The "12 Year-Old FinLit Guru" - Pranav
By Erinn Heffes
Pranav is 12 years of age and lives in Los Gatos, California. He is currently in 6th grade and is passionate about Math, English and Science. He believes he grew up extremely driven and focused and wants to get to a high place in life. To Pranav, getting to a high place means “...getting a really good rank in whatever he does.” Whether that be getting his PhD, becoming an astronaut who goes to Mars, or becoming a ‘top’ doctor. Pranav’s goal is to simply be the best and most successful version of himself he can be. When he isn’t doing school work or focused on being a financial wiz, Pranav enjoys reading, drawing comics, crafting and so much more. A few fun facts about Pranav include, his love for learning about how antibiotics work against different viruses and germs etc. and his fascination with moving from one planet to another. Pranav’s mind is always thinking big and focused on the impossible for many, that will one day become possible to him.
Pranav’s interest in financial literacy and investment began when he overheard his parents talking about stocks and investing. He never understood what those words signified and when he realized it had to do with money he wanted to get involved and learn about stocks and investing, to see what he could do with his money. He spoke to his parents about it and ended up taking some financial education classes with another amazing FinMango advocate; Carolyn Cooper.
Not only did Pranav develop his financial education, but he took it a step further and is currently running his own business; Bun Bun Bunny Sitting. Pranav has a pet bunny of his own and the thought crossed his mind as to what would be done with his rabbit if he was on a trip. It then escalated into thinking, “What do people in general do with their pets when they need to take a trip or vacation?” This thought snowballed even further and led to Pranav setting up a website using google my business and creating his own business where individuals can request his services, to have their rabbits cared for while they are away.
As Pranav’s business was taking off and he was increasing his financial education with Carolyn’s help, he found about FinMango through her and ended up taking one of Mango Bob’s investment classes. Pranav believes that “Mango Bob’s class was extremely good. He went into detail about everything, he made it easy to understand and you could tell what he was doing from his teaching.” Pranav believes others should take this class (especially the younger generations) because of the impact it can have. Without being educated on these topics, it could harm one’s financial future and younger generations are in a lucky spot and should take advantage of their age and start learning how to prepare themselves for the future.
Asides from being involved in FinMango’s classes, Pranav also had the opportunity to appear on a podcast with Tim Ranzetta at Next Gen Personal Finance, which focused on stocks and bonds; what they are and how they work.
Pranav is immensely passionate about financial literacy and when asked what he wishes to see being done differently in schools to address financial literacy, his response was to have more exposure. He believes the biggest issue is that people simply do not know what investing is, how to do it or its importance and that needs to change. People tend to have their money sitting in a bank where no growth is being seen, when they could be investing and growing it.
Three pieces of advice he wants to leave are:
Relating to stocks : Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Diversification over different stocks is important.
Start investing when you are young, as your money will grow over time.
Don’t end up in debt as this will compound over time.
In the end helping people around the world is what makes Pranav happy. He strives to find ways to give and support others. Whether that be through his bunny sitting business, appearing on podcasts, advocating for development in financial literacy (especially in schools) or becoming a top doctor one day.
