Young, dynamic, and Zerodha originator Nithin Kamath has recently shared his credit card experience during his early struggling phase. He was speaking sincerely in an interview with moneycontrol.
Nithin Kamath has made it to the list of richest billionaires in India after his stock exchange platform Zerodha gained traction in the country. Nithin Kamath and his elder brother Nikhil Kamath laid the foundation of Zerodha in 2010.
The company houses more than 5 million users and made $150 million in revenues during the last financial year. Currently, Nithin Kamath ranks in 86th position on the chart of richest Indian billionaires. However, the riches do not come without walking on a bumpy road. The same is applied to Nithin Kamath. He, too, has seen a bad phase in his life and sustained it.
In an interview given to money control, Nithin Kamath talks about the past mistakes that broke him financially. Also, he shares his insight on money management and smart investments. Moreover, Nithin Kamath opined about the controversial, volatile cryptocurrency and revealed why he does not invest in them.
Nitin Kamath says I received my first credit card while doing a job at a call center. The credit card I obtained surpassed its limit once, and it took me three years to pay back the debt. I had to repay more than three times high the money I had borrowed by the end of the third year.
The basic rule for not running out of cash halfway is to fix a monthly spending budget for entertainment and shopping. Not just setting up a monthly budget, but following it vigorously is also very important.
The social media platforms trigger you to spend more and more. Mobile apps such as Facebook and Instagram endlessly stimulate you to purchase some of the other things, says Nithin Kamath.
The fear of missing out (FOMO), boasting branded products, and a luxurious lifestyle may trigger it hard to empty your pocket, but staying firm on your monthly spending budget will help you save money.
The second wise move is not purchasing products with a depreciating value on credit.
Buying something on credit whose value is continuously depreciating makes you pay the interest on something whose value will only decrease in the future.
For example, you purchase a flagship phone on credit. You will have to pay the interest along with the principal amount throughout the EMI duration. One year after or so, when you match the principal plus interest amount with the current price of your flagship phone, you will find a substantial difference between the two amounts.
Nithin Kamath suggests an alternative to this. He says if you invest in learning new skills, you eventually enable yourself to earn through the money spent on learning.
He also compares credit cards to chocolate – completely intriguing and irresistible. But both chocolates and credit cards are not so good for your financial health.
Why Zerodha Co-founder Nithin Kamath Does Not Invest In Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile, unregulated, and subjected to market risks. So, it’s needless to mention infusing money into such digital currencies in bulk is risky. You should always invest the minimum possible or to the extent that won’t ruin you economically. A tip for you here would be, keep your investment portfolio diversified so that losses incurred in one commodity would be absorbed by the other profit-making commodities.
While talking about cryptocurrencies, Nithin Kamath says he is not exposed to digital currencies and doesn’t have an understanding of these virtual currencies as an asset. He didn’t have enough knowledge even when bitcoin was trading at $500 and not even when it was trading beyond $60,000.