BankBazaar had an exclusive chat with Nazia Nasim, the first crorepati of Kaun Banega Crorepati 12. Read on to find how she intends to spend her KBC prize money and much more!
A couple of months ago, India’s favourite quiz show on TV – