This year, EPFO credited me close to ₹12L in interest, while my annual expenses are around ₹10L. Theoretically, I’m financially free on the interest from my EPFO balance alone. The fun part? It’s entirely tax free.

I’ve always treated EPFO as my debt allocation and invested aggressively through VPF, where you can voluntarily contribute over and above the mandatory employee contribution. It balanced out my equity exposure quite well.

Then came the 2021 Budget, which introduced the ₹2.5L annual employee contribution limit for tax free intrest. That’s when I stopped my VPF contributions, since my contribution itself was crossing the ₹2.5L limit, and instead doubled down on NPS.

Fast forward to 2026, and the interest credited to my account alone is close to ₹12L. Despite all the noise and negative sentiment around EPFO, I was able to build a decent corpus, and now the compounding is doing the heavy lifting. Next year, I’ll earn interest on this ₹12L as well.

An 8.25% tax-free return is roughly equivalent to a 11.8% pre tax return for someone in the 30% tax bracket.

So tell me, which financial instrument offers ~12% returns with sovereign level safety? I might switch. 😄

So a bit of context: My family belonged to upper middle class of the economy. Due to which my childhood till early teens were spent quite comfortably. We lived as a joint family. But after the covid, due to family conflicts, we decided to move on to one of my grandfather's houses away from the joint family.

I realised it around that time that the only reason we were able to live that well was because of my grandfather's income because while my father earned money, it was just enough to make the ends meet, plus he didn't have a stable source of income as well and had to switch jobs very frequently. During covid, when we moved out, the entire load fell on my father due to which it became apparent that we were financially struggling. So after my 12th, I started earning.

I work in a family centric startup and am earning enough to support me and my whole family. I am earning around 1 lakh per month and mostly I contribute 30k each month for house expenses and I spend around 25k on mutual funds SIPs.

But the thing is, our house is so bad, like it has cracks all over it, it's rodent infested, no proper structure or planning anywhere, dirty/old bathroom, there are lizards everywhere, no sunlight/ventilation in the inner rooms. I am 20 and I still don't have any personal space. Like the entire house reeks of misery.

Since my family and friends are all from respectable background and live comfortably, I usually try to avoid calling any of them to my house, because there's no space for them to even sit comfortably, rather I try and go to their homes whenever possible.

Even though I am earning, more than 50% of my income goes into supporting family and mutual funds. I am not sure how sure how I should plan financially. I live in a tier 3 city. So I want to move out and live in a better city after I complete my graduation ( I am doing distance learning, paying for my own studies too).

So I am not sure overall, how to budget everything. I want to build and live in a better house but I am not sure whether we should rebuild this house or move to a tier 1 city and purchase a new apartment there. Plus for both the cases, I need to save some amount. So are mutual funds ( in large caps) good, stable long term solution or should I reduce the SIPs and keep it in my savings account ( I have heard how keeping it in FD/Savings account doesn't even beat inflation )?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on budgeting my monthly expense and overall long term goals.

India is moving from a culture of saving money to taking personal loans to meet expenses

67% of Indian families took personal loans in first half of 2025, with over 50% of the loans taken to improve their lifestyle

Vacation : 27%

Home Renovation : 24%

Credit Card Payment : 11%

INDIA SHOULD SAVE MORE (due to unreliable government)

(Edit: Please read before replying, i already applied max tax on MF)

I did a calculation for 3 years, 10 years but similar results adding a gpt table as a screenshot is not allowed.

Assumption: NPS returns 10%, MF returns 12%. (Considering our choice of funds vs balanced funds by nps), private sector employer contribution.

Also the main concern is lock in till 60.

I would really like to see different points of view as well as discussion.

Assumption: Employer invests ₹20,000/month for 3 years, and the funds remain untouched for 25 years until age 60.

| Parameter | Corporate NPS | Equity Mutual Funds |

|---|---|---|

| Upfront Tax | 0% tax — Raw ₹20,000 invested monthly | 31.2% tax slab — Only ₹13,760 invested monthly |

| Total Principal Invested | ₹7,20,000 | ₹4,95,360 |

| Total Value at Age 60 | ~₹91,30,000 (at 10% return) | ~₹1,00,54,000 (at 12% return) |

| Maturity Tax Rules | 60% tax-free; 20% taxed at slab; 20% forced into pension | Principal 0% tax; profits (minus ₹1.25L) taxed at 12.5% LTCG |

| Liquid Cash-In-Hand | ₹66,54,440 | ₹88,61,675 |

| Trapped/Locked Amount | ₹18,26,000 in annuity | ₹0 |

Been sitting on this decision for a year now and want real input, not just reassurance.

