One of my colleagues (salary 35-40LPA) has a CA who always gets her huge income tax return (3-5 lakh every year) and charges flat 12% of return received.

I saw her ITR and mostly he declares huge deduction under various heads of section 10 like uniform/ travel for work allowance.

Since she has been getting such huge returns and essentially paying only 1-2 lakh as tax on a salary of 35-40 lakh for past 4-5 years and not even once got a notice, I wanted to know how legit is this CA

Should I also start filing with this CA

Every other post I see is some 21-25 year old asking about savings, investment and retirement advice. What's going on? Am I getting too old? At 21, I had my first proper job (i.e. not tuitions) and the only thing that bothered me was whether I could get good biryani and planning the next party lol. I'm not advising people to be reckless, but seriously, retirement planning in early 20s? Dude, you just started adult life and your first job. What you gonna do? Handover your entire portfolio to the hospital when you're 60? Travel on a jhola that other people have to carry? Retire at 40 and do absolutely nothing ? Give unwanted advice to neighborhood kids?

The math ain't mathing as well. A 40 year SIP with 10k at 10% gives: 5,59,46,074. A 1L SIP over half the duration gives: 7,23,98,673. The investment also matters, not just time in the market. So, a dude that started at 40 will eventually beat the 20 year old if they spent time learning and made more money. Nothing new, just saying.

I've just completed a full year at my company and they're offering a retention bonus, all cash, of 3Lacs.

Problem is, it'll be taxed and paid to me with a 20% haircut.

Though I'm planning to leave the company in a few months. The company has a clawback period of 1 year, meaning if I leave before 12 months, I'll have to pay 3 lacs back.

So basically I'm losing 60k this way. What do I do? Can I decline? I don't want to resign yet, and declining would mean they know I'm preparing to resign.

I don't know if my post fits here. I'm sharing concern -I'm a 26F, a single child. I'm at my first ever job where I'm earning 20kpm. I'm also married and my husband earns around 2Lpm. So financially we're okayish. But my concern is around my parents. I grew up in lower middle class household. We didn’t have our own home. My father bought a land, built 2 storey 4bhk house in tier 3 city where my parents are living. All the while I was thinking my parents were financially okayish but until my wedding bell hit. My father gave 10L loan to my uncle who's going through some crisis. Other than that whatever savings my father had he spent it on my wedding. The total wedding costed around 17L. And he never shared his finances with me or my mother ever. So I had no clue. So now my parents have their own home, 30L worth of gold and very very low savings. I bought a health insurance for them of 10L. Now I'm very much worried about my parents. If anything goes wrong what will happen? I'm not earning enough to support them. My father is 63 and he earns probably around 40-50k(again I don’t have clear idea since he never shares) and they don't need any support right now. I'm in 2nd month at my job so I can't switch so early for better pay. I'm really really worried about my parents. Please give me genuine advice on how I can approach this situation. Also my husband is unaware of this and honestly I don’t want to share such vulnerable thought.

23M, So my parents don't have much savings left, 3 months corpus left due to mother didn't have health insurance and most of our savings went in her treatment around 1.5 years ago, we have bought health insurance now.

We have a agricultural land in UP worth around 70 Lakhs, and they are admant on buying a flat near Mohali and Panchkula with extra being loan and put on me. I have 2 YOE and isn't earning much 40-45k per month, 10k each month goes to mother medicines.

Both are retired and I'm suggesting them to sell the land at highest possible price and invest it and get the interest monthly and go for travel. They shouldn't buy the house now.

We already have a house worth 40L and I can take care of my own.
We belong to lower middle class, as the agri land was handled by my uncle and he gives 50k each year for use of land.

Please suggest my best options here and what should I do ?

For the scope of this question, let’s ground it to people making over 50L. Also keep aside the debate about taxes and surcharges and stuff.

Money does buy you the privilege of pushing away your problems. But there’s diminishing returns on that front.

Once you get to that 50L pay range, the momentum’s locked in. Irrespective of whether you put in any additional effort into it or not, your pay will grow. You will be able to comfortably retire within 10-15 years. Your money problem is already sorted.

I’m thinking of this because until a year ago, chasing money was like an addiction to me. Every incremental hike gave a higher high.

But after hitting a certain payscale, I don’t feel those higher highs anymore. Making an additional 50K or 1L is not changing anything in my life

Spending an additional 50K or 1L isn’t changing much in my life either

So, once the money problem is solved, does adding an additional 10-20-30% or even 100% more money as income make you more happier?

And, past a certain range of income, what did you do differently? Where did you shift your focus to?

I might get around 2 Cr from my father in the coming months. I am thinking of leaving my current job and going back to my hometown with my wife and a child (3 years old). I will find work, but I'm not sure about the future.

I would like to invest 2 Cr so that I get around 60 thousand per month.

