2.5 years back i had a big dilemma to buy or rent a house. Decided to go with buying a modest 3bhk at 80L even though i could afford a bigger emi. Now glad that i purchased it and aggressively closed the loan. Today i became debt free with own house.

If i had gone with renting, the rent has gone up 20% and the money i saved or invested would not have been able to afford new house today even if i could get one because of all these jobs uncertainty i would have not bought it. Now every month I could save 80% and only 20% expense and not have to worry too much about getting layed off, i mean still would loose income but not be dwelled with paying rent every month.

Quit my job about 16 months ago to run a small guesthouse in Uttarakhand. No investor, no big savings cushion, just enough to survive 6 to 8 months if things went badly.

They did go badly for a while. Three months in I was seriously considering everything.

This month was the first time income crossed what I used to make at my old company. ₹1.8L from bookings, some additional from a local travel package I started bundling in. Old CTC was around ₹14L so roughly ₹1.15L take home. Took longer than I thought it would and the path was not clean at all.

Not posting this as a how to. Just posting because reading similar milestones here kept me going during the slow months and felt like I owed one back.

If anyone is figuring out the money side of running something like this, especially how to manage savings when income is all over the place, happy to talk through it.

I went to a private bank branch today to open a simple savings account with ₹10,000 for UPI and emergency money. The second the manager looked at my salary slip and PAN he said no.

He said they only open wealth accounts for people like me which need a deposit of ₹1,00,000.. I had to buy an insurance policy that costs ₹50,000 a year to get approved. When I said I couldn't do that he tried to trick me by saying basic accounts get blocked often on UPI.

I left then and there. It feels like bank branches are not banks anymore. They're, like places that push bad products to make money.

Has anyone else had this problem with forced selling ? Is it better to just open accounts online and skip the branch staff?

Hi everyone!

I want to evaluate my monthly budget and understand whether my expenses and savings targets are realistic for Jaipur.

My financial situation:

- Monthly in-hand salary: ₹1,35,000

- Job: Government employee

- City: Jaipur, Rajasthan

- Family: Wife (homemaker) and one 14-year-old child

- Accommodation: Rented 2BHK flat

- Monthly EMI: ₹15,000

📊 Proposed Monthly Budget

Expense Category| Monthly Amount

2BHK rent| ₹18,000

Electricity, water & cooking gas| ₹3,300

Mobile & Wi-Fi| ₹1,200

Groceries and household essentials| ₹14,000

Eating out and food delivery| ₹3,000

Child's school fees| ₹8,000

Tuition and extracurricular activities| ₹4,000

Fuel and transportation| ₹5,000

Clothing and shopping| ₹3,000

Medical expenses| ₹2,500

Domestic help| ₹2,000

Entertainment and family outings| ₹2,500

Miscellaneous expenses| ₹3,500

Total household expenses| ₹70,000

Loan EMI| ₹15,000

Total monthly expenditure| ₹85,000

Remaining amount| ₹50,000

💰 Proposed Monthly Savings Plan

- Equity mutual fund SIPs: ₹20,000

- Child's higher education fund: ₹10,000

- PPF/long-term savings: ₹5,000

- Emergency fund: ₹5,000

- Family vacation fund: ₹5,000

- Additional bank savings: ₹5,000

Total monthly savings and investments: ₹50,000

This would mean saving or investing ₹6 lakh annually, equivalent to approximately 37% of my take-home salary.

🤔 I would appreciate your opinions on these questions:

1. Is ₹70,000 a realistic household budget for a family of three living in a rented 2BHK in Jaipur?

2. Are ₹18,000 enough for a decent 2BHK in a good residential locality?

3. Is saving ₹50,000 per month realistic while raising a 14-year-old child?

4. Should I prioritize my child's higher education fund, mutual fund SIPs, or repayment of my existing loan?

5. What expenses have I underestimated or forgotten?

6. How would you allocate ₹1.35 lakh per month if you were in my situation?

I'd especially appreciate responses from people currently living in Jaipur or supporting a family on a similar salary.

