October does not arrive like the other months. It arrives with a feeling. The mornings carry a gentle chill that was not there last week. The evenings smell different — somewhere between marigolds, fresh paint, and something frying in a kitchen two houses down. The local flower vendor has more stock than usual. And without […]

Picture the world of big money – loans, investments, all that jazz. For ages, there was this go-to number called LIBOR, the London Interbank Offered Rate. It was the yardstick for figuring out interest rates on tons of stuff. But, things change, right? People started wanting something a bit more transparent, something that really showed […]

Sometime in late July, the mother sends a message in the family group. “Raksha Bandhan is coming, everyone makes plans.” The siblings, who haven’t properly spoken in two weeks, suddenly surface. The sister screenshots something from an online store and sends it to her brother with zero context. He replies with a thumbs up, understanding […]

It starts the same way every single year, in every single household across India. Someone — and there is always that one someone — drops a “Happy Navratri!” in the family group chat. Always with that same garba GIF. The pixelated one. The one that has been forwarded so many times it has lost whatever […]

Diwali preparation in most Indian households is organised chaos. There’s mithai to order, fairy lights to untangle from last year, relatives to call and somehow, in the middle of all of it, one reminder always finds its way through: Muhurat Trading. Don’t forget. And for those who know, they never do. It takes just one […]

It never really announces itself. One day everything is normal, and then suddenly the building WhatsApp group is flooded with pandal schedules, someone has spotted a Ganesha idol at a workshop and posted a blurry photo asking if anyone wants to do a group order, and the sweet shop at the corner has quietly doubled […]

There is a feeling that arrives sometime in late September, early October — hard to name but impossible to miss. The markets are still open. Your inbox is still full. But something in the air has shifted. The marigold vendors are back at the street corners. The dhak players are practising in someone’s courtyard nearby. […]

Somewhere around late October, it happens. Someone in the family – usually a mother or a grandmother – starts mentioning Dhanteras in passing. Casually at first. “Have you checked when Dhanteras is this year?” And then a little more urgently. “We should clean the puja room this weekend.” And then, suddenly, all at once, it […]

Introduction Let’s be honest—most of us avoid talking about money unless we absolutely have to. It’s either too stressful, too confusing, or just… not today. But here’s the thing: not thinking about it doesn’t make the problems go away. That’s where financial planning comes in. It’s not a fancy word reserved for the wealthy. It’s […]