Diwali 2026: Ankur Warikoo explains 5 money habits that could be keeping you poor and how to change them
Building wealth is not just about earning a higher salary. It is also about having a clear understanding of different asset classes, such as stocks, bonds, and gold, among others, along with how an individual should manage their funds, control expenses, and plan for the future, which can also help determine an individual’s financial well-being.
Diwali can be an opportune time to adopt healthy personal finance habits, bolster your investments, and avoid habits that can hinder wealth creation. The aim should be to eliminate poor habits such as poor budgeting, high-interest debt, inadequate emergency savings, along with a host of other similar habits, to become financially efficient.
Do note that even individuals with a steady flow of income may struggle to build meaningful savings if they repeatedly make poor financial decisions and manage their hard-earned money based on emotion.
Prominent entrepreneur and personal finance educator Ankur Warikoo recently discussed 5 key money habits that keep people from achieving their financial goals in a Facebook video and, in turn, keep them poor.
Practising these habits this Diwali can help individuals strengthen their financial health, make more informed money decisions and build a stronger foundation for long-term financial security.
If you do not have a proper spending budget and a clear plan to manage your monthly expenses, it will become difficult for you to identify and understand where your hard-earned money is being spent. To ensure proper budgeting, it is prudent to set clear ‘spending limits’ for various products and services to eliminate unnecessary costs and lavish spending. Such a habit will leave more funds for savings.
Borrowing funds should be practised with extreme caution. This is because high-interest debt can quickly spiral out of control. Once out of control, it can rapidly eat into an individual’s monthly income. Things can become even more difficult to manage if an individual pays only the minimum due on credit cards and recklessly allows interest to accrue on outstanding balances. This makes properly prioritising the repayment of expensive debt indispensable. Proper awareness of debt management is essential to combat such a situation.
One of the key cornerstones of meaningful personal finance planning is to have an emergency fund. This is the fund that permits an individual to utilise saved money during unforeseen emergencies, such as job termination, serious medical illness, and other similar challenging life events. Building an emergency fund can also help an individual avoid falling for predatory personal loans or credit card debt, which can go a long way toward ensuring their financial health remains intact.
It is also vital to ensure that, with rising income and higher potential earnings from a promotion or bonus, this does not automatically lead to lavish and reckless spending. Furthermore, just having a higher income does not automatically translate into greater savings and wealth. In fact, to boost savings and portfolio growth, it is important to increase both investments and savings whenever income rises. This can help an individual avoid falling for lifestyle inflation.
Making investments early gives ample time for them to compound. Over extended periods of time, even minor investments can accumulate into meaningful wealth. For example, investing in a simple Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) in a prominent mutual fund over extended periods can result in meaningful wealth creation. Still, returns on such investments ultimately depend on market conditions and specific investments.
In summary, these five simple yet powerful habits underscore why financial discipline matters as much as income growth. Creating a proper budget, managing overall debt, building a meaningful emergency fund, focusing on controlling lifestyle inflation and starting investments early in your career can help individuals strengthen their finances in a constructive way. The key is to build sustainable money habits and follow them consistently rather than waiting for a higher income to improve financial security.
Shivam writes on personal finance, equity markets, and mutual funds. He has previously contributed to several leading publications, including Moneycontrol. He can be reached at shivam.shukla@htdigital.in
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