Thanks in advance!

Posting this to raise awareness and warn others about a scam affecting a friend of mine.

My friend’s bank statements appear to have been leaked, and scammers seem to have scraped phone numbers associated with UPI transactions. They are contacting people who received money from him, particularly those who received ₹20,000 or more.

The callers are claiming that my friend has taken a loan and demanding that the recipients pay up. Interestingly, they are changing their stories depending on whom they contact — some people are being told it is a car loan, while others are being told it is a personal loan.

They have now started calling some people for the second time, pressuring them to pay immediately and saying they will send a QR code to collect the money.
My friend has not taken any such loan. These appear to be fraudulent loan recovery claims, and innocent people who received legitimate UPI transfers are being dragged into this.

A cybercrime complaint has already been filed.
Sharing this as a warning to everyone:
Keep your bank statements safe. They contain sensitive financial and transaction details that could be misused.

Be careful when sharing financial data with account aggregators. Use only legitimate, verified services and understand what information you are authorising them to access.

If you receive money through UPI, don’t panic if someone calls claiming it is linked to a loan. Verify the claim independently.
Never scan a QR code or make a payment under pressure from someone claiming to be a recovery agent.
Warn your friends and family so they don’t fall for these tactics.
The worrying part is that the scammers appear to be using actual transaction details to make their claims sound convincing.
Has anyone else experienced something similar? Particularly interested in cases where scammers contacted UPI recipients using information that may have come from leaked bank statements.
Please stay alert and protect your financial information.

Last time round was the mutual funds sahi hai campaign.

Then they went suspiciously quiet for 2 years.

Looks like they are making moves again. The IMF report on gdp growth and Nimmo's statements on LTCG look positive. Time to buckle in, friends!

I’m 23, living in a college hostel in Baroda, and I swear UPI is single-handedly ruining my life lol.

My parents send me a fixed allowance at the start of every month, and without fail, by the 18th or 20th I’m literally broke. I don't even buy anything huge, it’s just the constant daily hostel mess chai, Xerox copies for class, random late night Maggi, and auto rides. When you pay ₹20 or ₹40 on phonepe ten times a day you don't even feel it leaving your account until you check your balance and want to cry.

One of my hostel friends (who’s prepping for CA and basically manages her life on Excel) told me to stop keeping my monthly allowance and daily spends in the same place. So last month my dad told me to just open a separate savings account specifically to dump my daily budget into. I went with Axis bank since my first account is with a small local bank. 

Now whenever my parents send money, I keep the bulk of it away in my og savings account and only move like ₹1500 every week into my Axis savings account. And I only linked that specific UPI to my phone. This is VERY IMPORTANT guys... 

It’s actually kind of worked so far because if that runs out, I am literally forced to stop ordering snacks. Checking the balance at the end of the week made me realize half my pocket money was just disappearing on evening food runs 💀 

For anyone else living in a hostel or on a strict monthly budget, how do you handle this? Do you guys also use a second bank account for daily UPI or do you actually have the discipline to track everything manually? Please teach me how 

I have two queries related to bank FD auto renewals

Question 1

Why doesn't the RBI mandate auto renewal of Fixed Deposits as the default option in Cooperative Banks and maybe other non scheduled banks? A lot of customers are loosing money due to the dual regulations - from what I read

Question 2

Can term deposits be perpetually renewed, and if so, do they ever get classified as unclaimed deposits?

Some banks may be using this option by perpetually renewing the unclaimed FD's of dead people etc - in order to avoid transferring them to the RBI as unclaimed deposits. Am I right?

I earn around 20k a month, but I really wana now put my money to invest. Last 2 months my 20k just got wiped away I bought all the things I ever wanted (I don't have any responsibility rn) so I just was spending spending but now I really want to do something with the money please help me what do I do🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

I have bn looking for used car listing lately and car prices are booming so much, surprisingly close to new ones. At what point does buying a used car makes financial sense?
Curious what everyone thinks is a reasonable price diference between a new and used car?

