How I became a Millionaire before 30!

0:01 I used to earn 27,833 per month. Yes, I remember it to the last digit. My rent was 9,500. My SIP was 5,000 rupees per month. And using splitwise every day with my friends was the difference between survival and bankruptcy. But today, I make more in a single day than what I used to make in an entire year. No IIIT, no IM, and no rich parents. In this video, I'll break down exactly how I became a millionaire before turning 30. I'm doing this after almost 5 years of content creation. I could have done this earlier, but honestly, I'm scared. I'm scared even right now as I'm shooting this video because in India, talking about your finances is considered a taboo. But as I

0:48 thought about my own journey, I realized that the only reason I began content creation and became an entrepreneur eventually is because I watched the video exactly like this 5 years back by someone called Ali Abdal who's a very popular content creator in the UK. So even if 99% of you are going to hate this video, that's okay because even if 1% of you get inspired to start your own journey, then this video would have done its job. So on that note, let's begin. Let's start off with chapter one, starting and working in a 9-to-five job. I graduated from RV College of Engineering, which is a very popular engineering college in Bangalore. But I unfortunately took the wrong branch. I

1:33 took mechanical engineering. And when I heard about my computer science friends making 15 lakhs peranom, 20 lakhs peranom, I honestly felt very bad because my first job was at KPMG where I was getting paid I think 4.5 lakhs peranom which is about 27,833 per month after paying the tax. Honestly, I thought that you know my life is finished right? How the hell am I ever going to make 1 lakh per month if I'm going to start at 27,000 rupees per month? But I was really grateful because the job was fantastic. KPMG as you all know is one of the big four consulting firms and although I was severely underpaid, I got the chance to work with some of the smartest minds in the country. I was working with people who graduate from IMA, BC, C, Indor Lucknau

2:20 and I learned so much about business and finance from them that it was worth taking a low salary. Not just that, it is very important to start from zero because you do not understand the value of money otherwise. So when I was earning 27,000 per month, every rupee meant so much. Any money that I spent on Swiggy or Zomato, I could not like really spend like 500 rupees,000 rupees on whatever I wanted. I had to really do the math of buying this combo or that combo to save as much money as possible. So that really taught me budgeting and how to be good with my finances. So even after doing all of that, I could still save 5,000 rupees per month, which was still a big deal for me because that was the beginning of my investment journey. Chapter two, starting my side hustle,

3:05 aka finance with Shahon. Now, obviously, I never thought I was going to be creating content because growing up, I was not really this extroverted kind of a person who can speak like this in front of a camera. I remember the first time I created a video like this, I was really bad. The way I upskilled myself was actually watching one of Dhuvati's video which is how to speak in front of a camera. Right? That was the first video I watched to actually learn how to speak. But even before starting content creation, my plan was just like yours. Okay, you don't have a highpaying job. So what can you do next? MBA. The plan was simple. Get into an MBA college, get into a consulting or an investment banking company. You get that 25 30 lakhs peranom and then life becomes set. That was my dream. So I was

3:52 working towards it for like almost seven years right from my college days like preparing for that. But then what happened was lockdown right the pandemic hit and when the pandemic hit it was a really tough time because I was up for a promotion. I had worked my ass off working Saturdays and Sundays. I was really looking forward to being promoted from an analyst to an associate consultant in KPMG. And as you know, promotions are really important when you apply for an MBA college because otherwise the MBA college is going to be like, "Hey, you didn't even get promoted after two years of working. How can I even accept you into the into my college?" Because I need the best of the best. And they don't really care that there was lockdown or pandemic because other people are still getting promoted. Just because your company was going through a hard time doesn't mean that I'm going to cut you some slack. So that happened. I didn't get the promotion. So

4:38 I was really sad and depressed and I was at my parents' home because by then I had moved back home and I remember my dad told me that this is just the beginning right these kind of unfortunate events are going to keep happening to you stop feeling sorry for yourself because I used to feel very sorry for myself and I thought like how unlucky can I be so my dad said everybody goes through some bad bro right and he was telling me about all the bad that he went in his own life and that obviously made me feel better because I'm like okay this is nothing compared to what my dad went do and then about a month later I thought to myself okay if I can't get a promotion what else can I do that is when the idea of finance with Shahan actually started where I thought okay if I start creating content on investing and finance and if I get like 1,000

5:25 subscribers that's all I wanted 1,000 subscribers then the MBA college would be like hey this guy has a cool hobby might be a good fit you know diversity so that was the entire idea behind it and then while I was watching YouTube videos I came across Ali Abdal and I was really inspired because even he was 25 years old I was 25 years old he was a doctor and creating content on YouTube and he was making upwards of a million dollars every year so I was like what's my excuse so that's when the journey began so with zero experience zero knowledge I started creating content and back in the day there was no like fancy equipments and all of this light and two people sitting behind me here monitoring the audio it was just me in my mom's bedroom using natural sunlight, using the OnePlus 5 smartphone and shooting

