Mint Money Compass: Why patience pays, in cooking and in investing

Anyone who loves a good meal knows what slow cooking does to food. Laboured over with time and with the right ingredients, it delivers one of the most rewarding experiences. From good food to satisfying returns, equity investing works much the same way.

Investors who stay invested do far better than those who try to time the market. Across cycles, the lucky (who invest at lows), the unlucky (who invest at highs), and the regular investors end up with surprisingly similar outcomes.

A study by Capitalmind Mutual Fund examined the Nifty 500 Index over a 30-year period from January 1995 to August 2025. It assumed four types of investors investing ₹1 lakh as a lump sum every year. The lucky ones invested at the market’s lowest point each year. The unlucky ones invested at the year’s peak. Regular investors invested on the first trading day of every year. Random investors—which is where most of us fall—invested on a randomly chosen trading day each year.

The lucky investor earned 16% annualized returns. For random investors, 90% of returns fell within a narrow band of 14.7%-15.3%. Even the unlucky investors, who entered at the peak every year, earned 13.7%.

Since it is nearly impossible to predict market highs and lows in real time, what’s the next best option? Invest consistently. You’ll be far better off than waiting on the sidelines.

Another dataset seals the argument. Over a 24-year horizon, the Nifty 500 TRI delivered 17.3% annualized returns. An investor who stayed invested through this period would have earned similar returns. But missing just five of the best market days would have dragged returns down to 15.2%. Miss 50 days, and returns fall to just 4.7%.

Clearly, obsessing over entry points matters far less than staying invested. Missing even a handful of strong market days can seriously dent long-term wealth creation. And that is the crux of this brilliant story by Jash Kriplani. Treat investing like slow cooking: Spend time, stay consistent, and enjoy the rewards of patience.

Patience, however, is not a virtue of digital payments, where speed is currency. But what happens when you accidentally send money to the wrong person?

In this story, Khyati Dharamsi documents the case of a college student who mistakenly transferred money via UPI to an auto driver instead of his father. There is, of course, a recovery process. If you send money to the wrong person, you can approach your bank or UPI app and raise a dispute using the transaction ID or unique transaction reference (UTR). Banks then coordinate with the beneficiary bank to seek a reversal. Users can also lodge a complaint on the National Payments Corporation of India's (NPCI) UPI portal or call its helpline (1800-120-1740).

Banks are expected to resolve UPI complaints—including failed transactions, debits without credit, and erroneous transfers within T+1 to T+3 working days. But what looks simple on paper can be far more convoluted in practice. Recovery depends on how quickly you report the error, whether the recipient has already withdrawn the funds, and several other variables.

Read the story to understand the nuances and why a single wrong click on UPI can turn into a painful recovery process.

Staying on the theme of caution, Anagh Pal has a thoughtful story for those in their 50s and approaching retirement. Retirement may be a moving target today, but following a few essential financial hygiene practices can make the transition far smoother.

From reviewing your investments and shifting a portion towards income-generating assets to closing outstanding loans and reassessing your insurance needs—especially health cover—the story offers a practical checklist to help make retirement feel like a phase of freedom rather than financial anxiety.

While this isn’t limited to the years just before or after retirement, making a Will is essential to ensure your assets pass to your loved ones without friction. Drafting a Will is relatively simple, but the added step of probating it has traditionally been time-consuming and, in some cities, mandatory.

Probate is essentially a legal stamp from the court confirming that the Will is genuine and that the executor named in it has the authority to distribute the estate.

In December, Parliament passed the Repealing and Amending Act, 2025, which, in effect, means beneficiaries in Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata no longer need to mandatorily obtain probate to act on a valid Will. Earlier, this was compulsory for Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Parsis if the Will was executed in these cities or covered property located there.

That said, don’t dismiss the legal protection that probate provides just yet. Shipra Singh outlines several scenarios where a probated Will may still be advisable, especially if you live abroad, have multiple beneficiaries, or own assets across different states. For practical purposes, probate remains a good financial hygiene measure regardless of where you live or have assets.

And finally, in the space of taxation, Shipra Singh tells what you can do when you make an error when filing your income tax returns. You need to file an updated return, but this comes with important limitations and financial consequences.

With this, we wrap up our week. Send in your feedback at deepti.bhaskaran@livemint.com.