A good income and nothing in the account at the end of the year is the commonest money complaint in consultation, and it is not a mystery in the chart. It is a ratio between three houses: the eleventh, which earns; the second, which keeps; and the twelfth, which spends. When the eleventh is stronger than the twelfth the native saves without trying, when the twelfth is stronger the native spends without noticing, and the ashtakavarga, the bindu count of each house, turns that ratio into numbers a native can read for themselves in five minutes. This article reads the ratio, the nine spending styles by planet, the saver’s chart and the spender’s, the periods in which saving is easy and the ones in which the twelfth surges, and the arrangements that follow from the chart, none of which is a gemstone.
It belongs to the complete wealth astrology guide. The structural leaks, the placements of the money lords in the sixth, eighth and twelfth, are the subject of Money Problems in the Chart; this page assumes the money lords are ordinary and asks why the money still does not stay, which is a question about the twelfth and about habit.
Conventions used. Parashari astrology, whole-sign houses, Lahiri ayanamsa, Vimshottari dasha, Bhinnashtakavarga and Sarvashtakavarga as calculated in Jagannatha Hora with the standard Parashari rules. Saving is read as the eleventh against the twelfth with the second as the container; spending is read by the planet that leads the twelfth and the Moon. Nothing on this page is financial advice; the arrangements suggested follow from the placements and are the kind a native makes for themselves.
In this article
- The three houses: earning, keeping, spending
- The bindu comparisons that say whether a chart saves
- The twelfth lord: where the money goes
- Nine spending styles by planet
- The Moon: spending as mood
- The saver’s chart
- The spender’s chart, and the miser’s
- Periods when saving is easy, and when spending surges
- Household, children, parents and health as the four drains
- The arrangements that follow from the chart
- A worked chart: a twelfth that outscored the eleventh
- Frequently asked questions
The three houses: earning, keeping, spending
The eleventh house is income and gains, everything that comes in; its lord’s dignity and placement say how much and through what. The second is savings and accumulated wealth, the container, and its lord says whether what comes in can be held. The twelfth is expense, loss and outflow, everything that goes out, and its lord and the planets in it say where the money goes. Most wealth readings stop at the first two, which is why they explain the income and not the account balance. The relation between all three is the saving reading: a chart with a strong eleventh, a strong second and a weak twelfth accumulates; a strong eleventh with a strong twelfth and a weak second is the good earner who keeps nothing; a weak eleventh with a strong second and a weak twelfth is the modest earner with surprising savings, the retired clerk with three properties. The lords are read for dignity in the usual way, and the twelfth lord is read more closely than most readers bother to, because it is the planet that decides the balance.
The bindu comparisons that say whether a chart saves
The Sarvashtakavarga gives each house a count of bindus, from a possible fifty-six, and three comparisons among the money houses read as numbers what the lords read as tendency. The eleventh against the twelfth is the saving ratio: when the eleventh has more bindus than the twelfth the native gains more than they spend and accumulates; when the twelfth has more, expenses outrun gains and the account stays empty whatever the income. The eleventh against the tenth is the earning ratio: an eleventh higher than the tenth gives gains greater than the effort, the native who earns more than they work for; the reverse gives the native who works hard for modest returns. And the second against the twelfth is the keeping ratio: a second higher than the twelfth holds what the eleventh brings, the reverse leaks it. A chart with the eleventh at thirty-four and the twelfth at twenty-six saves as a matter of course; a chart with the eleventh at twenty-eight and the twelfth at thirty-three spends as a matter of course, and its native should be told so, because the knowledge changes what they arrange. The full bindu reading for the money houses, with the thresholds and the transit filter, is in Ashtakavarga for Wealth; the construction of the tables and the transit reading are worked through in the ashtakavarga walkthrough in Jagannatha Hora.
