Dattatray Dagale

5 Money Books That Actually Changed How I Think About Wealth (And Why You Need Them Before 30)

I turned 28 last month. And I did what I always do on my birthday — I sat with a cup of chai at my desk in the Morningstar office and thought about what I got wrong in the past year. One thing stood out: most of the financial mistakes I made weren't because I didn't have access to information. My salary is decent. I have a Zerodha account. I get pus…

Stop Reading Every Finance Newsletter — Pick Three and Actually Use Them

I used to wake up at 5:45 AM on weekdays, shower, make chai, and then spend 20 minutes scrolling through my phone before boarding the 6:35 local from Kalyan. My feeds looked like this: Mint, ET Markets, Moneycontrol, Reddit's r/IndianPersonalFinance, three WhatsApp groups, four Telegram channels, and a custom Google News feed filtered for "stock mark…

5 Anime That Changed How I Think About Money, Risk, and What Actually Matters

It was 6:47 AM on a Tuesday, and I was standing in a packed local train from Kalyan to Mumbai Central, wedged between a man reading Marathi newspapers and someone's overstuffed backpack. My AirPods were dead. My phone battery was at 12%. And for the first time in years, I wasn't scrolling through market updates or refreshing my Groww portfolio. Instea…

Can You Really Quit Doom Scrolling or Are You Just Lying to Yourself?

I used to think I was productive. This was two years ago, maybe 2022. I'd wake up at 6 AM, make chai, sit at my desk in Kalyan, and open my laptop by 6:45. Clean routine. The kind of thing you tell people about at family dinners. Then I'd pick up my phone. "Just 5 minutes," I'd tell myself. Just checking the news. Just one scroll throug…

Are Podcasts Actually Better Than Books for Learning Money and Career Skills?

It was 7:47 AM on a Tuesday morning, and I was standing in a packed local train between Kalyan and Mumbai Central. My phone had 12% battery. I'd forgotten my earphones at home the night before. And for the first time in three months, I had nothing to listen to. I realized something uncomfortable: I'd become completely dependent on podcasts. Not just…

Three Years at Morningstar — What Actually Separates People Who Move Forward

Dear younger self (or whoever's reading this from Kalyan station at 7:15 AM), I'm writing this on the 4:47 PM local back from Mumbai, sitting in that crowded compartment where everyone's either staring at their phones or half-asleep. Around me, I see the same faces most days. And I've noticed something: most people stay exactly where they were …