Finance in a minute

Financial scams are increasing not because people are careless, but because scammers have become very good at sounding convincing. They know how to create urgency, excitement, or fear, and that’s often enough to make someone act without thinking. The goal is to rush you into making a decision before you have time to question it. Common financial scams you should know about 1. The “You’ve won something” scam You receive a message saying you’ve won a prize, scholarship, cashbac

The world’s first stock exchange opened in Amsterdam in 1602 and it didn’t look anything like what we imagine today. At the time, global trade was risky and slow. Ships travelled for months to bring back spices, silk, and other goods. If a ship sank, investors could lose everything. Earlier, people funded these voyages individually, which meant one bad journey could wipe someone out. The Dutch East India Company solved this problem by creating a new idea. Instead of investing

Needing a lot of money to start investing is one of the most common beliefs about investing and also the most misleading. Many people believe that it is only the wealthy adults with large sums of money who are able to invest, but in reality investing is about habit, not how rich you are.  Investing is like planting a seed. You don’t need a huge garden to start growing the tree. If the seed is planted early and taken care of regularly, it can grow into something meaningful ove

If you’ve ever sent money to anybody instantly using a phone number or QR code, you’ve probably used UPI (Unified Payments Interface). It’s a system that lets money move from one bank to another within seconds, at any time, with no cash needed. UPI was launched in 2016, and since then, India has grown into one of the fastest-growing digital payment countries in the world. Millions of transactions happen daily, from paying for groceries and movie tickets to school fees and piz

In 1949, a businessman named Frank McNamara went out for dinner in New York with his clients. When the bill arrived, he realized he had forgotten his wallet. His wife had to rush over with cash to save him from the embarrassment. That night, Frank had an idea: what if people could pay without always carrying cash? A year later, in 1950, he launched the Diners Club Card, the world’s first credit card. It allowed members to dine but then pay later. At first, only 27 restaurants

A lot of people think the stock market is just luck, like playing cards or a coin toss. But it isn’t the same thing. When you buy a stock, you own a small piece of a company. If the company grows and makes profits, your share in the company grows in value too. It's not based on chance but rather on how the business performs. Yes, in the short term, prices can go up and down quickly. That’s why it sometimes feels like gambling. But if you look at the stock market over many yea