FDs and PFs won't save middle class: Devina Mehra on the six rules that actually will

“Thirty years of saving, and barely enough to retire.” That, says Devina Mehra, founder of First Global, is the brutal reality for countless Indians who locked their money in fixed deposits and provident funds, never investing, and now finding their retirement corpus alarmingly small.

In a column for Mint, Mehra recounted speaking to employees of a legacy company where many nearing retirement admitted they had never ventured beyond FDs, PFs, and tax-saving schemes. “They kept thinking they did not know enough about markets and would start once they understood a bit more, and the years just slipped past,” she wrote. Advertisement

Her takeaway: investing success is not about timing or complexity but about discipline and basic principles. “It is neither as complex nor as simple as it is ma