Personal finance decoded in plain English
Research-led explanations of budgeting, saving, debt, investing and more, for beginners who were never taught how money actually works.
Pillar 6
Most people were never taught how money actually works, not in school, not at home. This section covers the foundational concepts: what inflation means for your savings, how credit scores are calculated, what net worth actually measures, and the financial terms that show up in real life but rarely get explained clearly. Start here if you are new to personal finance.
Pillar 1
Budgeting is not about restriction. It is about knowing where your money goes before it disappears. This section covers every major budgeting method in plain English: zero-based budgeting, the 50/30/20 rule, the envelope method, and more. Research shows that the best budget is the one that matches how you actually live, not a textbook ideal.
Pillar 2
Saving money sounds simple until life gets in the way. This section covers the strategies, systems, and mindset shifts that research shows actually work, from building an emergency fund from scratch to understanding the difference between a sinking fund and a savings account. No unrealistic advice. Just what the research says.
Pillar 3
Debt and credit are two of the most misunderstood areas of personal finance. This section explains how credit scores are calculated, how credit card interest actually compounds, how debt payoff methods work, and what happens when debt goes unpaid. Understanding how these systems work is the first step to navigating them.
Explore
Budgeting, saving, debt and credit, banking, tax, side hustles, and the psychology of money. Every topic we cover, in one place.
SEBI's advertisement code tells a fund exactly how to report returns, and the word XIRR never appears in it. That is why the number on your statement is not the one in the ad.
13 min read
Every list ranks finance newsletters by quality and none says who pays for them. In India the three biggest all trace back to one broker, and that is worth knowing before you read.
11 min read
Every page ranking for loan against property is written by a lender. None of them says what happens when you stop paying, or that the tax deduction has three conditions.
13 min read
Section 80E has no upper limit, which is the part everyone quotes. It also sits outside the default tax regime, so on ₹15 lakh income claiming it can cost ₹66,300 more than skipping it.
12 min read
NRE interest is exempt. NRO interest takes 30% TDS plus cess from the first rupee, with no threshold, and the Form 15G route residents use is closed to NRIs.
10 min read
After 60 months a claim cannot be contested for non-disclosure. A rejection needs committee approval and the exact clause. And the insurer collects the documents, not you.
10 min read
SEBI's own example shows the expense ratio gap and stops before computing it. Finished, it reaches ₹1,02,957 at twenty years, more than the whole original investment.
10 min read
RBI's gold loan rules took effect 1 April 2026. Tiered LTV of 85, 80 and 75 percent, a 12-month cap on bullet loans, weight limits, and ₹5,000 a day if your gold is returned late.
11 min read
Gold ETFs turn long-term at 12 months, physical and digital gold at 24. SGBs stopped being issued in 2024, and SEBI says digital gold has no investor protection.
10 min read
Form 121 replaced Forms 15G and 15H on 1 April 2026. Almost every page says age no longer matters. The Act says otherwise, in a Note most coverage never reached.
17 min read
We learned too late that no matter how well things are going, you never know what is coming.
The Money Decoded was started by someone who learned about personal finance the hard way, through a real business failure and a near-loss of their family home in 2011.
We research personal finance topics thoroughly and explain them in plain English so others do not have to learn these lessons the hard way too. Nothing on this site is financial advice.
Read the full storyOur research draws from Investopedia, NerdWallet, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the IRS, and the SEC.
