Dattatray Dagale

Three Years of Watching Friends Invest — Why I've Stopped Recommending One Over the Other

Every Friday evening, somewhere between Kalyan station and my seat on the 5:47 fast train to Mumbai, I get a message from someone asking the same question: "SIP ya lumpsum?" Last month, it was my cousin Shreya. The month before, my colleague Arjun. Before that, a friend from business school who suddenly got a ₹5 lakh bonus and panicked about what …

Why Do Most People Wait Until 30 to Start Investing in Mutual Funds?

Dear friend, I'm writing this from my desk at Morningstar, looking out at the Western Express Highway choked with the usual Monday morning traffic. I've been thinking about you — or actually, about the version of me from 2015 when I was 22, freshly out of college, earning my first real salary , and absolutely clueless about what to do with it. You pro…

The Money Books That Actually Changed How Indians Think Before 30

It was 11:47 PM on a Tuesday. I was on the Kalyan-bound Central Line, squeezed between a guy eating samosas and a woman watching Instagram Reels at full volume. My phone was at 6% battery. And I was reading about the concept of "mental accounting" on my Kindle — the idea that we treat money differently depending on where it came from. The samosa gu…

The Finance News Trap That Costs Indians Their Peace of Mind

I used to check my phone the moment I woke up. Before brushing my teeth, before chai, before anything—I'd scroll through Moneycontrol, refresh ET Markets, check what's happening on X (Twitter). By the time I reached Kalyan station for my commute to Mumbai, I'd already read 47 different takes on why the Nifty fell 0.3% or why some fund manager chan…

Can Anime Teach You More About Life Than a Self-Help Book?

Dear younger me (and anyone reading this from Kalyan or beyond), I need to tell you something that would've seemed absolutely ridiculous to me five years ago: anime has changed how I think about money, ambition, failure , and what actually matters in life . Not anime in the stereotypical sense — the stuff with oversized eyes and dramatic screaming. I…

5 Ways I Killed My Doom-Scrolling Habit (Without Going Off-Grid)

It was 11:47 PM on a Tuesday, and I was still lying in bed, thumb scrolling through Instagram Reels. Not because I wanted to. Because I couldn't stop . My alarm was set for 5:45 AM. I had a Zerodha portfolio to track before the market opened. A presentation to finish for work. Three unread emails about mutual fund SIPs. And yet—there I was, watching the 4…