Rishabh Dev

Building generational wealth is about more than leaving a large inheritance. Money needs to be supported by the skills, habits and judgement required to manage it. In this article, I explore five levels of money, from active income and asset building to financial independence and legacy. I also share how I think about preparing my children for responsibility, keeping family finances understandable and matching financial complexity to the stage of the journey.

A portfolio is only one part of building wealth. Looking back at my own journey, three things mattered most: earning enough to create a surplus, giving investments time to compound and diversifying so that the plan did not depend on one outcome. Here I explain how these pillars work together, why income often matters more than returns in the beginning, and how I think about a portfolio that lets me sleep well at night.

Knowing the basics of investing is often easier than following them. Low costs, diversification and a long holding period sound straightforward, until headlines, market corrections and the search for a better fund tempt us to change course. In this article, I explore the behavioural side of building wealth: why compelling stories can distract us, what chasing extra returns costs in attention, and how I use a simpler system to avoid interrupting my own compounding.

My net worth crossed approximately ₹8 crore after eight years of systematic tracking and later moved into the ₹10–11 crore range. That growth came from business income, savings, new investments, market returns, property and currency movements; it should not be confused with portfolio CAGR. Here I look back at the different phases of the journey, what drove progress at each stage, and why the most meaningful change was eventually having more choice over work, family time and ordinary days.

How much money would give you the freedom to choose how you spend your time? Multiplying annual expenses by 25 is a familiar starting point, but a useful Enough Number also needs to reflect your family, future goals, investable assets and comfort with uncertainty. In this article, I explain how I approach that calculation, why I prefer a range to a single target, and how financial independence differs from deciding that you will never work again.

A new year brings fresh predictions, fashionable sectors and plenty of reasons to question your portfolio. But the foundations of long-term investing tend to change much more slowly than the headlines. Here I explain the money flow from income and surplus to a diversified portfolio, the role of emergency reserves and protection, and why I continue to favour a simple indexing approach. The aim is a process that can handle uncertainty without requiring markets to become a full-time occupation.

When my investment portfolio crossed approximately ₹5 crore, the most useful lessons were about process rather than stock selection. At that historical snapshot, about ₹3.88 crore invested had grown to roughly ₹5.03 crore; this was my investment portfolio, not my total net worth. Here I share ten lessons on contributions, diversification, simplicity and staying invested, while separating past returns from future assumptions and asking how a growing portfolio can create more freedom outside the spreadsheet.