The twelfth lord: where the money goes
The twelfth lord’s placement says where the money goes, and its nature says what it is spent on. In the fourth, the money goes to the home and the mother; in the fifth, to children, pleasure and speculation; in the seventh, to the partner; in the ninth, to the father, teachers, pilgrimage and the foreign; in the tenth, to the career’s appearance; in the second, to the thing that always comes up, the leak treated in the money-problems article. A twelfth lord in its own sign or exalted in the twelfth is the classical Vimala formation and gives the native whose spending is purposeful, who spends on the right things and knows it, and who is often generous without being poorer for it. The twelve placements are read in the twelfth lord in the twelve houses, and the lord itself is fixed by the ascendant, so that a Leo native’s spending is the Moon’s kind and a Capricorn native’s is Jupiter’s, which is why the same income disappears differently in different charts.
Nine spending styles by planet
| Planet leading the 12th, or afflicting the 2nd | Spends on | What stops it |
|---|---|---|
| Venus | Comfort, appearance, pleasure, the partner | Comfort bought once and kept; a home that already pleases |
| Rahu | More: the upgrade, the new thing, the surge | A rule set in advance, since Rahu argues in the moment |
| Moon | Mood, family crises, the month’s emergency | Decisions made in a calm month and run without the mood’s consent |
| Mars | Impulse, force, the dispute, the vehicle | A day’s delay on any purchase |
| Jupiter | Generosity, optimism, children, the teacher, the pilgrimage | Giving that is planned rather than asked for |
| Mercury | Schemes, gadgets, subscriptions, the clever purchase | Counting; Mercury stops when it sees the total |
| Saturn | Obligations, fear, security bought at any price | Knowing the fear’s real cost; Saturn saves once it feels safe |
| Sun | Status, the father, display, the position’s appearance | Standing that does not need buying |
| Ketu | Nothing in particular; it does not track, and it gives | Someone else keeping the accounts |
The style is read from the planet that rules the twelfth for the ascendant, from any planet sitting in the twelfth, and from any planet afflicting the second lord; a chart usually has two, and the reading names which one is spending this year by the sub-period running.
The Moon: spending as mood
The Moon is liquidity and mood together, and a chart’s saving is decided more by the Moon’s condition than by any other single factor, because the Moon is the planet that makes the decision at the moment of spending. A dignified, unafflicted Moon gives the native who can wait, and waiting is most of saving. The Moon with Saturn spends on security and hoards from fear; with Rahu it spends on appetite; with Mars on impulse; with Ketu it does not track; with Venus it spends on comfort and calls it need. The Moon in the twelfth or the eighth gives the emotional expense, the money that goes out in the crisis of the month, and the Moon in the second, unafflicted, gives the native who saves without noticing, the money simply accumulating the way water finds a level. The reading of the Moon here is the reading of the habit, and habits do not wait for periods; they are changed by arrangement, which is the subject of the section below.
The saver’s chart
The saver has the eleventh stronger than the twelfth, a dignified second lord, and a Moon that can wait. Beyond that, certain placements are almost definitions. Saturn in the second, unafflicted, gives the slow accumulator who does not spend what has not been earned twice; Saturn as second lord in dignity gives the same. The second lord in the eleventh, or the eleventh lord in the second, routes gains into savings by nature. Jupiter aspecting the second protects what is there. A twelfth lord debilitated, or in the sixth or eighth, gives the spender’s planet weakened, which reads as the native who does not much enjoy spending. The Moon in Taurus, Capricorn or Virgo, or with Saturn in dignity, gives the temperament that saves. And the fixed signs on the second and eleventh, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius, give the money that stays where it is put. A saver’s chart is not a wealthy chart; it is the chart of the native whose modest means become substantial by sixty, which the wealthy chart’s native often envies.
The spender’s chart, and the miser’s
The spender has the twelfth stronger than the eleventh, a twelfth lord in dignity, Venus, Rahu or the Moon leading the twelfth, and a Moon that cannot wait. The twelfth lord in the second, the eleventh lord in the twelfth, Venus afflicted on the second, Rahu on the second or eleventh with a weak second lord, and the movable signs on the money houses, Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, all incline the same way. The spender’s chart is not a poor chart, and its native is often better company than the saver; what it needs is a wall, built before the money arrives. The miser is the other failure of the same houses: Saturn afflicting the second with the Moon, the twelfth lord weak and the second lord afflicted by Saturn, the native who saves from fear and cannot spend on the things the chart would have them enjoy. The miser’s chart hoards, which is not the same as saving, since the money is kept from the fourth, fifth and ninth houses that should have had it, and the reading of such a chart says, gently, that the second house is meant to feed the others and not to starve them.
