Beyond Jargon and Fads
Acerca de
Worker Bees at Money Maximum
Shrutika
Chief enRiching Officer &
Co-founder
Hi, I am an Architect by education. If you're wondering what made an Architect build a personal finance website, you'll find out soon. I had an extravagant childhood - thanks to my parents. As a kid, I remember being the first family in the neighborhood to buy a car and a mobile phone. In hindsight, though, I realize that we were not really richer than others - we just spent more on living a good life.
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The first finance lesson that I remember was from my Mum who has always been prudent with money - despite splurging on comforts. I still remember her words "splurge on things that make you happy and cut back ruthlessly on things you don't care about". And in hindsight, I realize that my best childhood memories were the long drives in our car.
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Fast forward to today - I am currently enjoying preparing for CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst). Finance didn’t happen by chance. After I left work about 5 years back, to be with my baby girl, managing personal finances and investments became second nature. The desire to understand - How does the (economic) world work - grew stronger.
Besides, I bunked financial literacy classes at school. But wait - there weren’t any, were there? So, better late than never - I told myself. I’m intrigued by how markets work, how ‘More attracts More’, and how to get to that ‘More’.
“You are an Architect. What made you study finance?” - I get this question frequently.
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My response – “Money. Architects need money too”.
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“Oh, you want a job in finance?”
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My response - “Is ‘job’ the only way you know how to make money? Haven’t you heard that the easiest way to make money is by sleeping, singing, dancing, watching Netflix!”
CFA is just a step towards developing a deeper understanding of the world around me. I don’t love money, I love the emotions it brings - Freedom, Peace, Empowerment. Money is liberating.
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Money Maximum was born out of a desire to cut through all the fluff that overwhelms us in this (over) information age. The first step in one's financial education journey is to know what one needs to know. The easiest (yet the hardest) lesson to learn in investing is - discipline & patience will always trump knowledge!
Hiimank
Chief Indecision Eradicator &
Confidante
Hi, I am also an Architect & MBA by education and a hustler at heart. I’ve (side) hustled on many things in life - including things that I once thought I'm not capable of. From writing poems, publishing columns in international magazines, building a wildlife photography website, delivering TED-styled talks in many countries to (now) Money Maximum.
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Now striving for abundance, I grew up in scarcity (not to be confused with poverty) in a remote Himalayan village. It was presumed to be a school holiday the day it rained as our classroom was under a tree. I was still happy as it was prime real estate (my class had the best tree, you see)! We sat on mats as there wasn’t any space to store benches & chairs. No electricity during winter months because of heavy snowfall meant we slept by 9.
My school was a 30-mins uphill walk from home and we often fetched water in buckets from a stream 3 km away. Life was much simpler and in hindsight, harder. I lived this life until I was 15 but didn’t realize that my life was still way better than half of humanity!
One of the reasons I value the ongoing journey to abundance is because I’ve experienced scarcity. I know what driving a Land Rover means when I’ve walked 6 km daily to fetch water. I know what going places means when it took me 32 years to set foot in a foreign country (the next 40 took just 5 though).
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After the financial ignorance in the early years of my career - I got to saving & investing $s well over 6 figures a year (no, we don’t live frugally, far from it). Aiming for financial independence in about 10 years and thereafter, setting eyes on enough abundance. In 10 years, I will stop working for money, forever! It gives me goosebumps just to think about that powerful emotion. Imagine going to work because you truly enjoy it, not to collect the paycheck. Returns from your investments take care of your (extravagant or frugal) lifestyle. No early retirement plans as I'm lucky to be in love with what I do for a living (and I show my gratitude every single day!).
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After years of reading hundreds of investing books, articles, news, listening to experts, the most important thing I learned is – complicating simple sh*t is a good business! Money Maximum is simply a step towards minimizing noise, maximizing clarity, and keeping things ridiculously simple to give our money the best odds of success. It is a step towards a mindset shift of not being afraid of asking more from life. A step towards empowering ourselves by simply doing the math.