(Kavish, a gold medalist in his BBA days, always had a penchant for reading. At IIM Lucknow, being true to his roots, he graduated with Masters in Finance and started out his career as a consultant in KPMG.From KPMG he moved onto O3 Capital, where his work involved relationship building, deal ideation, deal sourcing, and execution.
In October 2008, he decided to quit his high paying job and turn his passion for reading into a business. He came up with the idea of Stones2Milestones whose primary goal is to create a healthy reading ecosystem for children.The period from 2008-15 was a period of reflection for Stones2Milestones as they strived to understand how children learn. During this period, Kavish also co-founded a full-service investment bank, Resurgent India Limited. In July of 2015, he moved out from Resurgent to give his undivided attention to Stones2Milestones.)
While India celebrates 70 years of independence, everybody’s seeking some kind of freedom. What’s your take on the need for financial freedom?
There are mutiple facets of this subjects but want to highlight this specific one which is linked to change in social structures. One of the key shift in social structure system now is that the financial planning is no more at a large family level done by the head of the family of usually 6-10 members, but at an individual level primarily as each individual has a different value to money and importance to different avenues to spend or invest. For the husband borrowing for a holiday is absolutely fine while for the wife saving for building a home is the only life purpose. So like the need for every person to be able to read and write, each person should have the wisdom to do financial planning for offering themselves freedom. And to me freedom is nothing but the power to meet my needs when I need it.
What has worked for you and what has not, during your journey towards financial freedom?
For me to achieve any goal whether personal fitness, emotional well being, financial goals or business goals – this alone has worked across ‘what I measure, I monitor. what I monitor, progresses. what progress alone can make me reach a goal’.
Do you regret any financial decision you’ve made in the past? Please share your experience.
One big regret I have is to take complete responsibility of managing personal finance myself. while I am a finance graduate and was an investment banker as well, doesn’t necessarily mean I am the best person to manage my personal finance. I would strongly advise all to have a financial advisor and plan ones savings & investment through the same.
What’s your piece of golden advice to the youth of today?
If youth can just follow this one piece of wisdom, the old man’s wisdom I think they would gift themselves life long financial freedom – don’t spend and then save whats left, it should be to save and then spend the what’s left.
