Interest
What expensive debt costs you — revolving card balances, small-ticket EMIs, and the difference between a rate you accepted and one you negotiated.
The Practical Indian Money Field Manual · 2026 Edition
Stop renting your money.
Start owning it.
Most of us do not have an income problem. We have a leak problem. This field manual shows you where your money is quietly going, how to calculate your own annual money rent, and how to close the biggest leaks in 90 days.
15 chapters · 5 printable worksheets · Indian rates and rules, 2026
The problem
Your salary may not be the problem.
You get a raise. Within a few months, the account looks the same. It is easy to read that as a discipline failure, or a not-earning-enough failure. Often it is neither.
Money leaves in two ways. The way you notice — rent, groceries, school fees, a holiday. And the way you do not: interest on a revolving balance, a commission built into a policy, an expense ratio you never chose, a subscription you stopped using in March.
The second kind is what this book calls money rent — what you pay for the use of money that should already be working for you. Nobody sends you a bill for it. That is precisely why it survives.
Every rupee you own is either paying rent, or collecting it. There is no third position — and most of us never chose.
The seven landlords
Seven parties collect rent on your money. Most people are paying at least four.
The book takes them one at a time — what each one costs, how to spot it in your own accounts, and what to do about it first.
Fees
Costs that look trivial as a percentage and compound quietly: expense ratios, commissions, regular-plan margins, transaction charges.
Inflation
Purchasing power lost when money sits somewhere that does not keep up with prices. The safest-looking account is rarely cost-free.
Tax
Inefficiency from poor structure and timing rather than evasion — where an asset is held, in whose name, and under which regime.
Depreciation
Money locked into things that lose value while you finance them, and the running costs that come attached.
Mis-selling
Products bought for a purpose they do not serve — most commonly insurance sold as an investment, and investments sold as protection.
Lifestyle creep
Upgrades and subscriptions that become invisible after the second month, then permanent by the sixth.
How much are you paying, in a year, without seeing it?
Find your money leaksThe core exercise
The Money Rent Audit
One worksheet. You list every place money leaves without your active consent, put a number next to each, and add it up. The total is your annual money rent. It is usually larger than people expect, and that is the useful part — it turns a vague feeling into a figure you can work on.
Step 1
Annual money rent
Add up interest, fees, avoidable tax, depreciation, mis-sold cover and unused recurring spends across twelve months.
Step 2
Monthly leakage
Divide by twelve. This is the figure that tells you what a fix is actually worth each month.
Step 3
Long-term cost
Project the same leak forward, so you can see what a recurring cost adds up to over a working life. Illustrative, not a forecast.
The audit produces a number specific to you. It is a diagnostic, not a prediction of savings.
Inside the book
Four parts, in the order you would actually do the work.
Part one
The Diagnosis
How money leaves an Indian household, and how to put a number on it.
- The money rent idea
- Where leaks hide in real accounts
- The Money Rent Audit worksheet
- Your annual money rent figure
Part two
Evicting the Landlords
One chapter per landlord, with what to do about each.
- Expensive debt, in priority order
- Fees and what they compound to
- Inflation and cash drag
- Tax structure and timing
- Depreciating assets
- Insurance versus investing
- Lifestyle creep and subscriptions
Part three
Becoming the Owner
Turning the money you stop losing into ownership.
- The six-rung ownership ladder
- Low-cost Indian portfolio concepts
- Calculating your freedom number
- Rent-versus-buy maths
- The 90-day action plan
Part four
The Toolkit
The reference material you return to while implementing.
- Worked case study
- 20 FAQs
- 5 printable worksheets
- Glossary of Indian money terms
Outcomes
What you walk away able to do.
See where your money is going
Not the grocery bill — the leaks that never appear as a line item you review.
Calculate your annual money rent
A single figure for the year, built from your own statements.
Rank your debt correctly
Which balance to attack first, and why rate beats size.
Read a fee for what it costs
Translate a percentage into rupees over the years you will hold the product.
Think clearly about inflation
Judge where cash should and should not sit.
Separate insurance from investing
Understand what each is for, and what happens when they are combined.
