India, Jan. 2 -- When I was young, the desires were sharp, but I had little money to fulfil them. Thirty years later, the money is there but desires have sharply ebbed. That is the paradox of money. When you don't have it, you want everything. Once you do, the need for satisfaction through stuff and experiences mostly goes away. My money message for 2026 is not the value of the Sensex or the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate this year, but about our changing relationship with money. As I settle down into the third ashram, I begin to fully appreciate the sheer elegance of the four stages of life, or four ashrams - brahmacharya (student), grhasta (householder), vanaprastha (retired) and sanyas (renunciator) - of Hindu philosophy. Our money lives, however, are divided into three rather than four - learning, earning, and harvesting. The harvesting phase includes the last two ashrams. Vanaprastha, in the contemporary context, is not to be taken literally as nobody is going into any forest. We are stuck in our gated communities on the 16th floor, hoping that there is no earthquake or fire alarm on a freezing winter night. It is not even giving up work, as 60 is the new 40 as far as work is concerned. Vanaprastha is more a state of mind. It is more about cultivating an active detachment, while not stopping to work. This is the stage where you define your own concept of enough. Both in what you put into the body and what you buy outside of it. It is a stage where it is good to keep at the back of your mind that the shroud has no pockets. Nor space for any jewellery, watches, phones or a second home by the sea. This is the stage for consolidation of assets. These have got built over time haphazardly and are mostly scattered. While the mind and body are active and the signatures still match, do the heavy lifting of selling the various properties and keeping just the roof over your head. The ease of managing financial assets over fixing the seepage in the property in another part of the country is a comfort that is more than money. Consolidation away from real estate is also a good first step to building your estate plan. Talk to any financial planner in the country or any doctor on ICU duty - the stories of heirs fighting over assets is ghar ghar ki kahani (story of every household). This is the stage in which you think through who gets what and you do the paperwork to ensure that your will is carried through. This is the stage to uncomplicate your life. I constantly see people in the last 20 years of their life mess it up with more properties, more assets, and more stuff. Why buy another place at 75 when you already have two? And then stress about the stress of property maintenance. The complication (stress) of managing assets, especially real estate, is not worth the return or the social status that might come with a third home in the hills. The joy of an uncomplicated financial life can only be described by a person who lives it. The time that is released from just looking after stuff and managing the paperwork is far greater than you would imagine. It is a stage to begin the process of giving - if not money, then giving of your own self. Middle Indian, third-ashram dwellers are mostly beneficiaries of the economic liberalisation. We got the country from a GDP of $270 billion in 1991 to almost $4 trillion now. We worked hard and saw a giant wave that lifted all the boats that were already on the water with education and skills. We did good. As some of that cohort exits (the rest have already found meaning in a second or a third career!) from the workforce, it is important to keep the brain active and the body functioning. Find a way to do something bigger than yourself. There is now a limit to how much this body can take or consume without major adverse consequences. For those in their second ashram, I know you are in a hurry to get there fast. That it looks as if the work will never end - job, kids, home, lifestyle. That the money will never be enough. But know this: Every great master of money out there has the same lessons. Work hard, work smart and invest wisely, and you will do well. There are no shortcuts. The joy lies in the journey. The money is a byproduct of what you do - it is not a goal. When it becomes a goal, you will either walk on the thin side of the law or gamble with your money. These can both end well at times, but mostly hurt over time. This is your stage to earn and accumulate. The difficult part is that increasing longevity will make the harvesting stage much longer than before. So, you need to prepare both your skill set and your retirement corpus to prepare for your own vanaprastha. Or if Elon Musk is right, we will enter a world of abundance where nobody has to work if they don't want to, and you will be fine. I would play risk-averse and build my wealth and skills, and if the prophecy comes true, it's a bonus. Those in the last stage of true sanyas are definitely not reading this, so I will not presume to define their relationship with money. Wishing you all a diversified and stable 2026....