Resources
Investing, explained without the jargon.
Short, specific guides on the things that actually move the needle — fees, asset allocation, tax, and how to tell genuine advice from a sales pitch. Educational only; not personalised advice.
Behaviour
What to do (and not do) when the market crashes
Crashes are certain; the damage is mostly self-inflicted. A calm, pre-committed checklist for the next 30% fall.
Choosing an adviser
How to verify a SEBI Registered Investment Adviser before you pay
Five checks — registration number, the SEBI list, BASL membership, the fee account, and the red flags — that take ten minutes and can save you from a fraud.
Estate planning
Organising your estate: the document map and your digital assets
The cruellest estate problem is wealth the family never finds. How to build a master record, align nominations, and stop your digital assets being lost.
Choosing an adviser
Fee-only vs commission: how your adviser is paid shapes the advice
Two people can both call themselves 'advisers' and have opposite incentives. The difference is who pays them — you, or the product.
Choosing an adviser
What SEBI's RIA rules actually give you as a client
Behind 'SEBI Registered Investment Adviser' is a set of client protections. What the regulations require your adviser to do — and not do.
Choosing an adviser
Risk profiling: capacity, tolerance, and the number that drives your plan
Before any advice, a SEBI adviser must profile your risk. The three different things 'risk' means, and why your gut feeling isn't enough.
Mutual funds
Reading a mutual fund factsheet: what actually matters
Factsheets are dense with numbers. The handful that tell you whether a fund fits — and the ones that are just noise.
Estate planning
Nominations, joint holding and what happens to your money after you
A nominee is a trustee, not an heir. The mismatch between nomination and your will is where families get stuck — here's how to avoid it.
Retirement
Living off your corpus: the SWP approach to retirement income
In retirement you need a paycheck from your portfolio. Why a systematic withdrawal plan beats dividends and FDs for tax-efficient income.
Estate planning
Financial planning for a special-needs dependent
Planning for a dependent with a disability needs more than savings — a trust, a guardian, the right insurance, and a letter of intent so care continues after you.
Retirement
How much do you need to retire? The 4% rule, adjusted for India
The famous 4% rule comes from US data. A worked Indian example: inflating expenses, the corpus multiple, healthcare, and sequence-of-returns risk.
Estate planning
Private family trusts in India: when they're worth it (and when they're not)
A family trust can smooth succession and protect vulnerable beneficiaries, but carries real cost and complexity. How they work, and who actually needs one.
Retirement
NPS in depth: tiers, choices, taxes and the annuity catch
The NPS is low-cost and tax-friendly, but the lock-in and forced annuity at the end are real trade-offs. The full picture, end to end.
Retirement
EPF and VPF: the retirement base most salaried Indians ignore
Your EPF is probably your biggest debt allocation and you barely notice it. How EPF and VPF work, the interest, and the tax on high contributions.
Estate planning
Dying without a will: how intestate succession works in India
Without a will, the law decides who inherits — and the rules differ by religion. How intestate succession works, and why the default rarely matches your wishes.
Tax
Tax-loss harvesting: using the rules to trim your tax bill
Two legitimate, year-end moves: harvest the ₹1.25 lakh equity exemption, and book losses to offset gains. How to do both cleanly.
Tax
Old vs new tax regime: how to actually decide (with worked examples)
The new regime is now the default and Budget 2025 made it far more attractive. Worked examples showing which one costs you less.
Tax
ELSS, PPF or NPS? Tax-saving under 80C — and why the new regime changes the question
If you're on the new tax regime, most 80C deductions no longer apply — which flips how you should think about these three instruments.
Tax
Capital gains tax on your investments: the Budget 2024 reset
Budget 2024 changed the rates and holding periods. LTCG, STCG, loss set-off and the ₹1.25 lakh exemption — with worked examples.
Tax
How mutual funds are taxed in India (after the 2024 changes)
Equity, debt and hybrid funds are taxed differently, and Budget 2024 reshuffled the rates. A current map of what you'll owe.
Estate planning
Writing a will in India: what makes it valid, and why everyone needs one
A will is the cheapest estate-planning document, and most Indians die without one. What makes it valid, what to include, and when probate applies.
Investing
Rebalancing: when to do it, and the tax-smart way
Rebalancing keeps your risk where you intended and enforces buy-low-sell-high. How often, by how much, and how to keep the tax low.
Mutual funds
Debt mutual funds: the types, and the two risks to understand
Debt funds aren't 'safe FDs with better returns'. The categories, how interest-rate and credit risk work, the lessons from past defaults, and how to choose.
Behaviour
The behavioural biases that quietly wreck portfolios
Most investing mistakes aren't analytical — they're emotional. The biases that cost real money, and the guardrails against them.
Behaviour
The cost of timing the market: why missing a few days hurts so much
Trying to dodge the dips usually means missing the rebounds. What missing the market's best days does to long-run returns.
Behaviour
Three SIP myths that cost investors real money
'SIPs guarantee returns', 'rupee-cost averaging always wins', and 'stop when the market falls' — each is wrong in a way that quietly hurts.
Investing
Lump sum, SIP or STP: how to actually deploy your money
Got money to invest? Whether to go all-in, drip it monthly, or stagger it depends on where the money comes from — not on a slogan.
Investing
A goals-first blueprint for your first ₹10 lakh
An illustrative, plain-vanilla way to structure a first portfolio around goals and time horizons — not around whatever's trending.
Investing
Goal-based investing: matching money to what it's actually for
Investing without a goal is just speculation with extra steps. How to map goals to horizons, inflate them honestly, and pick the right asset.
Investing
Asset allocation beats stock picking — and the evidence isn't close
Which funds you buy matters far less than how you split money across equity, debt and gold — and whether you rebalance. With sample allocations.
Mutual funds
ETF or index fund? Both track an index — here's the real difference
ETFs and index funds can follow the same index, but how you buy, price and hold them differs in ways that matter.
Investing
Index funds vs active funds: what the Indian data actually shows
Active managers promise to beat the market for a fee. The evidence on how often they succeed, why, and where active can still earn its keep.
Mutual funds
Large-cap, mid-cap, small-cap, flexi-cap: SEBI's fund labels decoded
Since SEBI's categorisation, fund labels mean specific things. What large/mid/small/flexi/multi-cap actually require.
Mutual funds
Expense ratio, exit load and TER: the costs quietly eating your returns
Fund costs are small percentages that compound into large sums. What the expense ratio, exit load and other charges actually are.
Mutual funds
Direct vs regular mutual funds: what that 1% really costs you
A regular plan quietly pays your distributor every year out of your money. Here's what the gap does to a 20-year SIP — with the maths.
Insurance
Why insurance and investment should never share a policy
ULIPs, endowment and money-back plans promise both protection and returns, and deliver mediocre versions of each. Keep them separate.
Insurance
Health insurance in India: the features that actually matter
Sum insured is just the headline. The clauses, the super top-up maths, floater vs individual, and the claim process that decide whether your policy actually pays.
Insurance
Term insurance: how much cover, and why nothing else comes close
If someone depends on your income, term cover is the cheapest, cleanest protection there is. How to size it properly, riders, and what voids claims.
Foundations
Good debt, bad debt, and whether to prepay your home loan
Not all borrowing is equal. How to rank your debts, and the actual maths of prepaying a home loan versus investing.
Foundations
Your emergency fund: how much, and where to actually keep it
Before SIPs and stock tips comes the boring layer that makes everything else possible. How many months, and where to keep it without losing access.
Foundations
The savings rate: the one number that matters most
You can't control market returns, but you control how much you save. Why your savings rate beats fund selection — and how to lift it.
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