571 essays on NRI finance, product reviews, and life across borders. No fluff, no affiliate spam, no listicles.
Here's something most people don't realize. BharatX and Simpl aren't really competitors. They work in completely different ways. Comparing them is like comparing a car engine manufacturer to a taxi service. But people ask me about this all the time. So let me break it down. The B
Read essay→My friend Rohan sent me a screenshot last week. "Which one should I get?" he asked. Multipl on one screen. Jupiter Edge on the other. I laughed. Then realized he wasn't joking. He …
My wife still remembers the panic. Standing at the Frankfurt airport ATM in 2016. My US debit card declined. Again. And again. That's when I realized how broken international payments really are. Fast forward to 2025. Things have changed. We have cards like Niyo Global and Zolve
Read essay→My first week back in India after 12 years in the US was chaos. I was at a coffee shop in Bangalore. Tried to pay with my US debit card. Declined. Tried my credit card. Declined ag…
When I moved back to India in 2017, one thing kept me up at night. My US stock portfolio. I had spent years building positions in companies I believed in. Apple. Google. Tesla before it became cool. The question was simple. Should I liquidate everything or find a way to keep inve
Read essay→My younger son got his first job offer in January 2024. ₹6.5 lakh per annum. Bangalore based startup. He was excited. Then reality hit. "Dad, I need a credit card. Everyone at work…
My wife asked me a simple question in 2018. "How much did we spend on eating out last month?" I opened my HDFC bank statement. Scrolled through 47 transactions. Tried to mentally add up Swiggy, Zomato, restaurants, cafes. Gave up after 10 minutes. "Around 15,000 I think?" I guess
Read essay→My first salary account in India after returning in 2017 was an HDFC account. They promised premium banking. Priority customer service. Zero balance requirements because of my sala…
I remember sitting in my Bangalore apartment last year, watching my cousin struggle to save money. He was earning well. Spending better. The classic millennial problem. That's when he asked me about these new-age savings apps. Jar and Fello kept popping up on his Instagram feed.
Read essay→September 2017. Mumbai airport. Two jet lagged kids. Exhausted wife. And me with zero clue where we'd live. I had exactly 14 days to find a house before my Airbnb booking ran out. …