6:12 content. So, it was just day after day relentless hard work without expecting anything because I never thought I could actually make money from this. And I was really thankful that my sister also joined me in this journey because otherwise I would not have been able to do this because she was the one helping me with editing the videos and she understood social media really well. I started my Instagram account one year before I started creating content. So I had zero knowledge about social media. So that is how the journey began and one video after the other we started posting and without any break like every single day I was posting content. Doesn't matter how busy I was Saturdays and Sundays was just about researching and posting content and it finally paid off 3 months later when I got my first ever

6:57 brand deal for 2,000 rupees. And that 2,000 rupees meant so much better than my monthly income because that was money that I made by myself without depending on a job. So that is the beginning of my side hustle in financial sharing from 2,000 rupees a month to 20 lak rupees a month. You heard me right. That is the power of content creation. People often wonder how can content creators make so much money. The answer is simple. Modern media. You see, back in the day, companies used to pay for billboards and even now for newspaper ads, but nobody's reading newspapers anymore. The current audience is on social media. So, if you can get the attention of a large number of people,

7:44 companies are willing to give you a hell lot of money to promote their products. And that is exactly what happened with me. And not just that, because I was a first mover in financial education in social media, I was able to get the trust of the audience before anybody else. And this is true in any industry. If you are one of the first people to do something, you are able to build a reputation for yourself and charge a lot more money than the people who come second and third. Always remember, nobody remembers the second and the third place. You got to be first at something. And within 6 months of creating content, I had reached a million followers. Now, this is something I never ever thought was possible. A million followers is 10 lakh people listening to you for financial advice. And this is not just in my hometown. This is all across India. So

8:31 when you're able to reach to 10 lakh people every single day, brands are able to pay you a lot of money. Just to give you some mathematics of how this works. Any creator who has a million plus followers and is able to influence purchase in that particular niche. It can be anything. It can be finance, skincare, makeup, fashion, beauty, anything. that creator is easily going to charge five to six lakhs per brand deal. If you are a knowledge creator, you know, teaching about tech or finance, it can go even higher. Usually, you can charge 1 rupee per view and even two to three rupee per view if your brand is really really strong and brands really really want you. So, somebody having a million followers is easily making 20 to 30 lakhs a month. So that

9:19 was a tectonic shift in the earning capacity for me and now everything changed right because now I'm like do I really need to do an MBA because even if I do an MBA I'm going to make 20 lakhs a year or 25 lakhs a year I'm not going to be making 20 lakhs a month. So all of a sudden the plans changed and the next step for me was how do you use this distribution and media that you've built to build a real business? Because you see personal brands no matter how good you are is short-lived. It's not going to last for 20 30 years. You probably can last for 5 to 6 years and in those 5 to 6 years you got to build something which can live beyond you and all celebrities do it. Look at Ritik Roshan

10:04 who has created HRX. Look at Virat Kohli who has created 18. So every celebrity, actor and influencer today is building a brand which is associated with their personal brand which can last beyond them. So that is exactly what I needed to do to take this to the next level. Chapter four, the birth of the one person club. Now as I was thinking what exactly can I do beyond content creation, I started asking myself how do people actually build a business? What exactly is a business? Right? A business is something that charges money for solving people's problem. And since I was in financial education, I started asking myself, am I really solving a problem beyond just creating content?

10:50 I'm sure you guys have all read the most popular books, but has your life really changed? I'm sure you watched hundreds of YouTube videos on any particular skill that you want to master, but has your life really changed? For most of us, the answer is no. because there is a huge gap between consuming knowledge and implementing it. So that's when I realized that although I have 2.7 million followers, most of these guys are just scrolling these reels, laughing, sharing with their friends and then just forget about it. And that was a problem because most people in India have access to investing, right? There are hundreds of fintech apps in India today and they will start an SIP and then they just forget about it, right? they don't really invest with a proper plan. Now, of course, there are

11:36 solutions out there even before I began creating content. They are called financial planners. Now, here's the thing about financial planners. There are only 1,300 registered semi-registered financial planners. And as per recent report, only about 600 to 700 are actually active. So, think about it. 600 people for a population of 1.3 billion people. Imagine if there are just 600 doctors for 1.3 billion people. That would be a nightmare. Imagine if going to the doctor was a luxury. Only rich people can afford a doctor. You would not think that's a fair world, right? Then why are we okay with the fact there are only 600 financial planners in India and that is exactly the reason why majority of us cannot afford them? Because obviously there are

12:23 only 600 people who are registered with SEBI. They're only going to work with rich people, HNIs, people already have crores in their bank account because these guys will easily charge you 50,000 rupees or 1 lakh rupees every single year and that is not accessible for 99% of people in India today. And that is when I thought if you cannot afford a financial planner, can I teach you to become a financial planner? In my experience of talking to these sebregistered financial planners, I learned what exactly they were doing for the ultra wealthy and I realized that it was not that difficult as it is made out to be. If you can break it down into simple concepts and create financial tools which all of us can use, then everybody can manage our own money. Yes,

