Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath on Bengaluru: ‘It has paper wealth, not real money’

Nikhil Kamath said that people in Bengaluru who became rich via paper wealth did so by working at tech companies.

Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath said that he feels Bengaluru has the largest paper wealth which means that the city only gives an appearance of wealth and the people in the city who became rich via paper wealth did so by working at tech companies. He told The Print, “It's not real money. Bengaluru has the most paper wealth and very little expendable wealth. The paper rich from here made money in tech companies and tech companies have no cash. Paper money gives you the appearance of wealth.”

Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath talked about Bengaluru and his first job at the age of 17.

The entrepreneur also talked about his first job and said, "I feel the psychology behind that is very interesting. I used to earn ₹8,000 in my first job at the call centre in Bengaluru, selling accidental health insurance for a company called Stone Bridge. So at the age of 17, I was feeling really good about myself as I could earn a bit of money. You start feeling unnerved when your friends graduate from college and get their first job."

Earlier, Nikhil Kamath had said that he prefers renting a home over purchasing as he thinks that real estate valuations were "ridiculous and retarded".

"I could not get myself to buy real estate at today's valuations because personally, I think they are ridiculous and retarded with interest rates where they are, for prices of homes and offices to go up does not make sense," he said.

Revealing that he continues to stay in a house that he does not own, he said, “Yeah, I don't foresee that changing. The only one home that I have is where my parents live and that is more for emotional reasons, it will never make sense for me to buy a home because the rental yield I am dishing out is significantly lower than the capital deployed, the returns they give me.”