The financial decisions you make in the first 30 days of a new job will shape your savings for years. Don't miss any of these.
Most Indians spend their first salary and figure out finances later. The ones who build wealth do the opposite — they set up automated systems in Month 1 and then never think about it again. This checklist takes 2–3 hours to complete. The return is decades of compounding.
New regime has lower slab rates but no deductions. Old regime allows 80C (₹1.5L), 80D (health insurance), HRA, standard deduction (₹50K), LTA. The break-even: if your deductions total more than ₹3.75L, old regime saves more tax. Below ₹3.75L in deductions, new regime is better. Use the Simplegence Income Tax Calculator to run both scenarios with your actual numbers.
The minimum: 20% of take-home. The ideal: 30–40%. If your take-home is ₹50,000, save ₹10,000–20,000 in Month 1. If rent is expensive, even ₹5,000 is a start — the habit matters more than the amount initially. Increase by 10% every year as your salary grows.
If your education loan interest rate is above 10%, prioritise paying it off. If it's 7–9% (typical for government bank loans), invest in parallel — equity SIPs historically return 12–15% CAGR, making it rational to invest while servicing the loan. Always pay EMIs on time to protect your CIBIL score.
EPF gives ~8.25% guaranteed return (tax-free at maturity). NPS gives market-linked returns (typically 10–13% for 75% equity allocation) with extra ₹50,000 tax deduction under 80CCD(1B). If you're in the old tax regime and have spare savings after EPF, NPS is worth opening. If you're on new regime, the NPS tax benefit is limited — invest directly in equity mutual funds instead.
