StayGeo

“I have Wi-Fi at home and at work. I barely touch mobile data. Why pay ₹3,500+ a year for 2GB/day I’ll never use?” That’s the pitch.

Except that premise is shakier than it sounds. “No data at all” is barely a real option in 2026 anyway. The moment you need to pay someone over UPI or open a banking app outside Wi-Fi range, zero data stops being a lifestyle choice and starts being a problem. Almost nobody actually gets to stay data-free; they just don’t know it yet when they go shopping for a plan.

But once you open your telecom operator’s app to recharge, and you’ll see dozens of plans. It looks like a marketplace. It isn’t. It’s a maze designed to funnel you toward exactly one outcome: the premium unlimited-data annual plan.

So you scroll down and find the answer that seems to be waiting for you: a cheap, voice-only annual plan. Jio offers one at ₹1,748 for 336 days. Airtel’s version is ₹2,249 for 365 days with a token 30GB thrown in for the whole year. It feels like a win. You’ve outsmarted the system.

You haven’t. You’ve just walked into the trap.

Investing in foreign, particularly US stocks has been in my radar ever since I started earning and got into stock market. Back in 2010s, the process to open a demat account was complicated, more so if it was with an international broker. On top of that, foreign equity investment was treated as debt back then and taxation was not favourable to investors - especially since long term meant holding for three years. I had posted a query in the AIFW Facebook group and I remember getting advice that for smaller ticket sizes foreign holdings won’t offer a huge income boost. With limited surplus in hand, I decided to stick to domestic investments and they have held up reasonably well so far.

However, international investing is something I always wanted to try and with the launch of GIFT City, I learnt that it’s going to be easier! I have been on a wait since then and the interest surged again with the news of Dhan launching US Stocks last week. Soon came the news of other brokers like Zerodha getting the approvals too. Since I don’t have an account with Dhan (I am a huge fan of what Pravin Jadhav aka P J has accomplished there in this short time frame) I started my research about should I wait for Zerodha (my current broker) to launch their offering or get a Dhan account.

When I signed off from my first job after college on February 27, 2026, after 14 years and 7 months, I was not prepared to be without an offer. The expectation had been a smooth transition to a new role over a single weekend. However, it became evident during my final few days that the ride might not be smooth, and I had to prepare for a break of at least a few weeks. As a positive-minded person, I calmed myself down by recognizing that a break like this might never come again, and I should make the absolute most of it.

The following week, I sent back my trusted work laptop, a Dell Precision 5560, and switched to my old reliable workhorse: a Dell Optiplex 990 running Ubuntu 24.04. This machine would become my primary companion for learning, tinkering, and job searching.

I was clear about one rule: I would not deviate from my daily routine. I set up a dedicated Growth Spreadsheet to track my progress on a daily basis - not just in terms of job applications, but focusing heavily on my daily learning, milestones, and technical exploration. I had read about the psychological benefits of documenting every single step, no matter how small, and decided to apply it here. Looking back, I feel incredibly proud of how I spent those weeks. Keeping that ledger helped me maintain the right growth mindset when things felt stagnant.

What started as a simple reset between roles slowly became a volatile mix of experimentation, reflection, physical repairs, interviews, travel, and deep dives into the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem.