The retirement number almost everyone calculates incorrectly
Most retirement calculators assume you will withdraw the same amount every year for thirty years. You will not — and the difference is not small.
Nandini Rao · 20 September 2026
Insights
Writing on planning, markets and long-term wealth. Educational, specific, and honest about what is not known — which in finance is a great deal.
Most retirement calculators assume you will withdraw the same amount every year for thirty years. You will not — and the difference is not small.
Nandini Rao · 20 September 2026
Two retirees earn exactly the same average return over twenty years. One runs out of money. The difference is the order in which the returns arrived.
Arjun Kapoor · 13 September 2026
Raising a monthly investment in line with your income is the least glamorous lever in personal finance and, for most salaried investors, comfortably the most powerful.
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Without cash cover, the first unexpected expense becomes debt — or forces the sale of a long-term investment at the worst possible moment.
Nandini Rao · 29 August 2026
A policy that combines insurance with investment reliably delivers less of both. How to size cover, and why the two jobs belong apart.
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A 7.15% deposit taxed at 30% with 6% inflation is not a 7.15% outcome. The number that matters is the one after both.
Arjun Kapoor · 14 August 2026
When the business is most of the balance sheet, the transition question is operational long before it is legal — and the two are usually planned in the wrong order.
Nandini Rao · 3 August 2026
A 60/40 portfolio left alone for five good equity years is not a 60/40 portfolio. Rebalancing is the discipline most people skip.
Arjun Kapoor · 26 July 2026
Delay is the most expensive decision in personal finance, and the only one that never feels like a decision at all.
Arjun Kapoor · 18 July 2026