Okay so. Confession.

I had, at one point, fairy lights and unnecessary candles burning at the same time in a room. Candles, the size of a Maggi packet. Four. Why. Nobody knows. I didn’t even like the smell of two of them. One was called “Library at Midnight”, and it smelt like a printer.

I bought all four in the same month. I told myself I “couldn’t afford” to start investing.

Sit with that for a second. I want you to feel the full weight of my poor decision-making before we move on.

TL;DR (because I get it, you have a life)

  • Spent my PhD stipend years thinking SIPs were a “later, when I’m rich” problem
  • Was, instead, extremely rich in lights and candles
  • A friend mentioned mutual funds once, completely randomly – no big speech, nothing
  • That one sentence is the reason I have any savings at all today
  • You don’t need to be ready. You just need to start with whatever you have, even if it’s embarrassingly small

So, Here’s the Thing About Stipends

When you’re living off a stipend, money has this very specific personality. It shows up, and it’s already gone. As it RSVP’d to it’s own funeral. Rent takes a chunk, food takes a chunk, and whatever’s left just kind of evaporates into life — random Ubers, that one dinner you didn’t plan for, yet another candle.

I genuinely never thought about investing during this time. Not because someone told me not to. Just because nobody told me TO. There was no moment when anyone went, “Hey, by the way, this is a thing you should be doing right now, even with ₹500.” So I just didn’t. I assumed it was a problem for some future, more put-together version of me. The one with a real job. The one who had her life in a nice little folder, probably colour-coded.

Spoiler: that version of me did not arrive on schedule. She’s still working on it, honestly.

The Sentence That Ruined Everything (In a Good Way)

So this one time, in a totally unrelated conversation, a friend just casually mentions he’s been invessting some money into a mutual fund every month. Like it was nothing. Like he was telling me about a TV show.

“Oh yeah, I just have like ₹5000 going into a SIP every month; it takes ten minutes to set up.”

TEN MINUTES.

I had spent more time than that deciding which light or candle to buy.

I remember just sort of nodding along and changing the subject because my brain hadn’t caught up yet.

But that sentence followed me home. It sat in my head, annoyingly correct, for days. Years of “I’ll start investing when I have more money,” and the actual fix was sitting right there the entire time, mentioned to me by someone over absolutely nothing, like it was the most boring fact in the world.

Which, to be fair, it kind of is. That’s the whole point.

Why I Picked Aesthetic Stuffs Over My Own Future, Repeatedly

Not proud of this, but let’s actually look at it.

A light or candle gives you something immediately. You buy them, you light them, you feel cosy, done, dopamine delivered the same day. A SIP gives you nothing. Literally nothing happens that you can see or feel or light on fire. It just sits there being responsible while you forget it exists.

And also, nobody talks about this stuff. You know how many people post their vacation pics? All of them. You know how many people post “hey guys just started investing ₹3000 into my index fund”? Zero. Nobody has ever done this. So the only financial behaviour I ever actually witnessed growing up was spending. Saving happened in silence, somewhere I couldn’t see, which basically meant my brain filed it under “not real.”

Also — and this is the embarrassing one — I think I was waiting to feel “ready”. As if there would be some specific Tuesday when I would wake up and think, “Ah yes, NOW I am prepared to be a responsible adult with investments.” That Tuesday does not exist. I want to be very clear about that for anyone else out there waiting for it.

The Actual Advice, Not Just Another Lecture

A stipend counts. Any income counts. You genuinely do not need to be “earning properly” to start. ₹500 a month is a completely real, completely valid place to begin. It is also, conveniently, less than what I spent on lights and candles.

The amount really doesn’t matter as much as people make it sound. Starting matters infinitely more than the number you start with.

It’s supposed to be boring. If investing feel exciting, something has probably gone wrong. SIPs are meant to sit there quietly doing their job while you live your life and occasionally forget they exist. That’s not a bug; that’s the whole design.

And genuinely listen when people mention this stuff casually. My entire financial wake-up call was one sentence, said with zero drama, by someone who definitely did not think he was changing my life that day. But he was.

SIP Investing

If You’re Reading This, Feeling a Bit Behind

You’re not. You’re just at the part of the story where it clicks. Mine clicked over a completely random conversation, years later than it should have. Yours can click right now, while you’re reading this on your phone, possibly avoiding work.

Here’s what actually doing something about investnig looks like, no overthinking required:

  1. Open one SIP. Today, ideally, while the motivation is still warm. Doesn’t need to be the perfect fund. You can always change it later.
  2. Set it to auto-debit the day your salary or stipend lands. Before your brain can negotiate. Before the candles win again.
  3. Then forget about it. Genuinely. Let investing be boring. Let it do its job in the background while you go live your actual life.

The candles aren’t going anywhere. Your future kind of needs you to start now, though.

The Recap, Briefly

  • Any income is enough income to start with, stipend included
  • Stop waiting to feel ready; that day isn’t coming on its own
  • Starting small now beats starting big later, every time
  • The best money advice usually comes from a friend mentioning something casually, not a finance expert
  • SIPs should feel boring. That’s correct. That’s working as intended
  • You’re not behind; you’re just at the part where it finally clicks

Did this make you open your banking app mid-read? Good. That was the goal. Send it to a friend who’s currently funding their own version of the light and candle economy.