Sahil Bhadviya Personal Finance Academy provides online video courses on almost every aspect of money management. It aims to educate people about all financial decisions and activities such as tax planning, emergency fund, mutual funds, stock market, insurance, etc. It says that:
If you are someone who doesn’t want to work for the rest of your life and want to achieve financial freedom at an early age by making the right financial decision and avoid all financial mistakes then the course is for you!’
Why and how did you start your company?
Every year, millions of people in India make many financial mistakes. For example, they end up mixing insurance and investment, they end up falling in debt traps, ponzi schemes, etc. This results in destroying or disturbing their lives financially.
The major reason is – Lack of knowledge about money management. I personally faced this problem when I started earning. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a single source to learn everything about money management.
At that time, I was working in Infosys as a Data Analytics Consultant and this skill was in demand. I worked for 5 years with Infosys where I spent the last 2 years in London. I was about to move to Switzerland for the next project but Covid changed everything. Although I was a data analytics professional, I was always passionate about personal finance. I always wanted to start my own personal finance academy but I planned to spend some more time in the job and travel the world. However, Covid-19 made my decision easy and I resigned from my job to pursue my passion and start a full time personal finance academy.
But this wasn’t an overnight decision. I was working on personal finance for the last 5 years because the moment I joined the job, I knew that I don’t want to work for the rest of my life. I wanted to achieve financial freedom at an early age. I also started writing about money management on Quora where I received 11 million+ views on answers and 37,000+ subscribers. So I had the content and I was ready to spread financial education.
Finally, I compiled a video course where I have covered every aspect of money management including important concepts like power of compounding, real vs nominal return, what is insurance, types of insurance, tips on how to select the best insurance and to fully utilize credit card, emergency fund, tax calculation and tax saving, all about mutual funds, stock market, and much more.
The ultimate goal of this course is to teach every aspect of money management that is important in an individual’s life. Be it a small kid who gets a pocket money and want to develop a habit of saving or a young lad who recently started earning and want to build a retirement corpus or a father who wants to invest for his daughter’s education or be it someone who has retired and want to know on how to make the best use of retirement corpus.
What makes your business, service or product special?
Money management is a need of the hour. This is especially important for the young generation. Earlier, our parents had the tendency to save money but the young generation doesn’t believe in saving. In spite of earning zero salaries, they need an iPhone worth Rs 80k. This habit is destroying the financial life of the young generation. They are getting trapped in the world of credit cards and EMIs. In fact, the young generation is the easiest target of marketers as it is easier to influence and convince them. They think that it is time to enjoy and they can save later. But what they don’t realize is that they are building a habit which can not be changed easily. A habit of being spendthrift, to spend over and above with credit cards and EMIs.
Today, if someone starts earning money, the person has no clue on what to do with the money. How to invest? Where to invest?
Unfortunately, financial literacy is not a part of the school curriculum in India.
When people work so hard to earn money, don’t they need to learn how to manage it?
Our online courses cover every aspect of money management and can help you find your financial freedom.
What has been your biggest success factors?
I have recently started this academy so I can’t comment on my success. But I know one thing – I am focused on my goal of spreading financial knowledge and money is not the criteria for my success. Over the past few years, I have received tons of messages over Quora where people have thanked me wholeheartedly for spreading the knowledge on money management. I think their good wishes are my success and I continue to do this in the future.
What are the biggest challenges you have faced launching and running the company?
The biggest challenge I faced was quitting my well paid job. I could have stayed in my job and worked in various countries and travelled the world. I could have made a lot of money. Yet, I decided to quit my lucrative career.
Which do you think is most important: the right product, the right market, or the right team?
It is a combination of all three. If you have the right product but not the right market then also you can’t succeed. For example, if I had launched this course 10 years ago, people hardly had a good internet connection.
The right team is very important because without the right team, you can’t sustain for long.
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
Educating millions of Indians on money management so that they don’t have to face financial struggle in life. Also, enlightening people on various aspects of money management so that achievement of financial goals becomes easier like buying a car, house, retirement plan, etc.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who are just started or want to start?
Rule No 1: Do not run behind money.
Rule No 2: Don’t forget rule No 1.
Chasing money is never a goal for an entrepreneur and cannot steer one on the ladder of success. Always think about solving a problem and scaling up the solution with the help of technology. Also, contributing towards society with perseverance will automatically generate money as a by-product.
Where can we find out more about your company?
You can get all the details on https://www.sahilbhadviya.in.