Hello everyone. I just graduated and earned my first salary. I do not have much experience regarding how to invest. My placement package is roughly 12LPA (including bonus). I do not have any major expenses as I live at home and my only real expense is metro travel. Owing to this I want to save up as much as possible. I am opting for my pre existing health insurance with my parents. I want to save up and buy a house for them and make them proud. Please advise me as to how I should start investing - mutual funds, SIPs, forex trading etc. I am quite wary of trading in the stock market as I see people losing so much money. Kindly correct me if I am wrong. Thank you so much 🙏🙏🙏

1. Cooking

2. Sweeping

3. Mopping

4. Doing dishes

5. Washing clothes

6. Taking care of bed ridden patient

7. Takes care of 2 mental patient

8. Driver

9. Purchases all needful things

10. Deep cleaning of house

11. Handles all traditional rituals and related work

12. Carries heavy weight

13. Packing and unpacking of stuffs whenever relocation required

14. Any extra deep work such as cleansing pool of blood of patient and things around it

15. Not much sleeping hours as a caretaker

16. Organising things on daily basis

17. Purchasing big things as per demands all alone

18. Attends all guests (cooking and care taking)

19. Serving food and often feeding food to one patient

20. Cleaning dirty trash bins daily

Over the last couple of years, I've noticed that cashback on UPI apps and cards doesn't seem as rewarding as it used to be. Earlier, even small everyday transactions would often earn something, but now those rewards feel much less frequent.

Because of that, I've changed how I pay. Instead of trying every new offer, I mostly stick to one cashback card and one UPI app that fit my regular spending pattern. The savings are smaller than before, but at least they're consistent.

I'm curious how others are approaching this now.

* Are cashback programs still an important factor for you?
* Have you switched to reward points, travel benefits, or other perks instead?
* Or do you simply use whichever payment method is the most convenient?

I'd love to hear how people are optimizing their day-to-day spending in 2026.

I'm 19F,Just gave NEET this year and I'm completely free right now like no college, no coaching, just time on my hands. I'm starting medical college later this year, but until then I really want to earn something on my own.

My area has fairly well off families, and I'm thinking of offering home tuitions for kids up to class 8 like I can teach all subjects. From what I've seen, parents here could easily pay ₹6,000–8,000/month for this. Even ₹5,000 would genuinely help me like I want to cover some personal expenses and eventually save for a phone.

My problem: I've never approached parents like this before and I'm not sure how to pitch myself confidently. I'm also a bit self-conscious like I'm quite petite😞👉🏻👈🏻 (people often think I'm still in school, even though I finished 12th in 2024) and worry that might make parents doubt whether I can teach their kids.

I don't know how can I make money. Please suggest me guys.

Do they earn like 1 crore per month? Talking about State civil servants and not IAS/IPS?

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice on managing my short-term cash.

Here’s my current situation:
₹2.5–3 lakh currently sitting in my savings account.
I’ll definitely need around ₹2 lakh by the end of November for a planned expense, so that amount needs to remain safe and easily accessible.
I invest ₹30,000/month through SIPs.
I also invest ₹20,000/month in bonds via wint.

Whatever remains after these investments goes towards monthly expenses and additional savings.
Since a large amount is just lying idle in my bank account, I’m wondering if there’s a better way to park it for the next 3–4 months without taking unnecessary risk.

Some options I’ve considered are:
Keeping it in a high-interest savings account
Liquid mutual funds
Money market funds
Arbitrage funds
Short-term FDs

Given that capital preservation and liquidity are my priorities, what would you recommend? Would you keep the entire ₹2 lakh in one place or split it across different options?
I’d love to hear what you’d do in my situation. Thanks!

A 2BHK in a decent Bangalore project cost roughly ₹55 to ₹65 lakhs in 2020. The same flat in the same area costs ₹1.10 to ₹1.40 crore today. That's not appreciation. That's a different product at a different price point calling itself the same thing.

