Investing For The ‘In-Between Years’: Navigating The Messy Middle Of Money

Every month-end, Mrs Sharma opens her bank statement and feels the same quiet panic. Not because there’s no money, but because it disappears faster than it arrives.

She’s 38. Solid career, decent salary, two kids in school. A home-loan EMI of Rs 42,000. Her daughter’s coding classes and her son’s swimming lessons. Her mother’s diabetes medication. Groceries that seem to get more expensive every week. Her husband’s business loan repayment. The maid’s salary. Car insurance. And the ‘unexpected’ expenses that somehow always come up.

By month-end, she’s left with Rs 18,000. Sometimes Rs 12,000. She tells herself she’ll “invest properly next month,” moves whatever is left into savings, and the cycle repeats.

She isn’t broke. She isn’t irresponsible. She’s just trapped in the messy middle - the in-between years where you’re building a life and trying to secure a future at the same time. And she isn’t alone.

The Invisible Squeeze

Mid-career financial life in India is a contradiction: you may be earning more than ever, yet many households feel more financially stretched than before. According to government statistics and central-bank data, India’s household savings rate as a share of GDP peaked around 22.7 per cent in fiscal 2020–21, but fell to about 18.4 per cent by fiscal 2022–23. At the same time, per-capita financial liabilities of households rose sharply from Rs 46,898 in 2019 to Rs 86,713 by 2024, as per data derived from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

As Sanjiv Bajaj, Jt Chairman and MD at BajajCapital Ltd, puts it, “Mid-career is when Indians face their toughest money decisions. You’re funding today’s lifestyle, paying for yesterday’s loans, and trying to save for tomorrow all at once.”

The Triple Burden

Mid-life money isn’t complex because the math is hard, it’s complex because your priorities compete:

1. Immediate obligations: EMIs, school fees, groceries, medicines all non-negotiables that take up most of the paycheck.

2. Medium-term goals: Higher education, a car upgrade, home renovation, family vacations all goals that need funding within 3–7 years.

3. Long-term security: Retirement. Distant enough to postpone, close enough to become a crisis if ignored.

Most mid-career earners manage the first, think about the second, and delay the third until the gap becomes impossible to close.

Bajaj suggests, “Mid-career investing isn’t about choosing one priority. It’s about creating a structure that quietly supports all three.”

1. Automate Before You Spend

On salary day auto-transfer 15 per cent to PPF (Public Provident Fund), 10 per cent to equity SIPs (systematic investment plans), 5 per cent to a children’s fund. What remains is for spending.

2. Clear High-Interest Debt First

Home loans at 8–9 per cent are manageable. Credit cards at 30–40 per cent are financial poison. Paying these off is equivalent to earning a guaranteed return.

3. Build A Real Emergency Fund

At least six months of expenses in a liquid fund or savings account. Mid-life brings job shifts, medical needs, and family emergencies. Without a buffer, every crisis becomes a loan.

4. Balance Growth and Stability

You need both equity for growth and debt for stability. A simple rule: Your age = your percentage in debt. (At 40 → 40 per cent debt, 60 per cent equity.)

5. Get Insurance Right

Term life, comprehensive health insurance, critical illness coverage -these protect your future savings. A single medical emergency can erase years of effort.

6. Build Systems, Not Stress

SIPs in diversified equity funds. Regular contributions. Minimal intervention. Consistency beats stock-picking excitement every time.

The Power Of Time In The Middle Years

If a 38-year-old invests Rs 15,000 monthly at 12 per cent returns, the corpus at 60 is ~Rs 1.5 crore. Start the same at 45, and it drops to ~ Rs 75 lakh. Seven years’ delay. Half the wealth. That’s the real cost of waiting in the messy middle.

Mrs. Sharma now splits her Rs 18,000 surplus:

• Rs 7,000 to equity SIPs

• Rs 5,000 to PPF

• Rs 3,000 to education fund

• Rs 3,000 to emergency savings

Same money. Better intention. Better outcome.

“I’m not saving more,” she says. “I’m just saving right.” In the in-between years, it’s intentionality - not income - that ultimately shapes your financial future.