is not cheaper than a fund at ₹500

  New Fund Offers are marketed like IPOs — get in early, at a low price. But a mutual fund's NAV is not a stock price, and ₹10 buys you exactly the same exposure as ₹500, with less track record to judge.

  investing, mutual-funds, traps · 4 min read

• NPS Tier 1 and Tier 2 — what you are actually signing up for

  Tier 1 carries the tax break and a compulsory annuity at 60. Tier 2 has neither the lock-in nor the deduction. Confusing them is an expensive mistake.

  nps, retirement, pension · 5 min read

• NPS — the extra deduction, and the annuity attached to it

  The additional tax break is real and the costs are among the lowest anywhere. The exit rules are the part to understand before you commit.

  retirement, nps, tax · 2 min read

• Old regime or new — the break-even deduction test

  There is one number that decides it. Work out the total deductions you can genuinely claim, and compare it to the break-even for your income.

  tax, income-tax, planning · 3 min read

• The personal loan rate you were quoted is not the rate you are paying

  Processing fees, flat-rate quoting and insurance bundling routinely add three to eight percentage points to the advertised number.

  loans, debt, personal-loan · 2 min read

• How to plan a wedding that does not start a marriage with debt

  The average Indian wedding costs ₹10 to ₹25 lakh. Most families fund it with a combination of savings and loans they will be paying for years. A sinking fund started 18 months early changes everything.

  savings, wedding, goals, budget · 5 min read

• Post Office Monthly Income Scheme: what it pays and who it suits

  A sovereign-backed monthly payout with a five-year term and a hard investment cap. The limits, the tax treatment, and the trick of pairing it with an RD.

  post-office, safe-returns, income · 5 min read

• PPF, ELSS and NPS — three tax savers that are not substitutes

  They share a deduction section and almost nothing else. Lock-in, liquidity, taxation at exit and who they suit differ completely.

  tax, investing, ppf, nps · 3 min read

• Prepay the loan or invest the money — how to decide properly

  The rate comparison everyone makes is the wrong comparison. Here is the correct one, and the reasons it still might not decide it.

  loans, investing, debt · 3 min read

• Quick commerce delivers in 10 minutes and costs you ₹6,000 a month

  Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart made groceries arrive faster than you can walk to the store. They also made it impossible to buy just one thing. The convenience premium is 15% to 40%, and it compounds.

  spending, lifestyle, budget, traps · 3 min read

• Rent versus buy — the comparison that is almost always done wrong

  Comparing rent to EMI is the wrong comparison. Compare rent to the money you never get back, and the answer changes for a lot of people.

  property, planning, housing · 3 min read

• Rental yield in Indian metros, and why it is lower than you think

  Gross yields of 2% to 3% become net yields under 2% once vacancy, maintenance and tax are counted. What that means for anyone buying property for passive income.

  real-estate, property, yield · 4 min read

• SCSS or a bank FD — why the order you fill them matters

  For anyone over sixty, the Senior Citizen Savings Scheme beats a bank deposit on rate, on safety and on tax. The ₹30 lakh cap is the only reason to look elsewhere.

  retirement, fixed-income, fd · 5 min read

• Section 80C, and the March panic that costs people a decade

  The ₹1.5 lakh deduction is worth at most ₹46,800 in tax. The instrument you use to claim it decides whether you also earn 4% or 12% for the next fifteen years.

  tax, saving, 80c · 5 min read

• Every way to own gold, priced properly

  Jewellery loses 15% at the door. Sovereign Gold Bonds pay you 2.5% to hold them. The gap between the best and worst way to own the same metal is enormous.

  gold, sgb, investing · 5 min read

• You freelanced on weekends and owe the tax department ₹47,000

  Side income from freelancing, content creation, or reselling is taxable from rupee one. Most people discover this at notice time. Here is how to handle it before that.

  tax, freelance, side-hustle, income · 5 min read

• Simple versus compound interest — and which one your product actually uses

  Lenders quote whichever is more flattering. Knowing which convention applies tells you what a deposit really earns and what a loan really costs.

  basics, interest, loans · 2 min read

• Sinking funds — why your budget works until March

  Most budgets fail on costs that are entirely predictable but do not occur monthly. Insurance, festivals, repairs, travel. The fix is arithmetic, not discipline.