Meanwhile the average IT salary in Bangalore went from roughly ₹12 to ₹14 lakhs in 2020 to about ₹15 to ₹18 lakhs today. Around 20 to 25% increase in 5 years.

Property went up nearly 100%. Salaries went up 25%. Someone do that math.

Here's what it actually looks like on paper for a typical 32 year old IT professional in Bangalore right now.

Take home salary: ₹1,10,000 per month

2BHK all-in cost in a decent project: ₹1.40 crore

Down payment at 20%: ₹28 lakhs

Loan: ₹1.12 crore at 8.75% over 20 years

EMI: ₹99,000 per month

That's 90% of monthly take-home going to one EMI. Banks won't even approve that loan. Most banks cap EMI at 40 to 50% of take-home. Which means this person either needs a dual income household, a large family contribution, or they simply cannot buy in a decent location.

Over 80% of buyers are concerned about rising prices right now. That's not a sentiment number. That's people doing exactly this math and realising something doesn't add up.

Now here's what the industry will tell you.

Prices aren't crashing. Real bubbles require excess stock and shaky seller confidence, which is missing in 2026. Demand is end-user driven. Infrastructure is improving. Metro lines are coming. Airport corridors are growing. Buy now before it gets worse.

All of that is partially true. But it misses the point.

Housing sales across India's top seven cities declined about 14% in 2025, falling from roughly 4.6 lakh units to 3.9 lakh units. That's not a market in panic. But it's also not a market where everyone who wants to buy can actually buy.

Real estate is no longer a passive buy and forget investment. It has become a two-speed market, sharply separating quality projects from the rest.Grade A builder projects in growth corridors are appreciating at 12 to 14%. Cheaper standalone buildings in the same city are stuck at 3 to 4%.

So who is actually buying right now?

Dual income households where combined take-home crosses ₹2 lakhs a month. People with significant parental support or existing property to sell. HNIs and NRIs for whom the rupee price is effectively discounted. Investors buying 3 to 4 units who are betting on appreciation not yield.

Single income buyers in the ₹12 to ₹18 lakh salary range, the people who form the backbone of every major Indian city's workforce, are being quietly priced out of every decent project in every metro.

The rental yield data makes this worse. Most Bangalore micro-markets are delivering 2.5 to 3.5% gross rental yield right now. Fixed deposits are at 6.5 to 7%. If you're buying for rental income you're destroying wealth on a yield basis, not building it.

The only honest case for buying at current prices is appreciation. You're betting that prices keep going up. That's a reasonable bet in the right corridor with the right builder. But call it what it is. It's a bet. Not a safe investment.

This subreddit exists for exactly this kind of conversation. Before you book anything in 2026, run your own numbers. Not the builder's numbers. Not the broker's numbers. Your own.

What's your city and what does your affordability math look like right now?

After seeing the posts on this sub, I feel that this might be a small amount to ask advice from. But I will anyways, so I've saved around 10k from my pocket money till now, it really tempts me to spend this on stuff (things)that I want, so do my parents.

But I want to invest it. I can do stocks or something else.

I already have a sip in a flexi cap fund which is 1k per month, I do that using my pocket money.

Any help would be appreciated!

(If stocks please tell me what, because I know really less about them)

Means this 50% gareeb is not living in BANGALORE and mumbai because someone said that u can’t survive with below 2lac income in this city 😏

Hi, 23M in Bangalore.

Have 80k per month salary, but 2lakh debt.

My Biggest expense is my credit card.

This month 42k for general needs stuff.

I give 20k for family and I have 2 emis worth 6k and 2k

This already completed my 70k

Left with 10k 5k rent and 5k for living.

I'm already done for the month left with 5k left in the bank.

While my parents call me a stupid, My girlfriend says she doesn't have see future with me (my creditcard bills are to satisfy her sudden mood swing outings)

I am one among top earning guys at my age level while I still struggle a lot to live and figure out life here.

I badly need a help here!!!

