In the epic battle of Kurukshetra, the Pandava warrior Arjuna's strategic mobility became legendary. As the Kauravas lamented, "Where Arjuna went, the battle turned." On the 11th day, when Guru Drona trapped the Pandava army in complex formations, Lord Krishna constantly repositioned Arjuna's chariot, slipping through gaps and avoiding direct traps through superior maneuverability.
This ancient military wisdom holds profound lessons for modern investors. Just as the Pandavas won against a larger army through strategic resource deployment, your money needs similar mobility to achieve life goals effectively.
The Problem With Money Silos
Most investors create discrete money buckets for specific goals like children's education, home purchase, or retirement. Each portfolio follows its own risk and return strategy, growing at a specific rate to deliver the required corpus. This approach seems logical, clean, and organized, which is why most meticulous investors prefer it.
However, financial experts now question this conventional wisdom. Priya Sunder, director and co-founder of PeakAlpha Investments, argues that this siloed approach creates multiple inefficiencies compared to a holistic investment strategy.
Five Critical Flaws in Segregated Portfolios
First, asset allocation mismatch creates portfolio drag. When you maintain separate portfolios for different goals, each bucket may have varying equity-debt allocations. Some become too conservative while others turn excessively aggressive. This mismatch can cause your overall portfolio to deviate from the optimal risk level suitable for your age and financial situation.
Second, redemption inefficiency hurts returns. Money's fungibility means each rupee should be interchangeable across needs. When requiring funds, you should exit from the weakest performing assets in your portfolio. However, siloed investing forces redemption from earmarked portfolios, potentially making you sell better-performing assets instead of underperformers.
Third, tax inefficiency erodes wealth. People often invest recent receipts in short-term instruments for upcoming goals, which upon redemption may be taxed at their marginal rate. Since money is fungible, that received amount could instead fund long-term investments, while immediate needs could be met by redeeming from tax-efficient options within the existing portfolio.
Fourth, missed rebalancing opportunities. Cash and bonds serve beyond safety and income generation—they fuel portfolio growth during market declines. These holdings can be deployed to purchase more equity during downturns. An asset allocation strategy ensures buying low and selling high, which becomes challenging when money remains trapped in various silos.
Fifth, unintended risk in senior years. Creating short, medium, and long-term goal buckets might consume all near-term liquid, safe assets for immediate spending. This leaves the long-term bucket skewed heavily toward equity, increasing portfolio risk during retirement years—clearly an undesirable outcome.
Embracing Financial Fluidity
Arjuna's battlefield agility provided the Pandavas flexibility and resilience to counter shifting Kaurava strategies. Your investment approach needs similar dynamism. Instead of compartmentalizing money for specific goals, let your capital move freely across objectives and timeframes.
This holistic approach gives your portfolio what we might call "Arjuna's advantage"—the fluidity to meet both planned and unforeseen financial goals efficiently. By dropping the silos and treating money as the fungible resource it truly is, you can optimize returns, manage risks better, and achieve financial objectives with greater certainty.
The lessons from Kurukshetra, though ancient, remain remarkably relevant for contemporary wealth management. As published on 26 November 2025 in Mint Money, these insights challenge conventional financial planning while offering a more strategic path to investment success.
