When the system works against you

Summary: Readers didn’t write back to argue. They wrote to recognise themselves. This piece reflects on those responses and what they reveal about personal finance as it is practised today, how complexity becomes a sales tool and why choosing simplicity is less about being conservative and more about self-defence.

Every now and then, readers write back not to disagree, but to say: this is exactly what I have lived through. That was the dominant undertone in the responses to last week’s Editor’s Note, The system is rigged for you to fail.

Ponnudurai Ratna put it bluntly. “I feel the system itself is most corrupt,” he wrote, pointing to what many investors instinctively recognise but struggle to articulate. According to him, mis-selling is not an aberration but a feature. “Many so-called financial advisors misguide or missell to unsuspecting investors for their material gains only,” especially through products dressed up as guaranteed or safe.

Hina Joshi’s experience showed how quietly this damage accumulates. “I came to know the word term plan at the age of 50,” she wrote. Until then, she had been sold ULIPs and money-back policies by friends, relatives and colleagues, people she trusted. Even mutual fund exposure came through NFOs, “that have no proven performance.” The cost of confusion, in her case, was measured not just in money but in lost time.

What struck us reading these responses was how rarely readers spoke about returns. They spoke instead about realisation, often arriving late, sometimes painfully.

Complexity as a business model

Several readers zoomed in on the same mechanism: complexity is not accidental, it is profitable.

Arvind Padmanabhan captured this sharply. “That’s the way most personal finance professionals are trained,” he noted. “Complexity and financial jargon are thought to be what would fetch a fortune in a shorter span of time.” In that ecosystem, patience and discipline look dull, while novelty and jargon feel powerful.

Shankar Mitra described how this plays out on the ground. “Banks have become more of a middleman for the fund house rather than doing their core banking job,” he wrote. The sellers, he added, are often “absolutely clueless,” but the impact is very real, especially for those nearing retirement. “The worst hit are the people who are about to retire or have retired. These are the target clients.”

This is where the book referred to in the column, ‘Fixed: Why Personal Finance is Broken and How to Make It Work For Everyone’, hits hardest. When buyers cannot easily judge quality or cost, markets do not correct themselves. They amplify confusion. Complexity becomes the product. As Arvind warned, many investors now believe “an AI financial tool that is designed to be complex can produce miracles,” even as volatility and disappointment remain constant companions.

Why simplicity feels radical

If there was one point of convergence across responses, it was this: simplicity is not ignorance, it is self-defence.

Ponnudurai Ratna argued that the problem begins early. “We should have education to learn finance from higher secondary level as a compulsory subject,” he wrote. Without that base, investors enter adulthood unarmed, easy prey for jargon and persuasion. His conclusion echoed the column’s core argument: “Investing should be kept simple – term policy for protection and well-chosen mutual funds with limits of asset allocation.”

Arvind took the same idea further, framing it as behavioural discipline. “Greed, fear and impatience are the enemies of a genuine investor in any generation,” he wrote, adding that volatility is no longer an exception but the norm. Simplicity, in that context, is not conservatism, it is survival.

Dilip Raj, however, added an important caveat. While critical of the ecosystem, he warned against painting everyone with the same brush. “Don’t blame the entire sales fraternity,” he wrote, even as he criticised what he sees as agenda-driven behaviour and compromised financial journalism. His point was a reminder that incentives corrupt systems, but individuals operate within them, often under pressure.

What these responses collectively reveal is not cynicism, but clarity. Readers are not asking for perfect systems or benevolent capitalism. They are asking for fewer traps, fewer illusions and fewer clever distractions.

The system may indeed be “fixed”, both broken and rigged. But recognising that is not defeatist. As many of you pointed out, it is the first step towards stepping aside from complexity, resisting persuasion and reclaiming control. In personal finance, that awareness may be the most valuable asset of all.

Credits

Ponnudurai Ratna, Hina Joshi, Shankar Mitra, Arvind Padmanabhan, Dilip Raj

Also read: When rules exist, but fear doesn't

This article was originally published on February 04, 2026.