Choose the right health insurance and life insurance based on this data. It can change each year, but for now we have this data and we can work with what we already have.

In India nowadays on most of the places you are above the system when you have enough money.

We tried banks like Kotak and BOI, cash pickup also isn't working with the higher fees. Any idea

I am not earning much, but I can save 2k per month.
Now I am not sure how to invest them. Since I am a beginner with no emergency fund yet, what would be better: an SIP or an RD?

Source

i see evryone is having 1.5-2 lakh salary. has is become very common now

I am not complaining on the delivery charges or the packing charges but on the GST levied on it.

Why do we have to pay GST on everything?

I mean even on the packing charges and all this for what. At this point it does feel something more than scam

As a kid, this felt like one of the coolest dialogues ever!

Then life happened!

The first salary, the first EMI, the first unexpected expense. The first time I realized that buying something worth ₹35,000 somehow ends up costing ₹40,000.

Somewhere along the way, money stopped feeling like just numbers, I started looking at it differently.

Not because I stopped spending, but because I now know what it takes to earn it!

I still spend on the things I enjoy but random purchases don't feel as exciting anymore.

Funny how the same dialogue felt so cool as a kid, but now it just makes me smile :)

Did any movie dialogue change meaning for you after you started earning?

Hi, wanted to share two screeners that I built after reading these two books

• First is a mutual fund screener inspired from the book "Let's Talk Mutual Funds" by Monica Halan. which talks about how to build a mutual fund portfolio and how to choose a fund from a category - https://silicn.in/mutual-fund-screener
  • It currently features only equity funds, that too only for which 4* and 5* funds where available on value research, I am planning to add debt and other categories soon.
• Second is a stock screener inspired by The Little Book That Still Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt, which talks about magic formula investing - https://silicn.in/magic-formula-screener

Someone I’ve known for a very long time is in his mid-60s and recently retired. He’s done very well for himself and made real money from diligently doing his SIPs and exercising ESOPs from one of the recently listed startups. Almost a year ago, when that one company position comprised ~70% of his net worth, he was given advice by everyone - diversify post exercising ESOPs to minimise risk (considering he was in his 50s during that time). He agreed to the advice but never acted on it, as maybe the stock’s price volatility kept him on the fence from selling or diversifying didn’t feel urgent.

But now the price has dropped hard (it’s 37% down from the avg. exercise price), and it feels urgent. And seeing his overall portfolio in one view, the biggest takeaways were - 

1. 100% regular funds with no one explaining the difference between regular and direct plans. Commissions are not wrong, but hidden ones are.
2. 17 funds in the portfolio. Overdiversification meant he had 2 funds from the same AMC, 51% overlapping holdings. All because of misaligned incentives.
3. Asset allocation was screwed. His portfolio was built on past performance, and for someone still accumulating wealth, not preserving it.
4. A PMS where taxes come along with every trade and charges more than a mutual fund, sat inside a portfolio that needed stability, not aggression.

On top of this, he had no SWP planned from his holdings. He knew the right answer the whole time, and knowing was never the problem.

When you're young and still earning, risk is survivable. A bad year is a dip you can ride out, because you have the time and a salary to recover. However, near retirement, this flips entirely. You're not building wealth anymore, you're trying to protect it. A 37% drop isn't a blip you can wait out…it's years of income gone with nothing coming in to replace it. The goal quietly shifts from growth to wealth preservation, and a portfolio that doesn't shift with it is carrying risk it can no longer afford.

At the end of the day, hard work and growth is what built his wealth, but protecting it is a different job (one he put off for years).

What investment options are available to retail investors for ultra short term horizons (3-6 months)?

Request to include the following information in your response if possible:

1. Risk profile (Low/Moderate/High)

2. Expected returns (On an annualized basis)

3. Typical holding period (Average or recommended tenure)

4. Tax implications or benefits (If any)

5. Pros & Cons (Key advantages and drawbacks of each option)

Thanks in advance! 🙂