In a captivating episode of The 1% Club Show (Episode 17), hosted by popular finance educator Sharan Hegde, three young students from Masters’ Union business school shared their extraordinary stories of building wealth exceeding ₹1 crore before turning 20. Titled “Earning 1 CRORE+ At The Age of 18,” the episode, released in February 2024, highlights the mindset, strategies, and risks involved in their journeys to financial success.
The guests—Aru, Swayam, and Raghav—are teenagers from affluent families who turned family-provided capital into multi-crore portfolios through aggressive investing in stocks, derivatives, crypto, and index funds. Their stories are inspirational but come with a clear caveat: these achievements involved significant starting capital, high-risk strategies, and substantial early losses as part of the learning curve.
The Guests and Their Achievements
- Aru: A crypto trader and blockchain enthusiast, Aru borrowed approximately ₹90 lakhs from his father. Within a year, he grew this to around ₹1.7–1.8 crores. He later mentioned earning about ₹50 lakhs (a 55% return) in just eight months on a ₹1 crore portfolio. Aru allocates funds across short-term high-return options, heavily into custom index funds (built using weighted averages from Nifty 50 research), and derivatives.
- Swayam: Another crypto-focused trader, Swayam started with ₹4 lakhs and grew it to ₹1.15 crores over three years. He turned down a Harvard scholarship to attend Masters’ Union, believing it offered better practical business exposure.
- Raghav: Inspired by stocks like Tata, Raghav emphasizes micro-analysis of companies, tracking macro trends, and long-term investing. He has also experienced losses, including ₹50 lakhs during his early learning phase.
The trio began investing seriously during the COVID-19 lockdowns, self-educating through YouTube videos, online courses, and trial-and-error. They convinced skeptical parents to allow investments in volatile assets like cryptocurrency by demonstrating knowledge and early wins.
Key Strategies Discussed
The conversation delved into their approaches:
- Diversification and Allocation: Mixing safe index funds with high-risk derivatives and crypto for balanced growth.
- Trading vs. Investing: They differentiated short-term trading (high risk, quick returns) from long-term holding, with some preferring hedging to mitigate losses.
- Research Methods: Deep micro-analysis of individual stocks, combined with macro-economic awareness.
- Hypothetical Scaling: When asked about managing ₹100 crores, they outlined splits across bonds, stocks, derivatives, and even startup investments.
A recurring theme was resilience—viewing large losses as tuition fees for invaluable experience. Family tragedies, like the loss of a parent, also fueled some of their drive to build wealth early.
Important Reality Check
While the episode is motivating, Sharan Hegde and the guests emphasize that this is not typical. These young investors started with access to lakhs (often family funds), not from zero. High returns came from volatile instruments like derivatives and crypto, which can lead to massive losses. The video includes a disclaimer: it is for educational purposes only and not investment advice.
For most teenagers or young adults, experts recommend starting small with safe options like mutual funds or index funds, focusing on financial literacy, and avoiding leverage or high-risk trades without deep expertise.
This episode of The 1% Club Show underscores that extraordinary wealth at a young age is possible with knowledge, discipline, risk-taking—and often, a head start in capital. It serves as a reminder that building sustainable wealth is a marathon, not a sprint, and high rewards come with high risks.
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