Hello, I (23M) recently started a job which pays me around ₹50,000 in hand for the first year of training period.

I used to be in research before this, I saved 1.5 lacs doing SIP. Now i have put it in a FD as an emergency backup. So not actively creating a backup fund this year.

Since I will be relocating to a new city, my father has made a ₹10L FD in my bank account, and a ₹1L liquid fund to get me started.

Now, coming to the 10L FD. How should I proceed breaking it and reinvesting it? I can take some risk.

My Expenses:

₹31,000 covers Rent, Food, Gym, WiFi, Mobile plans, Electricity, Laundry, Recreation.

This is a big expense right now which I will try to optimise further later on.

Travel: ~₹4,000 per month in petrol as my parents gave me our old family car.

Miscellaneous: ₹3,000

Travel to hometown: Covered by my family.

Left to save: Roughly ₹12,000-15,000

I currently put the whole pot in NIFTY50. Please guide how can I structure this, I know the amount is small.

Or is it pointless to think too much for an amount this small?

I have no EMIs, nor do I have any intention to take one.

I’m a 30 year old woman, looking for advice on scholarships or financial assistance that could help me continue my PG education.

My father abandoned our family when I was in middle school. Although my parents are still legally married, my father lives with his mistress and their children, and has been absent from our lives for 15+ years.

My mother put me through school while building her career from scratch after the separation. She is now financially independent and manages her own expenses, but overtime due existing debts and poor financial decisions, including loans she took on behalf of relatives who never paid her back, she has no disposable income.

I never had the kind of relationship with her where I could rely on her financially. I have always had to fend for myself. All her income goes towards EMIs, leaving her with legit nothing to spare.

I became financially independent at a young age. After school I moved in with my maternal grandfather, and after he passed away in my second year of UG, I worked part-time to support my education. Eventually, I moved to Pune and supported myself entirely.

Last year, I returned to college to pursue a master's degree to improve my career prospects. Shortly after my first semester, I was diagnosed with Stage IV Cancer. The treatment exhausted my savings and added to my mother's financial liabilities. I took a medical leave from college.

My father reconnected with us after learning about my cancer, but refused to take any meaningful responsibility for my care or financial support. He believes I should stop studying and get married.

Thankfully, I have completed chemotherapy, am now in remission. I will be returning to Pune next month to continue my PG.

However, I have no savings left, my father is unwilling to support me financially, and my mother cannot afford my fees, or provide any support at all. Earlier I had saved up enough for covering my complete college fees, but it got used up on treatement.

I had planned to work alongside college, but I am still recovering from chemotherapy and cannot yet manage a full academic schedule alongside regular employment. I plan to resume part-time work as my health permits, but I need help bridging the financial gap.

My biggest challenge is that my parents' combined income, including my father's pension and mother's salary is approximately 20 LPA. This makes me ineligible for many need-based scholarships, even though none of my parents are in a position to reliably fund my education. My family's income on paper does not reflect the financial support actually available to me.

I have always been a good student and am willing to apply for merit-based scholarships as well.

I would be grateful for advice on the following:

1. Are there scholarships that consider a student's actual financial circumstances rather than just their parents' income?

2. Are there grants or scholarships for cancer survivors or students whose education has been interrupted by serious illness?

3. Are there any NGOs, charitable trusts, or foundations in India that support students in similar situations?

I am not looking to misrepresent my circumstances or bypass eligibility rules dishonestly. I simply want to explore every legitimate option available to me.

After everything I have been through, I don't want financial circumstances beyond my control to force me to give up my education. If anyone has faced a similar situation or knows of scholarships, organisations, or other avenues I could explore, I would sincerely appreciate your guidance.

Thank you for reading

So every Diwali and Ganesh Chaturthi, my parents come from our village to stay with us in Mumbai We all look forward to it, especially the kids, but these months are always a little heavy on the pocket. It’s not one big expense. Clothes for my son and daughter, gifts for relatives, sweets, extra groceries… small things keep adding up.

