One Purpose. A Better Life.
🎁 Special Discount until 5th Jan. 2026
“This is a masterpiece.”
—Morgan Housel, Author, Psychology of Money
“Discover the extraordinary within.”
—Manish Chokhani, Director, Enam Holdings
It’s the 5th of January. The “New Year, New Me” LinkedIn posts are already starting to feel stale, and the reality of 2026 is just… here. Just a couple of hours ago, I was staring at a blank screen, thinking about how we always try to start a new year with a clean slate, when the truth is, the slate is never clean.
I’ve been thinking about this idea lately, though I don’t have a polished name for it. Maybe we call it the “long echo.”
In physics, we know that if you scream into a deep canyon, there’s a delay. Nothing mysterious is happening. It’s just that the canyon’s wall is far away, sound takes time to cover that distance, and that creates the time lag.
In investing, we call it a “lagging indicator.”
But in life, we’re terrible at understanding that almost nothing we are experiencing right now is actually about today. Today is just the old sound hitting the wall. In other words, 2026 is just the echo of 2025 and earlier years.
Honestly, it’s a weird realisation. Even as we live in this culture of “instant” everything, when you look at the big things in life, they operate on a massive time delay.
If you’re feeling “wealthy” today—and I don’t just mean your bank balance or investment portfolio size, I mean that sense of feeling free—it’s because of a decision you made a few years ago. If you feel burnt out, it’s probably because of seeds planted months or years ago.
This messes with our heads because we want the “why” and the “result” to happen in the same frame. But the frame is too big for our eyes.
In investing, people always ask: “What should I buy today to make money in 2026?” In fact, as an annual ritual, business media is filled with “experts” shouting their guesses. But I think that’s the wrong question.
The real gains of 2026, if you earn any, will be earned by your earlier version who stayed disciplined in 2023 or 2024. And the “boring” decisions you make today—like setting up an automated SIP, or refusing to chase a hot stock—will determine your outcomes in, say, 2030.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that we need to get comfortable with the period when you are acting but not seeing the outcomes. Most people quit because they lack the patience to handle this delay. They think because nothing is happening right now, the effort is wasted. But the echo is just traveling. It is yet to hit the wall.
So, as I look at this year, I’m trying to stop worrying about the “harvest” of 2026. The harvest of 2026 is already mostly baked in by who I was in the last few years. Instead, I’m looking at what I’m planting today for the 2030 and 2035 version of me. I’m focusing on the boring inputs.
It’s a relief, honestly. It takes the pressure off the “now.”
If things are hard today, it’s just an old echo and not a permanent state. And if things are good, it’s a reminder to keep shouting, because the echo eventually dies out if you stop doing the work.
Anyway, I don’t have a “top ten list for 2026” for you today. Just this: Be kind to the you that is here now, but work for the you that is coming later.
Eat well, invest in what’s boring, and read the long book.
The universe has a very long memory, even if our brokerage accounts and mirrors feel like they only care about today.
Happy 2026. Let’s just keep walking.
One Purpose. A Better Life.
🎁 Special Discount until 5th Jan. 2026
“This is a masterpiece.”
—Morgan Housel, Author, Psychology of Money
“Discover the extraordinary within.”
—Manish Chokhani, Director, Enam Holdings
