Financial Planning Isn’t Just About Retirement. Monsoon Emergencies Matter Too

By Suresh Kumar

Something caught my attention this July. We look every month at why people actually come to us for a loan, and this time medical need has jumped to the top of the list, ahead of travel, festival spending, purchases, and academic loans. It’s not a huge shift on paper, but to me, it says the monsoon isn’t just a weather event for most households; it’s a cash-flow event, and hardly anyone budgets for it as one.

What strikes me is that most of it is small on its own. What breaks the month is when one lands on top of rent, an EMI, and a school fee already due. The expense itself is rarely the problem. Having the money at the exact moment you need it is.

One more thing stood out from July numbers. A large majority of these loans went to male borrowers; women received a much smaller share. I wouldn’t read too much into that on its own, salaried employment still skews male in a lot of the segments we serve, but it did make me think about who’s actually stepping in when a monsoon emergency hits a household and whether we’re building for the right person.

Why Traditional Financial Planning Often Falls Short

There’s a gap in how people are told to plan their money that doesn’t get talked about enough. Most financial advice here is built around the long horizon, retirement, education, and property, which isn’t wrong, but it leaves nothing for the short-term, unpredictable stuff. A fixed deposit takes days to break and comes with a penalty.

A mutual fund is meant to stay invested, not get redeemed the moment a bill lands. And money in a savings account is rarely as free as it looks; it’s usually already spoken for, rent, an EMI, or something due later that month. Pull from it for an emergency, and you haven’t solved anything, you’ve just moved the shortfall to next month.

This isn’t an income problem either. I’ve seen households earning well above average hit the same wall during the monsoon, because it was never about how much they earn, it’s about how much of it is actually sitting there, usable, on the day something goes wrong.

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The Role Of Responsible Digital Lending

This is where I think digital lending is actually supposed to step in, and honestly, where a lot of us in this industry haven’t earned the right to say we’re helping. Unforeseen situations like these aren’t long-term financial problems, they’re short-term liquidity problems, and that’s a different thing to solve for. Digital lending can close that gap, but only with some restraint, not just speed for its own sake.

A fair amount of the criticism this industry has taken, aggressive recovery calls, fees buried in fine print, and loan amounts pushed past what someone can repay is deserved, and I won’t pretend otherwise. Responsible lending is meant to fix that, not just do a faster version of it. That means letting someone borrow only what the need calls for instead of nudging a bigger amount, whether it’s for medical reasons, a wedding, education, or just a mid-month gap.

It means working off Aadhaar and basic KYC so disbursal doesn’t take days when someone needs it in hours, an EMI they can actually repay, and a rate they see upfront instead of finding out later. It comes down to a lender choosing to care more about the borrower’s stability than growing the loan book that quarter, a choice not made honestly everywhere.

Across the digital lending industry, billions of rupees have been disbursed to thousands of borrowers across multiple cities, reflecting the important role fintech lenders play in helping people navigate unexpected financial situations. The standard across the industry is to provide timely and accessible financial support when individuals need it most during unforeseen circumstances.

Simple Financial Habits Can Make A Difference

None of what a household can do needs a financial planner. Keep some money genuinely liquid, not invested, and not already spoken for, a reserve of roughly a month’s essential expenses usually covers most monsoon shocks. Read your insurance policy before the season starts instead of after a claim gets rejected over some water-damage exclusion nobody noticed. And work out ahead of time what your actual options are if you need funds quickly, because decisions made under pressure tend to be the expensive ones.

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Preparing Before The Next Financial Shock

Nobody can say which household will face a monsoon emergency this year. But going by what July told us, a fair number of salaried families will. The question worth asking isn’t whether it’ll happen. It’s whether the money, and the lending choices behind it, will actually be there when it does.

(The author is Chief Executive Officer, EmergencyPaisa)

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