Though the Vedas divided our lives into four ashramas or stages of that of a student, a householder, a retiree and a renouncer, our lived reality breaks it down to three — the learning, earning and harvesting stages. The first 20-25 years of an average life are spent in learning to earn. The next 35-40 in earning and the...
Stock markets go up and down. Investors who enjoyed the 20% plus a year returns for four years ending September 2024 are seeing red in their one-year returns on the Sensex but returns of two years are still in the 10% plus range. Held for five years, the returns are an impressive 16% average annual....
Listening to the reactions of people to the FY26 Union Budget, it seemed as if Diwali had come early this year. The reason for the smiles and the palpable relief was the huge leap of faith the finance minister took to leave over ₹1 lakh crore in the pockets of the income-tax-paying Indian citizen by making...
There is much middle-class angst at the heavy burden it bears on income taxes paid. Other than the dysfunctional nature of government services and a deeply corrupt interface with government agencies, what weighs heavily on the middle-class heart is the fact that so many people remain stubbornly outside the tax net. These people are seen...
As yet another budget rolls up, the usual expectation of a tax cut has reared its head again among the Indian middle-class that continues to seek a cut in the burden that they carry disproportionately for all those who don’t. Personal income taxes, paid by less than 5% of the total population, pulled 19% of...
If you were to read the news reports about your own earning, spending and saving patterns, you would think that you are earning less due to stagnant wages, spending less due to inflation, and saving less due to repayment of loans. And this is contributing to a slowing economy and therefore, the cue is to...
Murders usually stoke a rush of sympathy for the victim and her/his family, as it should. But the murder of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, on a New York street on December 4, 2024, instead brought to the surface the simmering public anger against insurance firms which “deny, defend and depose” as a strategy to...
I have answered reader, viewer, and listener questions about money for a long time. I have seen them change over time. There used to be entry-level questions about what to do with ₹50,000 in the bank, what stocks and funds to buy, portfolio questions around asset allocation, strategy questions — a whole range of questions around...
From September 1, Russia legalised the use of cryptocurrencies to settle international trade accounts and wants to create an “experimental infrastructure” for such payments. India has at least $900 million stuck in unpaid dividends in Russian investments that are unable to be repatriated due to the sanctions faced by Russia. India has allowed the Chinese...
The age cohort that began work in the decades surrounding 1991 is now in its 50s and 60s. This is the urban mass affluent population slice that saw its boats lift with the giant wave of economic growth and prosperity that the economic reforms of 1991 unleashed. You just had to be in the right...