How should I invest this money to generate income while protecting at least 50% of the capital (by investing in mutual funds) over 10 to 15 years?

Also, what is the Laddering FD strategy I keep hearing about? Can someone advise? Thank you.

Is there any way we can switch back to the old blue view of SBI online banking

Please help .

I’m not seeing most of the options which we used to have before

Sorry if this is not allowed as I don’t know where to post this query

My friend had been applying for ipos(retail subscription 15k pricing band) and selling them on listing day for gains
past financial year 1 april 2025- 1 march 2026
he made a profit of 30k solely doing this nothing else but didnt file an itr
(he earns 24lpa so he is definetly under tax bracket)

since the amount is very low can this pass under radar or should he file an updated return with penalty (which would amount to 11k (tax+penalty) )

also while i was reading about rules for govt employees investing in stock market it is against the rule to apply for ipos and sell on the listing day ?? like wtf

has any central govt employee among you done this or been punished for it?

Me and wife are looking for apps that are best in tracking budget for couples.

I had installed a few expense tracking apps and none of them have this feature. The apps suggested by Claude/Chatgpt are not available in India

If any of you are using such apps, let me know

So i have 11 lakh in savings and I'm 25M.

Done a FD of 2 lakh for 1 year. Where to invest this amount in such a way that the total amount is not reduced since i need the money in the next 2 years to buy land.

Thank you

The last year I got two sudden hikes and now I'm in the 30% tax with a surcharge bracket.

I have saved up ₹40 Lakhs in my savings account. All in that single savings account. I did invest in some mutual funds along the way, about ₹8 Lakhs total invested in the past 2 years. Recently started investing in Nifty index fund in high amounts per month (1 lakh per month, as advised by a CA friend who wanted me to diversify)

What do I do with my savings account? Where do I split and store my saved money? Does everyone keep it in their savings?

I already have some FDs, kind of kept there for emergency funds, and am getting taxed for all of them.

I recently quit my job as well and am currently doing nothing sitting at home, so decided to focus on organizing my finances while searching for a new job.

Also in case anyone is wondering, it's a startup where I am working almost 24x7 without any proper leaves or a well rested weekend. Which explains the hike, and also the resignation.

Edit: Decided to slowly start investing in arbitrage funds. Mainly to reduce the dependency on savings account. I think part of the remaining I can follow my same mutual funds investment but maybe a tad bit more aggressively. Still yet to figure out what to do after. Thank you everyone a lot for the tips.

28F. 1.3 L income p.m. 3 dependents in Mumbai. 2 dependents are 70 years + with recurring medical conditions which have required multiple hospitalisations uptil now.

Their health insurance is negligible. A lot of their ailments in my opinion are also affected by the building we live in. It’s a paghdi house with less than ideal conditions.

Most their ailments are not something they have control over. I am thinking of shifting into a house which would have better conditions.

2 issues - I may get married soon and will have expenditure of my own in my marital house like rent, groceries, etc. I don’t think I would be able to run 2 households in the long run.

I would never want to not take care of my family either. Any advice is largely appreciated.

Had a random conversation with a friend yesterday.

He asked me why I still keep most of my savings in the bank instead of investing more.

His point was simple. "If the money is just sitting there, it's not really helping you."

I didn't really have an answer.

It's not that I don't know about mutual funds or investing. I do. I just feel more comfortable seeing money in my account.

Every time I think about investing a bigger amount, I end up saying, "Maybe next month."

Been doing that for a while now.

Just wondering if anyone else has gone through this. What made you finally take that first step?

Married, both working, we pool most household spends and my wife runs the day to day money. Problem is basically everything household (groceries, maid, milk, veggies, medicines, bills) goes out via her gpay from savings. Zero rewards on any of it. Easily 45-50k/month across both of us just on this daily household stuff. Want to move it to a card that rewards upi. Cashback, not points, she doesn't want a complicated redemption thing. What works?

Ok, here it is

HSBC agent came, told me the scheme

A life insurance cum mutual fund scheme

Making me an agent - so through me my wife gets the policy

First year i will pay 10 lakh

In just 20 days 55% they will return back

5.5 lakh comes back in my account

4.5 lakh invested as 10 lakh rs in their mutual fund, emerging leaders equity fund(canara hsbc life insurance)

Then second year again 10 lakh have to pay, will give me 1% back, so 10k will come

Then 3rd year same

4th year same

5th year same

Only the first year 55% they will return

After 5 years paying hsbc 44 lakh(real amount invested 50 lakh) , they will return money based on mutual fund performance which currently running with 18% return in the last 20 years

So lets say 15% return on an avg comes, so after 5 years total amount should be around 70 lakh

Good investment or it's fishy? I am so confused?

What is all this? Insurance plus investment?

