Shiladitya was at the top of his game. A star in sales and marketing at a leading FMCG company, he was known as a maverick. He launched products using unconventional strategies that others dismissed — but they worked.
While his persona was legendary and he was earning quite well, his wealth creation did not reflect the swagger he brought to everything else!
We see many “Shiladityas” in our practice. The pattern repeats — often with devastating consequences.
Always busy
High performers are hyper-busy. Their careers demand constant travel, decision-making and firefighting. Add family responsibilities, and there is little mental bandwidth left for money.
So investments happen by default.
A friendly banker suggests a product. A friend tips them about a “can’t-miss” plot in Jumritalaiya. Money gets deployed — without alignment.
Such investments tend to fall in the no man’s land of not being suitable for them from a risk-reward, goal alignment, liquidity, tenure and taxation perspectives. This is how mish-mash portfolios are born. Instead of creating wealth, they become millstones around the neck.
False comfort
During peak earning years, salary flows in steadily. Bonuses, incentives and ex gratia payments add to the comfort. Expenses get managed. Vacations happen. EMIs are paid. This creates a false sense of financial security.
Many assume life will continue on a smooth upward trajectory. Higher earnings are simply projected forward until retirement. But careers rarely move in straight lines.
When stress events hit — job loss, business slowdown, health shocks — the gaps show.
Lifestyle creep
Lifestyle is a silent wealth destroyer. Expenses mostly move in one direction — up. Each salary hike upgrades lifestyle. Bigger home. Better car. Premium schooling. Fancier vacations.
Once on this train, it is extremely difficult to get off.
High lifestyle costs reduce investible surplus. Retirement goals get compromised. And even accumulated wealth erodes faster because fixed expenses remain elevated. Wealth creation suffers quietly.
No steady hand
Ironically, many high fliers have advisors in every area of business — strategy, HR, legal, marketing — but none for personal finance.
Part of this is overconfidence. Financial terminology feels familiar. Products seem easy to understand. Finance gets reduced to chasing returns rather than building a unified plan aligned to life goals.
In their companies, they follow detailed business plans broken into quarterly actions. In personal life, vacations and events are meticulously planned.
But for the one financial journey that lasts four decades — there is no blueprint.
Without an advisor, decisions are driven by hearsay, online noise and heuristics. And heuristics are not always right.
With most people, the bigger problem is execution. When one is trying to do it on one’s own, one procrastinates and stumbles with execution. This is such a big deal, that this can make or mar wealth creation.
Hubris trap
The successful high fliers like Shiladitya tend to extrapolate their accomplishments in their profession to a general proficiency in almost every area. They start thinking about themselves as a proverbial midas whose touch cannot be anything but golden. Alas, that is hardly true. Very few people possess capabilities that can work across domains.
This mindset is often exploited. Salespeople flatter them, positioning “exclusive” or “sophisticated” products for “discerning” investors. In this process, such people get sold costly products, with big investments, low liquidity, long tenures etc. They get saddled with products that are sold and not what may really be suitable.
Earning well is one thing. Income is not wealth — though many assume it is.
Managing money well, staying within budgets, investing in a disciplined manner, checking impulsive behaviour when there is chaos and volatility and just staying invested for the long term are the things to do to accumulate wealth. Looks easy, but it is anything but…Shiladitya will attest to this!
Suresh Sadagopan is MD & principal officer at Ladder7 Wealth Planners and the author of the book ‘If God Was Your Financial Planner’