Understand low-cost investing
The structural choices that decide most of your long-run cost.
Work out your freedom number
A concrete target instead of a vague one.
Run rent-versus-buy honestly
The full maths, including the costs usually left out.
Follow a 90-day cleanup
A sequenced plan rather than a list of good intentions.
Keep using the worksheets
Five printable sheets to rerun the audit as things change.
Illustrative composite case study
Priya, 31, Pune. On paper, doing everything right.
₹95,000 a month take-home, savings in the bank, seven mutual funds, a policy she was told was an investment. She was not careless with money. She was renting it in six places at once.
₹95,000monthly take-home
₹1.1 lakhrevolving credit-card balance
2 EMIstwo-wheeler and phone
₹4 lakhsitting in savings
₹3.2 lakhacross seven regular-plan mutual funds
₹1 lakh/yrendowment policy · no term cover
Employer onlyhealth insurance
₹1,850/mosubscriptions
Her audit total
₹1,42,800
a year in money rent — roughly ₹11,900 a month
The book walks through how the figure was assembled, which leak she was told to close first and why, and what her 90 days looked like. Priya is a composite illustration built to show the method — not a reader result, and not a saving you should expect.
BeforeAuditIdentify leaksPrioritise90-day plan
The 90-day plan
Six phases, in priority order.
The sequence matters more than the speed. Expensive debt before slow leaks, buffer before optimisation, structure before investing.
01
Audit
Run the Money Rent Audit and arrive at your annual figure. Nothing changes until you know the number.
02
Stop the high-rate bleeding
Deal with the most expensive debt first. This is usually the single largest and fastest-moving leak.
03
Build buffer
Create enough resilience that the next unexpected expense does not go back onto a card.
04
Fix the slow leaks
Recurring costs, unused subscriptions, avoidable charges and fee drag on what you already hold.
05
Optimise tax and structure
Review how and where things are held, and which choices are costing you unnecessarily.
06
Build ownership
Redirect what you have freed up towards assets you own rather than rent.
What you get
The toolkit, not just the theory.
The Money Rent Audit
The core worksheet that produces your annual figure.
Worked case study
A full composite walkthrough from audit to 90-day plan.
20 FAQs
The questions readers hit while implementing.
5 printable worksheets
Audit, debt priority, insurance review, freedom number, rent-versus-buy.
Glossary
Indian money terms in plain language.
90-day plan
The sequence, phase by phase.
This is for you if
- You earn well but struggle to hold on to it.
- You want a practical framework built for Indian products and rules.
- You suspect money is leaking but cannot name where.
- You want to cut unnecessary costs you have been paying for years.
- You want your financial life organised and legible.
- You prefer practical education to hype.
This is not for you if
- You want stock tips.
- You want guaranteed returns.
- You want a get-rich-quick scheme.
- You want personalised financial advice.
- You want someone else to manage your money.
Questions
Before you buy.
It covers investing concepts — low-cost portfolio ideas, direct versus regular plans, a freedom number — but the bulk of the book is about finding and closing the leaks that sit upstream of investing: debt, fees, tax structure, insurance and recurring costs.
No. It is written as a practical field manual. Terms are defined as they appear, and there is a glossary at the back.
No. There are no stock picks or product recommendations. It explains how costs and structure work so you can evaluate your own holdings.
No. It is educational material. For advice specific to your situation, speak to a SEBI-registered investment adviser.
No. Figures such as 11% or 12% are historical or illustrative assumptions used to demonstrate a calculation. They are not forecasts, and past performance does not indicate future results.
Yes. The framework looks at fees, tax, debt, insurance, inflation and financial structure — the parts of a portfolio that often cost more than the fund choice does.
The complete ebook and its toolkit: the Money Rent Audit, the worked case study, 20 FAQs, 5 printable worksheets, the glossary and the 90-day plan. Delivered as a download immediately after payment.
Stop wondering where your money went. Start owning where it goes.
15 chapters, the Money Rent Audit, a worked case study, 20 FAQs, 5 printable worksheets, a glossary and a 90-day plan — written for Indian rates, products and rules.
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