Periods when saving is easy, and when spending surges
Saving is easy in the second lord’s sub-periods, in Saturn’s when Saturn is dignified, in the eleventh lord’s when the second can hold what it brings, and under Jupiter’s transit over the second; these are the windows in which the arrangements below should be made, because the native’s own inclination is with them. Spending surges in the twelfth lord’s sub-periods, in Venus’s and Rahu’s when those planets afflict the money houses, in the Moon’s when the Moon is afflicted, under Jupiter’s transit over the twelfth, which enlarges expense as it enlarges everything, and under Saturn’s transit over the second, the squeeze in which the twelfth eats what the eleventh cannot replace. A native who knows that the next two years belong to the twelfth lord arranges the saving before they begin, which is the whole use of the timing; the general seasons of loss are in Financial Loss Periods, and the period-by-period reading of money is in Which Mahadasha Brings Money?.
Household, children, parents and health as the four drains
Expense has four ordinary channels, and the chart says which is the large one. The household is the fourth, and a fourth lord connected to the twelfth gives the home that costs, the renovation that never ends, the mother’s needs. Children are the fifth, and the fifth lord with the twelfth gives the education and the weddings that take the savings, which most parents call the point of having saved. Parents are the fourth and the ninth, and the ninth lord with the twelfth gives the father’s care and the family obligations abroad. Health is the sixth and the twelfth, and the sixth lord in the twelfth or the twelfth lord in the sixth gives the medical expense, the channel to be insured against in the plain sense. Naming the large drain matters because the native usually blames the small one: the native with the fifth lord in the twelfth complains about the household and it is the school fees, and the reading corrects the picture.
The arrangements that follow from the chart
Four things follow from the placements, and they are the practical side of a saving reading. First, save before the twelfth reaches: whatever the spending style, the money that is moved out of reach on the day it arrives is the money that stays, and the twelfth lord’s nature says what “out of reach” means, a locked instrument for a Mercury spender, land for a Venus one, a rule for a Rahu one. Second, take the Moon out of the decision, by making the arrangements in a calm month and letting them run without the mood’s consent; this is the answer to the habit half. Third, use the saving periods: the second lord’s sub-periods and Jupiter’s transit over the second are when the native’s own inclination is with the arrangement, and they are when it should be made. Fourth, know the large drain and fund it deliberately, since the fifth lord in the twelfth will take the school fees whether they are planned for or not, and planned is cheaper. The remedies of tradition are a different thing, and this site’s position on them, that they support effort and never replace it, is in the honest remedies guide.
A worked chart: a twelfth that outscored the eleventh
A Libra lagna chart, particulars altered. Mercury, lord of the ninth and twelfth, sits in Scorpio in the second with the Sun, lord of the eleventh: the spending lord and the earning lord together in the house of savings, so that what comes in and what goes out meet in the same place. Venus, the lagna lord, is in Sagittarius in the third. Mars, lord of the second and seventh, is in Capricorn in the fourth, exalted: the savings lord strong, on the house of the home. Saturn, lord of the fourth and fifth and the yogakaraka, is in Aquarius, its own sign, in the fifth. Jupiter, lord of the third and sixth, is in Cancer in the tenth, exalted. The Moon, lord of the tenth, is in Gemini in the ninth, with Rahu. Ketu is in Sagittarius in the third, with Venus.
The bindus, from his chart in Jagannatha Hora: eleventh house twenty-nine, twelfth house thirty-three, second house twenty-seven, tenth house thirty. The twelfth outscores the eleventh by four and the second by six: a spending chart by the numbers, in a native earning very well, the eleventh lord being the Sun on the second with Jupiter exalted in the tenth. The spending style is Mercury’s, the twelfth lord: schemes, gadgets, subscriptions, the clever purchase that was going to pay for itself, with the Moon and Rahu together in the ninth adding appetite for the foreign and the new. The exalted second lord is the chart’s one wall, and it sits on the fourth, so the wall is a house. He came at thirty-six, in the Moon’s major period, earning three times what his father had and with nothing to show for it but a passport full of stamps.
