'ACs and cars won’t make you rich': Portfolio manager slams middle-class goals in India

Why do middle-class families stay stuck? Portfolio manager Shyam Sekhar says it’s not about income—it’s about mindset.

In a post on X, investor and portfolio strategist Shyam Sekhar argued that middle-class stagnation is less about financial constraints and more about limiting beliefs. “They refuse to think of what will make them break out of the middle-class mindset,” he wrote.

Sekhar defined this mindset as one that restricts ambition to small, tangible upgrades—“like dreaming of an air conditioner or a car”—instead of aiming for transformational wealth. “These aren’t even worthy dreams of many given their potential,” he added.

Instead, he urged individuals to think in terms of compounding. “I told a person who was reaching ₹1 crore that he could actually reach ₹20 crore easily,” he wrote. 

“He must have almost fallen off his chair.” Sekhar emphasized building an “investment flywheel”—a long-term, self-reinforcing system that grows wealth consistently.

He warned that most people never build such a system, choosing instead to “hitch rides from others” or rely on fragile shortcuts. Worse, he said, some even end up promoting this “failing mindset” to others.

To break out of this cycle, Sekhar said, requires deliberate effort: “A middle-class person must learn what it takes to break free from the middle-class mindset, to liberate himself from the limiting thinking on personal finance.”