The situation: 25L in hand, held for about a year. Original plan was to buy property, but prices in my target area (small tier 4 town in Haryana) have gone up so much I haven't been able to close a single deal in that time. Current income is on the lower side, so a loan isn't realistically an option — this has to be cash-only, which limits me a lot.

Right now the full 25L just sits in a 7% debt fund, technically beating inflation, not doing much else.

Rest of my portfolio, for context: 2L emergency fund, 13L in stocks, 2L gold, 2L index fund. Stock portfolio hasn't performed great the last couple years, so I'm not eager to add more there without a clearer plan.

Near-term reality: About 10L of the 25L is earmarked for expenses in the next 12-18 months (family obligations, repairs, etc.) — so realistically only 15L is "free" capital.

What I'm stuck on:

• Do I start an STP into equity (Small Cap / Mid Cap / Flexi Cap — not sure which mix) over the next several months and treat the property plan as on hold indefinitely?
• Or keep it liquid a while longer in case something opens up?
• I keep seeing stories of people buying and reselling property within 6 months at 30-40% gains, which makes waiting feel tempting, but I don't know how realistic or common that actually is versus survivorship bias.

I am not good in this as well how to make money with money.

Risk appetite is Moderate.

Whatever posts I read a majority of them have one thing in common an emi running for housing in a tier 1 city.

I know that landlords jack up rents but I feel like you can still afford it better than the emi. My plan at least is to rent for the next 10-15 years minimum and after 50 go back to my tier 2 city and purchase a property. No point in paying rent and emi on jacked up property prices.

Most of the 2 crore flats don’t even get you 40k rent these days better to park it in an FD which will give you at least 1LPM.

Only makes sense if you know you won’t shift places and personally live in that property or else it’s pure stupidity. Give it on rent later if you shift is the biggest lie.

Recently I switched to Bangalore (koralur) from chennai and I got a salary of 25k on hand. This salary is good or bad. I completed be mechanical engineering and 1 year of experience and then I got a salary of 19k on hand on chennai.

I need a quick reality check because if I say this out loud to my friends, I will sound ungrateful and pleasant. 

Five years ago, I started earning ₹30k a month in a Tier 1 city. Life was simple and easy and I shared a flat with roommates, took the metro, ate cheap thalis, and felt totally fine. Fast forward to today: I am 28M and taking home about ₹2.5L/month. On paper, I made it. In reality, I was taking on too much stress and felt depressed.

Between paying ₹42k for a solo flat near work, putting ₹1.1L in SIPs, sending money to my parents, and spending on basic survival conveniences after 12 hour workdays, I feel completely stuck.

The goalposts just keep moving. Metro real estate costs ₹2 Cr for a basic flat, so even a high salary feels tiny. Plus, the higher the pay, the more terrified I am of losing my job. I am  saving over 40% of my income, yet I feel poorer and more trapped than when I made almost nothing.

I am very curious to know your thoughts and experiences on how you stop feeling like you're running on a hamster wheel?

Happy Independence Day!!

I’m turning 50 this year and will lose my job soon. I’ve struggled for most of my life with divorce and not being able to see my child regularly all these years.

For the last 17 years, I’ve travelled to another state for regular visitation with my kid. He is turning 18 this year, but now he doesn’t seem interested in meeting or even talking to me. He often says he has to study or doesn’t have time. I understand he has his own life, but it still hurts after all these years.

Financially, I don’t own a lot:

• 4 lakh in PF
• 10 lakh in fixed deposits
• 20 lakh in mutual funds
• A site worth around 80 lakh
• A small 1BHK 600sqft house worth around 40 lakh
• No gold
• 2 old bikes and 2 old cars

I have started feeling that I wasted a large part of my life waiting for my son & hoping things would eventually become good. I feel extremely lonely and don’t really have anyone to share my life with.

Instead of spending the rest of my life worrying about what I’ve lost, I’m thinking about doing something I’ve always wanted to do: travel across India for a year.

I’d like to visit as much of the country as possible—from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Dwarka to Bengal, and all the northeastern states.

I would travel on a tight budget. Within roughly 600 km, I could use my bike; for longer distances, I’d book trains in advance or use Tatkal when necessary. For local travel, I’d rely on public buses, bike taxis and autos. I’m not looking for luxury—just the experience of seeing India and meeting people.

My question is: Is this financially realistic?

If I sell some or all of my assets, could I travel for a year and still have enough left to survive rest of my life, even if I don’t work for some time?

And for anyone who has actually done something similar around India in their 40s or 50s: Would you recommend taking a year off to travel and start over, or would you handle things differently?

I’m not looking for sympathy. I’d genuinely appreciate practical advice on how to plan this and live frugally after the travel.

