Have you heard of the ‘amygdala’ ?
It’s a region in the human brain which causes people to experience pain when they lose money.
The same region can get activated when investing money is suggested to folks, especially in financial assets like Equity which have a potential for capital loss and are hence termed as risky.
While it hasn’t been scientifically proven, this is probably one reason why a lot of us are comfortable keeping money in our savings account and watching our savings increase slowly instead of investing and growing it better.
Most people learn about it as they grow older and start investing eventually in their 30’s and 40’s…and sometimes when it maybe too late.
So why am I talking about this ?
We had a great idea in December 2013 to start a financial planning service for individuals (or atleast we thought it was a great idea) – The aim was to charge a fee and offer unbiased, conflict-of-interest free advice and help create a financial plan so that individuals could invest their money in a planned manner. Unfortunately, we had a to recently shut down FINQA as we failed to get enough clients to become a sustainable business.
Those who signed up for our service did have a lot of good things to say and how they found the experience very valuable.
Most folks however don’t have the patience to work with a financial planner, provide detailed data and have a financial plan prepared over the course of a few weeks. They want to know “Where should I invest my money safely and get high returns?” or “How should I invest for my children’s future?” – Surprisingly, very few wanted to, or were even thinking of their retirement corpus.
After talking to hundreds of potential clients, we also realized that the needs of most people are pretty simple and they don’t really need a full fledged financial plan – atleast not when they are just starting out on their investment journey.
I wasn’t ready to give up yet, and hours of brainstorming eventually led to the birth of FirstTimeInvestor.in
FTI is not about #fintech.
FTI is not about Financial Planning
It’s about getting into a mode of Do-It-Yourself Investing.
It’s about finding out about the basics and getting started in a planned manner.
It’s about learning what you should know, but probably don’t know about investing money.
It’s about filling in the gaps in your financial education.
asha chaudhry
wow. so today you taught me a new word.
and reminded me that you have this amazing ability to spot a pain point and try to solve it!!
sorry about finqa. here’s to new ventures this year!! good luck!
ps: the average age on trh is going down so there are loads of 23-25 year olds!! am sure they will find FTI useful!!
Abhik Prasad
Thanks Asha 🙂
Yeah, the human brain is quite fascinating and the more I read about it, the more I think entrepreneurs should read about psychology and behavioral economics 🙂
VINAYAK GOSALE
Might I suggest a series of Video lectures using some engaging content and animations to teach those basic concepts that also help them to learn to use your website along the way? The premise I put forth is that, in general, people don’t like to stress their brains to learn something new. If you could ease that process, it might set the ball rolling onwards and get you a good conversion rate… What do you think of this?
Madhukar Rao
Hi Abhik, having spent 10+ years in the Financial Services Sector myself, i find your idea for your new venture quite fascinating. I too, am working on something similar, though our ideas do not compete with each other. In fact, my venture is a downstream evolution of yours – we start where you finish.
I see some very exciting symbiotic (and non-compete) possibilities here. If you can give me your contact number, i shall be happy to call you and discuss my idea with you.
Abhinay Bagaria
Hi Abhik,
Best of luck for FTI. I feel there is growing awareness with regards to the importance of saving and investing right from the beginning. A lot is being done to educate the consumer from funds themselves.
Is there some overlap with FundsIndia? At least regarding the end goal?
Abhinay
Abhik Prasad
Hey vinayak, Videos will definitely be more useful. However the challenge
Abhik Prasad
Hey Madhukar,
Sure, it will be great to catchup . Please call me at +91 9999 334 995 whenever you get a chance.
cheers
Abhik Prasad
Hey, Thanks Abhinay.
Yep, there is growing awareness but mutual funds are just one piece of the picture. There is a lot more to investing but insurance companies and mutual funds portray as if just buying them will solve all issues.
FundsIndia is an online platform for stocks / mutual funds etc whereas we are more focussed on education and DIY investing. Intact, we have seen many clients who signed up with us because though they had a FundsIndia account, they didn’t know what to do next.
Abhinay Bagaria
Understood 🙂
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Good luck Abhik! We need many of you in this business!
Abhik Prasad
Hey, Thanks a ton Alok 🙂
Jatin Bhandari
Amygdala is a part of the reptilian Brain in humans and it gets activated when you see a real or an imaginary threat 🙂 – It does not experience pain. If you confront a man eating LION- you will experience the Amygdala taking you over- Heart beat will go up- as the body wants to support your Fight or flight situation.
My five Cents? 🙂