Beyond YOLO: How Radhika Gupta's 10-30-50 investing rule from 'Mango Millionaire' makes saving simple

Edelweiss AMC CEO Radhika Gupta shares a relatable take on the classic money dilemma young earners face: spend now or save for later? In a recent tweet, she breaks it down with personal anecdotes, and a practical rule anyone can follow.

The phrase "YOLO" (You Only Live Once) and the practice of saving for the future represent a timeless conflict. Radhika Gupta starts her social media post with a question that resonates with many young people today: How do you balance the desire to live freely in the present with the need to save for the future?

"I meet so many young people who tell me they don’t know where to start with investing. How much... and then how in the first place?," read her post.

She reminds us that this tug-of-war between spending and saving is nothing new.

"The tussle between attending the next Coldplay concert and putting money away is real. Every generation had it, even before Instagram showed up...My mother still tells me how my father blew up a lot of his salary on buying records," she said on X.

Radhika emphasises that managing money isn’t about choosing one extreme over the other.

"Reality is, life is not a choice between YOLO and savings... it’s a balance," she said.

She introduces a practical savings framework from her book Mango Millionaire, designed to help people save according to their life stage.

• In your 20s: Save 10% (or even 1% if that’s all you can manage — habits matter more than amounts).

• In your 30s: Save 30%. Life and goals get serious.

• In your 40s: Save 50%. This is peak income, make the most of it.

If you can pay tax, you can save too

When people say saving is tough, Radhika flips the perspective with a clever comparison.

"Young folks often tell me even 10% feels hard and then I ask them — how do you pay tax? Oh... tax is deducted at source!”

Radhika closes with a message that many young professionals need to hear: You can enjoy life and still build a financial future. You can do both- buy the handbag and save money for the start-up. And that, Gen Z, is the real flex.

In September 2024, the MD & CEO of Edelweiss Asset Management introduced the concept of "dal-chawal funds" to simplify investment strategies for retail investors. According to Gupta, dal-chawal funds are broad-based, diversified mutual funds that form the foundation of an investment portfolio. These funds are designed to be "all-weather" investments, ensuring stability and consistent returns over time like Balanced Advantage Funds, Aggressive Hybrid Funds, Flexi-cap and Multi-cap Funds, Large and Mid-cap 250 Index Funds.

Mango Millionaire

Mango Millionaire, co-authored by Radhika Gupta and Niranjan Avasthi, stands out from the typical personal finance book. Rather than focusing on complex investment strategies, it offers a more fundamental approach to managing money.