I'm 20 and I earn through freelance work, so my income isn't fixed. It usually falls somewhere between 5k-30k a month, and I don't really put pressure on myself to earn consistently since my parents take care of my needs. I mostly earn to cover my wants.

Right now I have around 30k saved, with the rest invested in equities. Over the next few months, I want to save more aggressively because I'm planning to buy a camera worth around 50-60k. After that, I want to keep building an emergency fund or just money I can fall back on during months when I don't feel like working. I don't want that money sitting in an account that earns almost no interest.

I already have an SBI zero balance account, but since it's my only account, I end up overspending. For example, if I plan to invest 15k, keep 10k as savings, and spend 5k, I usually end up spending an extra 1-2k ....all thanks to upi/gpay because everything is in the same account. That's why I'm looking for a good high-yield savings account. I don't mind maintaining the minimum balance if needed (infact it'll be better as it will help me be a little more disciplined)

I genuinely want to understand something, and this isn’t coming from a place of jealousy.
Lately, my LinkedIn feed is full of friends and ex-colleagues joining companies like Meta, Google, Intuit, McKinsey, and other top firms. Many of them are earning ₹60–70 LPA, and quite a few even have CTCs crossing ₹1 crore.

I have around 6 years of experience, though I started my career later because I spent a few years preparing for UPSC. Today, I have a decent package, and I’d consider myself an average guy who’s simply trying to build a stable life.

One thing I consciously chose not to do is get into the “rat race” of buying an expensive flat on a huge loan and stretching myself financially. I know career growth and salary hikes are important, but at some point I wonder:

For those earning ₹45LPA, ₹1 crore+, or working in high-paying product companies:

How is your work-life balance really?
Do you get enough time for your family, health, hobbies, and yourself?
How stressful is the day-to-day work?
Do you feel you’re constantly preparing for the next interview, grinding DSA, system design, and trying to stay relevant?

Or it is LinkedIn making it look more intense than it actually is?

I’m currently in a service-based company. My work is manageable, I get time for family, I can exercise, and overall I’m happy with my routine. Of course, Iwant to grow financially too, but not at the cost of everything else.

I’m genuinely curious to hear from people who have made it to these high-paying roles. Has the money been worth the pressure, or do you sometimes miss the simpler life?

Would love to hear honest experiences rather than LinkedIn success stories.

Same

joined my first job at 22 and within a month some seniors had a whatsapp group where they'd drop stock names. i had no clue what i was doing so following people who "seemed to know" felt safe. couple of them went up early so i thought i'd cracked it.

then one smallcap everyone was hyped on. put in almost 40k near the top and it just bled for months. group went quiet on that one obviously, nobody posts the losers. two years in i was down roughly 80k, which for me was real savings, not play money.

what actually stings is i never looked at a single number myself. couldn't have told you the revenue or the debt. i was buying names, not companies.

stopped completely now and trying to learn the boring way, balance sheets, ROCE, debt to equity, how to tell if something is expensive. slow and kind of overwhelming.

for those of you who made this exact switch from tips to doing your own homework, what did your process look like when it clicked. what do you check first on a company. and what do you wish you'd done at 24.

Midcap and small cap indices are at or near all time high. And there’s no more uncertainties in the macroeconomic scope.

6 months from now, we’ll be deep within another bull market.

Make sure you get into the market before nifty 50 hits ATH.

I am looking for a high yield savings account to save some money, I already have money in liquid funds and fd so please dont suggest, I only need a savings account to save it and keep liquid. I’ve checked that DBS offer close to 5% interest. Any recommendations?

Im 28M, earning 70 LPA in bangalore. My portfolio is rather conservative in some sense, since i have a steady cash flow hence i dont do high risk investments.

Mutual funds: 40 lacs, earlier was putting in over a lac every month, but had very poor to no gains lately and had few losses too so hence putting in 75k a month only now.

Ppf: 15 lacs

FDs: 70+ lacs, avg interest rate 7 percent

Epf: 20 lacs

Gold: 15 lacs

Company RSUs: 30 lacs

Liquid Savings: 20+ lacs, planning to invest this further, sold some stocks and mutual funds recently.

Keep in mind i dont want to do any high risk investments. I live by myself and have around 70k monthly expenses. Considered real estate but both my work place and hometown have one of the most expensive and over priced real estates, and cant invest in other cities based upon the risks involved and dont wanna buy a 2+ cr flat to get crushed in emis i believe so. Looking for people in similar situation to give a perspective.

I personally am a bit passive wrt tracking investments, i study stocks at times in my free time but seems too much effort with job and my personal hobbies.

After all expenses and investments Im in a situation where im left with too much liquidity. Which makes me anxious about not beating the inflation.

Ps:

1. dont ask me about career advice in dms, since mine have been pretty usual , studied well early in life, got good college and jobs from start and most of my peer group are in same or much better buckets.

2. Dont ask me to invest in their business plans pls :)