The reading gave him the numbers, which he had never seen, and the arrangements. The twelfth lord being Mercury, out of reach meant an instrument he could not touch without paperwork he would not do; the Moon with Rahu meant the arrangement had to be made in a quiet month and run without him; the large drain was the ninth, travel and the foreign, which Mercury’s twelfth lordship in the ninth-lord’s own house had been funding; and the saving window was Mars’s major period, the exalted second lord’s, beginning at forty, with Jupiter’s transit over Scorpio, his second house, in its first years. He made the arrangements in the Moon’s last sub-period, badly and late, and they held because they ran without him. Mars’s period did what an exalted second lord on the fourth does: the first flat in Mars-Mars, from savings that had not existed four years earlier, and the eleventh lord’s sub-period, Mars-Sun, adding the second. The twelfth still outscores the eleventh, and he still spends Mercury’s way on everything that is not walled off; the difference is that the wall exists, and the chart had told him which planet to build it against.
Frequently asked questions
Why can’t I save money according to astrology?
Because the twelfth house, which spends, is stronger in your chart than the eleventh, which earns, or than the second, which keeps; the ashtakavarga gives this as bindu counts, and a twelfth with more bindus than the eleventh spends by nature whatever the income. The planet ruling the twelfth for your ascendant says what the money goes on, and an afflicted Moon adds the habit of deciding in the moment. The answer is an arrangement made before the money arrives, in the planet’s own terms.
Which house is for savings?
The second house, savings and accumulated wealth, the container, with its lord’s dignity saying whether what comes in can be held. The eleventh is what comes in and the twelfth what goes out, and saving is the ratio of the three: a strong eleventh and second with a weak twelfth accumulates, a strong eleventh and twelfth with a weak second is the good earner who keeps nothing.
Which planet causes overspending?
The planet that rules the twelfth house for the ascendant, any planet sitting in the twelfth, and any planet afflicting the second lord. Venus spends on comfort, Rahu on more, the Moon on mood, Mars on impulse, Jupiter on generosity, Mercury on schemes and gadgets, Saturn on fear, the Sun on status, Ketu on nothing in particular because it does not track. A chart usually has two styles, and the running sub-period says which is spending this year.
How do I check my savings from the ashtakavarga?
Open the Sarvashtakavarga table and compare three pairs of houses. The eleventh against the twelfth is the saving ratio: more bindus in the eleventh and you gain more than you spend. The second against the twelfth is the keeping ratio: more in the second and what comes in stays. The eleventh against the tenth is the earning ratio: more in the eleventh and you earn more than you work for. A twelfth above thirty and higher than both the eleventh and second is a spending chart by the numbers.
Is there a yoga for saving money?
The placements that read as saving are Saturn unafflicted in the second, the second lord in the eleventh or the eleventh lord in the second, Jupiter aspecting the second, a weakened twelfth lord, the Moon in Taurus, Capricorn or Virgo or with a dignified Saturn, and the fixed signs on the second and eleventh. They do not make a native wealthy; they make modest means substantial by sixty, which is its own kind of fortune.
Which dasha is good for saving money?
The second lord’s sub-periods, Saturn’s when Saturn is dignified, the eleventh lord’s when the second can hold what it brings, and the years of Jupiter’s transit over the second house. Spending surges in the twelfth lord’s sub-periods, in Venus’s and Rahu’s when they afflict the money houses, under Jupiter’s transit over the twelfth and under Saturn’s over the second, and the arrangements for saving should be made before those begin.
Does the 12th house mean loss of money?
It means outflow, which is loss when nothing is received for it and expense when something is. Its lord’s placement says where the money goes, to the home, the children, the partner, the father or the foreign, and its nature says what it is spent on. A twelfth lord in its own sign or exalted in the twelfth gives purposeful spending and often generosity that costs nothing; a twelfth lord on the second gives the leak in the wall of savings.
Your chart has a saving ratio. Do you know the numbers?
A one-to-one consultation reads your eleventh, second and twelfth with the bindus, names the planet your money leaves through and the drain it feeds, and marks the sub-periods in which the arrangements should be made.