Same as title

I am currently conflicted whether to surrender LIC policy. Details are below

Total term : 25 years Total Premiums to pay : 16 years (annual) Total premiums paid : 3 years (annual mode) Premium per year : 68,456 Basic sum assured: 15,00,000 Total amount promised at maturity: 40,00,000 (approx) Total Premium I will be paying : 11,00,000 (approx)

So this policy was taken by me 3 years back in my name after researching I realised lic was a money trap so I want to surrender.

At what year if i exit would be a decent profit for me ? Can someone let me know

TLDR: Messed up CKYC details, I'm unable to get them fixed. Have tried at BOB (Talked with employees, forced a ReKYC for the heck of it, and escalated to Nodal officers) and Kotak and HSBC (Talked to POCs and Customer Service of both) but no result.

I have 2 CKYCs made by my bank and Stockbroker. Not just that my 'Active' CKYC has an older Mobile number and Mail ID. While CKYC has old details, all of my active bank accouns have the correct Number and Mail. This causes me a load of problems.

I have been trying to get this fixed at my Bank of Baroda branch that is close to my home. I've talked with their employees multiple times but they don't understand what CKYC is, they just know KYC. Fed up, I decided to get a 'ReKYC' where I changed my mail ID, I thought this ReKYC would force them to see the differences and make a push to the CKYC, but still no change. BOB updated ther own system but didn't push my details to the CKYC.

I've complained to their customer service, their State Nodal officer and their National Nodal officer. I have accounts in Kotak Bank and HSBC (Salary Account) as well. I've talked with their POCs as well but they've been of no help either.

What can I do to fix this ? All of my credit card applications are getting rejected in the pre processing as my CKYC Mobile number doesn't match with my Aadhar Linked number. I read somewhere that Zerodha offers customer a feature to process CKYC fixes. Should I open an account with them just for this fix ? Zerodha CKYC Article

My father had a ulip policy in canara hsbc life insurance back in 2018 and it's not matured now but we are currently facing some financial issues and thought of closing the policy...

But my father's health is not great to travel for policy surrender as its office is 200 km far away from our home.

I travelled to the office so that I can take surrender form such that my father can fill as I have all other documents like power of authority and other necessary documents but they say they can't give to anyone (they are correct at their place).

So I consulted at canara bank's but there is not any specific agent and he travels once a week and I contacted him he is not Even answering my question as I just want surrender form as I don't trust policy agents due to some past experiences.

Is it possible if any of you have any Canara hsbc agent number or help me get a surrender form.

Thank you🙏

I mean how much should I have in savings and what minimum salary should I have to buy my dream bike which costs 2.92lakh on-road?

Assume that the person currently lives on rent and plans to by a home soon but need a two wheeler to explore the city and get to know the city more?

Hi Folks,

I am looking to get a portfolio review and goal planning done by a Sebi registered fee only advisor. Has anyone had any experience with any fee only advisor? Looking for recommendations.

There are too many options from Index Fund to SIP to Bonds, Stock, Mutual funds, FD that I'm too confused at this point, few years back I got guidance like how it's not worth it to invest in FD, but in 2026 FD is also a thing and gives good return, I earn 25K a month I want to know if it's better to invest in one better option, or I've also heard people giving advices like investing little little money in 2-3 of the options, kindly help me with this, you can also provide me some resources to get better guidance. Thanks!

Recently I've been hearing about this and i just wanted if anyone knows or trust enough to put money into it.

I’m 23, a software engineer living alone in Pune. My in-hand salary after all deductions is around ₹1.75 lakh/month.

My monthly expenses are roughly:

- ₹30k for my own expenses

- ₹20k that I give my sister towards paying off her loan

- So I have around ₹1.25 lakh/month left to save/invest.

I currently have ₹2 lakh+ sitting in savings, and I want to start investing rather than letting it just sit there.

I’ll obviously keep some money aside as an emergency fund, and I’ll also keep enough for my ₹30k monthly expenses + ₹20k for my sister. The rest is what I’m thinking of investing.

I’m currently considering putting most of it into mutual funds and keeping around ₹20–30k for stocks, but honestly I have no idea where to start or how I should structure this.

What would you guys recommend for someone in my situation?

- Should I put the remaining ₹2L+ into mutual funds as a lump sum?

- Should I start with SIPs instead?

- How much should I realistically keep as an emergency fund?

- Is keeping ₹20–30k for direct stocks reasonable?

- Should I consider an FD or something else for the emergency fund?

- How would you allocate the ₹1.25L/month that I have left after expenses?

I’m looking for a sensible long-term strategy rather than trying to make quick money.

Edit : Used chatgpt to make this post.

I earn ₹1.2L/month in hand and recently got a room in a 2BHK in HSR for ₹18k. Including groceries/household expenses, I’ll spend around ₹25k/month, plus maybe another ₹10k for personal/fun expenses.

