The investment sector is known to see young blood — some as young as 25-year-olds who are admired for their skills. But if 25 is a noteworthy age, then we wonder what their opinion of 22-year-old Vaibhav Pachisia, a Kolkata lad who started investing at the young age of 13, would have been. “Coming from a family that has been in the investment business for six decades, I was exposed to that world early on. What intrigued me the most about it was when my father explained the concept of inflation to me; how the purchasing power of my savings would reduce if I did not invest it,” explains Vaibhav.
Vaibhav Pachisia
American business magnate and investor Warren Buffett once said, “It’s never too early to teach kids about money,” and this was thought was echoed by Vaibhav’s parents. When he was a teenager, his father advised him to invest his money in any active sectoral equity mutual fund of his choice, because of which, today, Vaibhav sees both investments and saving as habits. “Just like any other good habit, you need to start at a young age and if you continue this practice, then it’ll come naturally to you even during adulthood,” he advises.
As we wonder if Vaibhav’s childhood was only about crunching the numbers, the BBA graduate from Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia assures us that it wasn’t always so. “I was just like any other kid who wanted to be out on the field playing cricket or soccer, but at the same time I was always intrigued by business newspapers and read them even though I didn’t understand anything,” he says.
Vaibhav became a certified mutual fund advisor in 2015 and since then has been educating a number of friends about the importance of investments. He believes that a lack of financial education in schools is one of the biggest reasons for the lack of financial literacy in our country. “Having a fixed monthly allowance from an early age is a very efficient way to teach kids the habit of investing,” says Vaibhav.
