Dattatray Dagale

5 Data Skills That Actually Matter in 2025 (And How I Use Them Every Day at Morningstar)

I used to think being a data analyst meant being good at Excel and knowing SQL. That was 2019. I was wrong. Three years into working at Morningstar, commuting from Kalyan to Mumbai five days a week, I've learned that the job has shifted. Completely. The analysts getting hired now—the ones with offers from ICICI Bank, Goldman Sachs, and startups paying ₹…

5 Ways ChatGPT Is Quietly Killing Your Job Security (And What To Do About It)

Dear younger me, I'm writing this from my desk at Morningstar in Mumbai, where I spent the last three hours watching ChatGPT do something I used to charge clients ₹15,000 a day for. Not the entire job—but enough of it that I had to stop, step back, and think hard about what this means for you, for me, and for everyone reading this on the local train from…

3 Years of Gold vs Stocks: What My Portfolio Actually Earned Me

I remember standing in front of my grandmother's almirah in 2021, staring at her gold jewellery while she told me — for the hundredth time — that gold is the only real investment. I was 26, freshly into my first serious job at Morningstar, earning ₹45,000 a month, and I had ₹2 lakhs saved up. She wanted me to buy gold. My brain wanted stocks . I did somet…

Two Years of the 50-30-20 Rule — What Actually Stuck and What Fell Apart

The first time someone explained the 50-30-20 rule to me, I was sitting in a cafe in Vile Parle waiting between meetings. My colleague (one of those frustratingly organized types) pulled up a spreadsheet on her phone and said, "Just split your salary into three buckets. Fifty percent needs, thirty percent wants, twenty percent savings. Done." I nod…

Does the RBI Actually Control Your Salary, Loans, and Savings?

Dear younger me (and honestly, anyone in Kalyan or Mumbai trying to figure out their money ), Last Tuesday, I was on the Central Line — same packed 8:15 AM train I've been taking for three years now — and I overheard two guys in suits talking about "RBI rate cuts" like it was gossip about their boss. One of them said, "Yaar, if RBI cuts …

Your Credit Score Isn't About Being Good With Money. It's About Proof.

I spent three years thinking my credit score didn't matter. Not because I was reckless — I paid my credit card bills on time, never defaulted on anything, kept my finances relatively tight. But I genuinely believed that if you had money in the bank and didn't borrow, your score would just... be fine. Decent. Whatever. Then I wanted to buy a laptop …