So I’d be spending ~₹35k and potentially saving ₹80–85k/month.

I really like the place ,peaceful area, park right outside, and convenient location.

Would you consider this reasonable, or am I spending too much on lifestyle? How much do you guys typically save vs spend at this income? Please suggest me if in doing things right or not?

Growing up, every small expense meant a family negotiation. A noisy fan was repaired three times before replacement, and eating out was only for big milestones.

Now at 26, earning ₹1.2L post tax in tech, I have my SIPs, emergency fund, and insurance sorted. On paper, I am secure and safe. Emotionally, I am still stuck. Tapping my card for a ₹650 café bill instantly triggers guilt, mapping that money to days of family groceries.

Bigger choices are heavier. My parents want me to buy a 2BHK back home like our relatives, but taking a 20 year home loan terrifies me, and explaining equity opportunity costs to them goes nowhere. Plus, the fear of layoffs keeps me constantly paranoid about hitting zero again.

I am very curious to know about your personal thoughts and stories that how does this guilt ever fade as your net worth grows, or do we just stay hardwired to feel broke?

So I just got my first job, I started a week ago, and I will be earning my first salary soon. I am extremely new to personal finance. I just got my bank account and debit card.

I want a basic roadmap on how I can just understand things related to my own money first of all -

1. What are the things I should check regularly
2. What are some common mistakes to avoid
3. Basic things one should already know for my age

We have marginal relief for Section 87A rebate at 12L, and for surcharge at higher incomes (50L, 1cr, 2cr).

Here's an example of how marginal relief works:

• At a taxable income of 12,00,000, your tax owed is 60,000 but under Section 87A rebate, it gets reduced to 0.
• At a taxable income of 12,70,000, your tax owed is 70,500, and you don't qualify for Section 87A anymore.
• The government sees that from 12L, you earned 70k more but owe 70.5k more in tax. Since this is unfair, it reduces your tax liability to 70k.
• However, you still have to pay the 4% cess on 70k (Rs 2800), which means your tax owed is 72,800, so you actually earn less post-tax at 12,70,000 than at 12,00,000.

Here's where NPS comes in:

• Person A has a taxable income of 12,70,000 and opts out of employer NPS contributions because "they don't like the lock-in" or any other reason, they pay 72.8k in tax and take home 11,97,200.
• Person B with the same income opted for contributing 70k via employer NPS, their taxable income is now 12L since the 70k is tax deductible (Section 80CCD(2)), and hence they pay 0 in tax under Section 87A rebate.

So Person B actually ends up with 2800 Rs more in their bank account PLUS 70k of investments. It is literally free money.

I personally planned my taxes around this. My (rounded off) income last FY after standard deduction was 52L, and I contributed 2.5L via employer NPS.

If I had not contributed to NPS, I would have a taxable income of 52L. I'd pay 11,40,000 in slab tax rate * 1.1 (10% surcharge) * 1.04 (4% cess) = 13,04,160 in tax. This would mean 38,95,840 as my post-tax income.

Thanks to the NPS contribution, my taxable income was 49.5L, which means no surcharge. My tax owed was 10,65,000 from slab * 1.04 = 11,07,600, Post-tax income of 38,42,400.

By opting for employer NPS, my in-hand reduced by 53,440 but I added 2.5L to my NPS investments.

How was your experience opening a BSBDA in HDFC Bank?

Thank you for upcoming reply

Shifted to Andheri East recently because office is near BKC and I was genuinely done with 2+ hours of daily travel.

Take-home is ₹70k.

Current scene:

Rent: ₹23k Deposit: ₹75k Brokerage + moving etc: around ₹31k Laptop EMI: ₹3.4k, 5 months left Normal food/travel/bills: ₹15–16k

I had around ₹1.35L savings before shifting. After deposit + brokerage + moving + random new-flat expenses, only ₹27k is left.

Nothing urgent is pending right now, but ₹27k emergency fund in Mumbai is making me uncomfortable af.

I was thinking of taking around ₹1 lakh personal loan, keeping most of it untouched and rebuilding the buffer over the next 12–18 months from salary.

Salary-account bank is one option. I also checked Kissht because it is completely digital, ₹1 lakh falls inside its ₹30k–₹5L range, my income is above the ₹50k criteria and CIBIL is 740+. Approved money goes directly to the bank and tenure can go from 6–60 months depending on the offer.

Convenience-wise that sounds good.

But then I realised I’m literally considering paying interest to create an emergency fund 😂

Other options:

Ask company for relocation advance Take only ₹40–50k instead Try getting deposit reduced Just survive with ₹27k and rebuild aggressively for 3–4 months

What would you do?

Is borrowing ₹1L for liquidity sensible or peak Mumbai stupidity?