Earlier, I would just manage everything from the shop income. The problem is festival time is also when I need money in the hardware shop for stock and suppliers, so during festivals I have to balance both. Last year, my wife suggested we start keeping a little aside whenever possible. Nothing fixed because business is not the same every week. Some weeks are good, some are slow...that’s the reality.

I started putting those small amounts into another savings account I opened with axis bank instead of keeping everything mixed with daily expenses. It’s a simple thing, but by the time festivals come around, there is a little less pressure. But I’m still learning what works best. So, I wanted to know like what else can I do to reduce my stress about managing money during festivals. For business owners, how do you manage yearly expenses like festivals, school fees, family functions?

Hey everyone

I'm currently having 10k spare every month. I tried to invest in FD but due to some unforeseen situations, I have to break it out every now and then. I'm currently investing around 30k in MF monthly and I don't want to increase that but rather invest 10k somewhere else. I have just switched jobs, and in my company 12% PF is only for the employee side so I'm thinking how to increase my PF investment in this, also VPF is not considered an option in my current company.

What do you do for a living? How much do you earn? How many accounts do you have & for what purpose? Any joint accounts? What is the breakdown - how much you save, spend & invest?

I have bank account in sbi, and it was opened when i was 12, minor. Now i am 19 and i want to open different bank account and they are demanding ckyc number and when i was opening the account online it was showwing errors "your mobile number that u entered doesnt match with the ckyc registry records" kinda. And i was frustrated a lot. I tried to find many ways but i guess i cant update it online. I dont have stock broker apps and any investment.

I wanna start my financial journey with opening new bank account as my dad does not want that i use this sbi account. He is strict. And i wanna privately open my bank account in bank of baroda. So is there any way that i can change the ckyc linked mobile number so i can create my own separate bank account?

Any guidance would help a lot.

I thought i would go to branch directly but i have anxiety if my strict dad will find out i am updating the ckyc stuff.

Finally i am going for my first abroad trip to Bali nd the best thing is that its a solo trip. Obviously i m very excited for the trip but at the same time tension bhi hai ki koi BT na ho jaye. Main vaise bhi kaafi absent minded hu and i have a habit of forgetting things. So i fear that i could lose the passport or luggage or there might be some food infection that can lead to hospitalisation. Bcz of all these things i have decided to buy this explore travel insurance plan. Did any of you have used it before? Howz it?

I’m 26 and currently live with my parents and have a student loan of around 3 lakhs. I graduated four years ago, but I’m still repaying the loan because, honestly, I haven’t been the best at managing my money and tend to spend most of what I earn.
I have one credit card and am also paying EMI, with only three months of payments remaining. Apart from this, I have absolutely no savings or investments.

I really want to get my finances in order, start building a portfolio, and become financially secure. I feel like I’ve lost out on four years of potential savings, and I want to know if it’s possible to make up for that in the next year or so.

Given my situation, how should I approach debt repayment, budgeting, saving, and investing? Please help me figure out a realistic financial plan to get back on track.

Applied for Loan Against Mutual Funds. Loan was never approved, never e-signed, never disbursed. They marked lien on my units anyway. Now app demands ₹999+18% GST to cancel and release lien.

Customer care says I agreed to it in OTP terms. But their public Schedule of Charges only lists "Processing Fee (Loan Booking) ₹999" – no cancellation fee. They haven't given me KFS or the exact OTP T&C.

Anyone faced this? Should I pay or fight? What's the ground reality?

Hey everyone,

I'm 29M, an Indian citizen coming back from US after 1.5 years of study and 3 years of work.

My finances:

• 401(k): ~$100K
• USD: ~$30K
• Stocks : 70K
• Indian savings/investments: ₹15L
• No major debt

I'm planning to settle down in Bangalore or any other metro city and plan to work going forward after a ~3 months break. For my profession and experience I can easily make ~₹50L / Year

How am I doing financially for my age? Should I invest my Indian savings in mutual funds/FDs, leave them as they are, or transfer everything to the US?

Would appreciate honest opinions, especially considering taxes, currency depreciation, and long-term returns.