Ritesh Sabharwal CFP® W.M.W #48: What should you choose: DIY vs Professional Help? Reading time: 5 minutes - May 16, 2026 ↓ Hey Reader Raj is 32. Software engineer. Earns ₹18 lakhs/year.He's been investing on his own for 5 years using Zerodha and Groww. Direct mutual funds. A few stocks. PPF. Total portfolio: ₹22 lakhs. Last month, a wealth manager pitched him: "We'll manage your portfolio for 1.5% AUM fee. Tax optimization. Estate planning. Comprehensive financial plan." Raj's calculation:...
10 days ago • 5 min read
Ritesh Sabharwal CFP® W.M.W #47: India's BNPL Phantom Debt Crisis Reading time: 5 minutes - May 9, 2026 ↓ Hey Reader Rahul is 23. Earns ₹35,000/month. 2 months back, he bought wireless earbuds (₹2,500), a weekend trip (₹4,200), sneakers (₹3,800), food deliveries (₹2,100), and an OTT subscription (₹1,500). Total: ₹14,400; Paid upfront: ₹0He used Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) across 3 different apps. By month end, when he checked his bank statement with ₹12,000 left. He feels comfortable. Then the...
17 days ago • 4 min read
Ritesh Sabharwal CFP® W.M.W #46: Own a Piece of a ₹500 Crore Office/Mall for ₹10,000 Reading time: 5 minutes - May 2, 2026 ↓ Hey Reader For decades, real estate was India's wealth-building machine. Your parents bought a flat in the 1990s for ₹8 lakhs. Today it's worth ₹2.5 crores. The formula was simple: Buy property. Wait. Get rich. But here's the problem in 2026: To invest in commercial real estate today, you need: ₹2-10 crore minimum capital Years of waiting to find the right property...
24 days ago • 5 min read
Ritesh Sabharwal CFP® W.M.W #45: Car Leasing Can Cut Your Tax But Read the Fine Print Reading time: 4 minutes - April 25, 2026 ↓ Hey Reader The new income tax regime killed most deductions you relied on. No 80C. No HRA. No home loan interest (unless you opt for old regime). But here's what smart employers and employees are quietly doing: restructuring salary to include car leasing. Not as a perk. As a tax-efficient salary component. The math: Buying a car with post-tax salary: Pay 30% tax,...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Ritesh Sabharwal CFP® W.M.W #44: Future-Proof Your Family: 95% Indians don't have their Will Reading time: 4 minutes - April 18, 2026 ↓ Hey Reader July 6, 2002. Dhirubhai Ambani - founder of Reliance Industries, one of India's largest conglomerates passed away. He built an empire worth ₹60k crores from scratch. He revolutionized Indian business. What he didn't do: Write a Will. The result? His two sons, Mukesh and Anil Ambani, entered a public, bitter dispute over who would control Reliance....
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Ritesh Sabharwal CFP® W.M.W #43: You are one step away from Poverty Reading time: 5 minutes - April 11, 2026 ↓ Hey Reader Last week, Oracle fired 12,000 employees in India. 40% of their India workforce gone in one announcement. Twelve thousand families woke up to salary cuts, disrupted EMIs, and the sudden realization that the money stops but the expenses don't. This isn't new. It's just louder. Google, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Swiggy, Byju's - the list of mass layoffs in the last 18 months...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Ritesh Sabharwal CFP® W.M.W #42: Are You Ready for April's Tax Overhaul? Reading time: 5 minutes - April 4, 2026 ↓ Hey Reader April 1, 2026 - It's not an April Fools day. It's the start of a new financial year and the day India's entire income tax framework changed. What's changing from 1st April 2026? New Income Tax Act 2025 (replacing the 1961 Act) New Income Tax Rules 2026 Revised TDS and TCS rates Extended ITR filing deadlines Changed tax forms (Form 16 is now Form 130) Stricter...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Ritesh Sabharwal CFP® W.M.W #41: Don't Overpay Taxes: Meet Form 10-IEA Reading time: 5 minutes - March 28, 2026 ↓ Hey Reader Open your calendar. Look at July 31 - Something that might ring a bell!!It's the ITR Filing date. But there's another critical deadline on the same day that most people have never heard of. Form 10-IEA. If you have business or professional income and you miss this form, here's what happens:- You file your ITR post July. Everything looks fine. You get your assessment...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Ritesh Sabharwal CFP® W.M.W #40: Prepay or Invest? Choose Your Financial Path Reading time: 5 minutes - March 21, 2026 ↓ Hey Reader Last week, I showed Kartik how to save ₹31.92 lakhs by prepaying his ₹50 lakh home loan faster.His immediate response: "This is eye-opening. But wait - why prepay at 8.25% when I can invest in equity at 12% and earn more?" Valid question. I got 34+ DMs asking the same thing. Here's the logic most people use: Home loan interest: 8.25% Equity returns: 12%...
2 months ago • 4 min read