Financial Doctrine This Republic Day For Those Who Defend The Nation

By Col. Sanjeev Govila (Retd), CFP, CEO, Hum Fauji Initiatives

Every Republic Day, we celebrate the courage, discipline and sacrifice of the men and women who wear India’s uniform. We speak with pride about what they defend and what they endure. What we speak of less often is a quieter battle they fight alongside their service to the nation - the challenge of managing personal finances in a life designed for duty, not financial planning.

Traditionally, financial management has never been the natural operating environment of the Armed Forces. This has nothing to do with a lack of discipline or responsibility. Few professions demand greater order and self-control. The difficulty lies in the structure of military life itself. Odd hours, frequent transfers, long operational commitments and postings far from financial centres leave little room for structured personal finance. Markets, paperwork and everyday financial decisions often remain distant realities.

Over time, this distance creates distortions. Soldiers spend months, sometimes years, away from price discovery, negotiation and evolving consumer behaviour. Gradually, convenience replaces value. Purchases - whether vehicles, electronics, insurance or property - are often made at a premium, not out of carelessness, but because time and attention are scarce. Add to this emotional spending during family reunions, the need to keep higher liquidity for emergencies, and reliance on intermediaries who promise to ‘manage everything,’ and personal finances quietly drift off course.

For decades, the financial lives of jawans and officers were shaped by scarcity - of access, of information and of advice tailored to service conditions. Decisions were reactive. Savings were fragmented. Planning happened episodically, often triggered by urgency rather than design. This was not irresponsibility. It was a rational response to an environment that demanded near-total focus on national duty while assuming that money matters would somehow manage themselves.

That environment has changed rapidly. Smartphones, digital platforms and reliable connectivity have reached even remote postings. Absence has been replaced by access. Information is abundant, investing is frictionless, and financial opinions are everywhere. Today’s soldier understands inflation, SIPs and equity investing. Many have used this access wisely, automating investments, avoiding lifestyle inflation and building long-term stability quietly. These success stories deserve recognition.

But abundance has also introduced a new risk. Easy access has blurred the line between investing and trading. For some, disciplined investing has gradually given way to short-term speculation, intraday trading and leverage, driven by partial knowledge and the promise of quick returns. Markets, however, do not reward courage alone. They reward systems, probability and time.

Intraday trading, especially with leverage, is structurally stacked against individuals. For soldiers with irregular schedules, operational stress and limited ability to monitor positions, the risks are magnified. Losses often remain invisible at first - masked by occasional wins, followed by capital erosion, borrowing to recover losses and silent emotional stress. These outcomes are not moral failures. They are failures of structure and education.

Generic financial advice also frequently misfires when applied to Armed Forces personnel. Most service members already contribute substantially to DSOP, AFPP, AGIF and similar schemes across services. For many, these contributions alone exceed tax-saving limits as applicable, yet additional products are often sold primarily for tax benefits. The truth is simple: for most in uniform, tax-saving should not be the primary driver of investment decisions.

The same caution applies to insurance. India’s strong military hospital infrastructure reduces the need for excessive or overlapping health insurance policies. Insurance must be purpose-driven and adequate, not fear-driven or redundant. Protection matters, but over-insurance quietly erodes long-term wealth.

Avoiding unsuitable products does not mean avoiding planning. In fact, planning matters more than ever. Soldiers must consciously prepare for children’s education, retirement, medical needs beyond service and the eventual transition to civilian income. The objective is not complexity, but clarity. A financial plan should support service life, not distract from it.

The way forward lies between fear and frenzy. Long-term investing through diversified equity and mutual funds remains the most reliable path to wealth creation. Automation reduces dependence on constant decision-making. Emergency funds must remain separate from long-term investments, and systems should be simple and repeatable. Speculative trading and leverage, however, deserve caution. A soldier’s financial life should be boring by design, because service life already carries enough uncertainty.

The solution is not restriction, but education. Structured, realistic financial education tailored to the realities of military life is no longer optional. Just as soldiers are trained before being handed weapons, they must be trained before being handed frictionless access to financial markets.

As we reflect on this Republic Day, it is worth remembering that the Indian soldier has moved from financial scarcity to financial saturation. Both extremes carry risk. The future lies in designed financial discipline - systems that respect military life, harness technology wisely and protect those who protect the nation.

Courage wins battles. Discipline wins wars. But in finance, systems quietly win lives - without medals, without noise, and without applause.

(Disclaimer: Views expressed are the author’s own, and Outlook Money does not necessarily subscribe to them. Outlook Money shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.)