13:08 you're not going to be the next Warren Buffett or the late Rakkesh Jun Walla, but if I can still get you 70 or 80% of the way, then that is still going to do a lot of good for this country. That is how I began the 1% club. It began with a financial education platform where we taught people how to invest in mutual funds, how to purchase stocks, how to plan your credit cards, how to invest in insurance products, how to plan your taxes properly, how to invest in real estate, how to purchase cars, everything I wanted to teach it. Now, within just one year of starting the 1% club, we were fortunate enough to get funded by none other than Nicl Kamat. Nikil Kamat is the co-founder of Zerodha and he invested 10 crores in our startup and that was something crazy which I never thought was possible that you could

13:54 actually convince a billionaire to invest money in your startup. So that was a very special moment and it happened so quickly that he was kind enough to invite me to his home and one meeting and he was convinced and he wrote me a check. Fast forward to today we are at one lakh people in the one person club. I'm sure you're already doing the math and you're right by now we're already earning in crores every single month and that is the power of coming up with a solution for a genuine problem in the market. Yes, while creating content I started earning 20 lakhs 30 lakhs a month but for you to actually go to the next level and start earning in crores you actually need to

14:39 solve people's problems at scale. So once we started solving people's problems, you start earning in cresors. Chapter six, the journey from millionaire to billionaire. Now while we're making crores, educating people how to manage their money, we knew that we had to go to the next level. And the next level is none other than Sebi. Sebi for those of you who don't know is the godfather of the financial markets in India, right? Nothing happens without their approval. So if you want to actually go and manage people's money end to end you need to get licensed by sebi and this was very difficult for us to do considering that I was the poster buyer of influencer in India and influencers were not really you know

15:25 accepted by sebi because they didn't really know what influencers are and they were really scared about what they can do because I don't blame them influencers today generate billions of views every single month right what they say actually impacts the financial markets. So influencers were not really kosher with sebi. So it took us a lot of time convincing and you know fulfilling the right compliance uh metrics to finally get our license from sevi. As of today we are a sebi registered investment advisor and we manage more than 1,300 crores of public's money. So from teaching people how to manage their money, we are now managing money end to end. But it doesn't stop there because

16:13 to manage people's money end to end, you actually need to hire people. Now I don't want to really hire thousands of people to manage people's money. I need to figure out a tech solution to scale faster and faster because the problem is so big and it is just getting bigger and bigger. And even if I hire a,000 people next month, I'm not even going to solve 1% of the problem. So the solution for us is to build a fintech app. As of now, we are a team of 150 people building a fintech app powered by AI to actually help people manage their money. Yes, today there are hundreds of fintech apps available, but there's not a single fintech app which actually tells you what to do. It is all DIY, which is do it yourself. It is very easy to install

16:59 an app, open a DMAT account and purchase stocks which an influencer is telling you on the internet. But is that right for you as per your risk appetite and financial goals? There's no wonder more than 93% of people in India lose money while trading in the markets. And that is the problem that we want to solve. You see, most of us blindly invest by copying other people. But that is a sure shot way to lose your money because it is not customized for you. We've all seen the power of AI and what it can do for you. So now we want to combine the power of financial data and AI to give customized financial plan to billions of people in this country. That is what I'm currently working on guys. And the reason why I wanted to tell you this entire journey is not to brag and say

17:44 that hey I had this grand plan and everything worked out. Absolutely not. If I had to go back 5 years and ask the 25-year-old Shahan that if this was the entire plan, he would have laughed at me. Most people think that people who are able to build a big business, they've planned it all beforehand and then took the first step. Guys, nobody knows what they're doing. You figure it out along the way. You take that first step and the next step becomes clear to you. But most people are not even able to take that first step. Why? Because you're scared. because you don't have clarity in your head or simply because you lack motivation. The purpose of me making this video is to tell you that without having any MBA degree, no CA degree, no IM, no IIT, no

18:30 money from my parents, nothing. It all began from scratch, right? I'm sure if you put your mind to it in 2025, you can figure out something for yourself as well. This is what you need to do. First, become really good at one thing. Master one skill really really well. In today's world of AI, ask yourself, can you solve any business problem using AI? Today the field is open. Businesses are scrambling to figure out how to optimize their operations with AI. Very very few experts in the market right now. So if you can master one such skill using AI, we are able to solve a genuine business problem, you become a subject matter expert in that and then you see how your life will change. Step two is to start

19:16 creating content about this particular niche so that you're able to build an audience and a community for yourself. You're able to build a personal brand for yourself. And no, I'm not talking about creating millions of followers and millions of views. You don't really need that in today's day and age. You can build a multi-core business with even just 10,000 followers. How? Because if you have 10,000 followers and even if 20 30 of them become your clients to solve a business problem and you charge let's say 50k to each of those clients, you are going to be earning in lakhs every single month. And that is really really possible in today's day and age. And the last step is to actually create more people, hire more people who can solve those problems on your behalf and then

20:02 finally productize that as a solution. This is an opportunity for every single one of you today. No matter what you are doing right now, no matter how much money you have right now, every single one of you can do this in today's day and age. So that brings us to the end of the video. Guys, if you found this educational and informative, please share this with your friends. And I would love to know what other future topics that you are interested in for me to make. So please drop that in the comment section. And I will see you in the next