  budgeting, planning, savings · 3 min read

• SIP or lumpsum — what the maths actually says

  Lumpsum wins more often on paper. SIP wins more often in practice. Both statements are true, and the reason is not what most people assume.

  investing, sip, behaviour · 2 min read

• The ₹200 a day problem

  Small recurring spends are invisible individually and enormous annually. Here is the arithmetic, and the reason cutting them usually fails anyway.

  budgeting, spending, habits · 3 min read

• Splitting shared expenses without ruining the friendship

  Equal is not the same as fair, and both are better than the usual approach of not settling at all.

  spending, sharing, budgeting · 2 min read

• Subscription creep — the spending category designed to be forgotten

  Recurring charges are optimised to stay below the threshold at which you would cancel them. The average household is paying for several it does not use.

  budgeting, spending, subscriptions · 3 min read

• Sukanya Samriddhi vs mutual funds for your daughter's education

  SSY offers 8.2% guaranteed with EEE tax benefit and a 21-year lock-in. A SIP offers 12%+ historical returns with full liquidity. The right choice depends on when you need the money.

  savings, children, education, comparison · 2 min read

• SWP — turning a corpus into a monthly income without draining it

  A systematic withdrawal plan is an SIP in reverse, with one crucial asymmetry: falling markets now work against you instead of for you.

  retirement, swp, income · 3 min read

• The 50/30/20 budget, and where it breaks in an Indian city

  A useful starting frame that fails in exactly one common situation — and the adjustment that fixes it.

  budgeting, planning, basics · 3 min read

• Step-up SIPs: the 10% a year that doubles the outcome

  A flat SIP assumes your income never rises. Raising the contribution 10% a year turns ₹1 crore into ₹2.26 crore over twenty years, and it never feels like a sacrifice.

  investing, sip, wealth · 5 min read

• Prepay or invest — the comparison people make is the wrong one

  Comparing a loan rate against an expected return ignores that one is certain and the other is not. The correct comparison, and why timing within the tenure matters more than either.

  loans, debt, emi · 5 min read

• Property tax: the bill that arrives every year, forever

  Paying off the home loan does not end the cost of owning. How Indian municipalities calculate the annual bill, what reduces it, and why it belongs in a retirement budget.

  property-tax, real-estate, costs · 5 min read

• The rule of 72, and three other shortcuts worth memorising

  Four pieces of arithmetic you can do in your head that replace most of what people reach for a calculator to work out.

  basics, investing, mental-math · 2 min read

• What a car actually costs per kilometre

  Fuel is the cost people track and the smallest of the big three. Depreciation is the largest, and it never appears on any bill.

  spending, vehicles, budgeting · 3 min read

• The salary a longer commute quietly cancels out

  Comparing two job offers on salary alone ignores a cost that can run to several lakh a year once time is priced in.

  spending, commute, career · 3 min read

• Short term or long term — what the holding period actually costs you

  Two days of holding period can change your tax rate from 20% to 12.5%. The thresholds, the exemption most people waste, and the losses nobody carries forward.

  taxes, equity, capital-gains · 5 min read

• Your UPI history is a better budget than any app you have tried

  UPI made paying effortless, and effortless paying made overspending invisible. A 30-minute audit of your last three months of transactions will show you where ₹8,000 to ₹15,000 a month goes without a receipt.

  budget, upi, digital-payments, spending · 4 min read

• What property actually returns, once you count everything

  A flat bought at ₹50 lakh and sold at ₹85 lakh looks like a 70% gain. After transaction costs, holding costs and time, the annual return is often modest.

  property, investing, returns · 3 min read

• What working from home actually saves, and what it costs

  The savings are real and usually overstated. The costs are real and almost always ignored. Here is the full accounting.

  spending, remote-work, career · 2 min read

• What an EMI actually pays for, month by month

  The EMI never changes, but its composition does. In the early years almost all of it is interest, which explains why the balance barely moves.

  loans, emi, debt · 3 min read

• CAGR, XIRR and absolute return — which number is lying to you

  The same investment can honestly be described as 60% return, 10% CAGR or 14% XIRR. Knowing which applies stops you comparing incomparable things.

  investing, returns, cagr · 2 min read

• Your financial independence number, and the savings rate that decides it

  The years to independence depend almost entirely on the percentage of income you save — not on how much you earn or what returns you get.

  planning, retirement, savings · 3 min read

These guides are information, not financial advice — see the disclaimer.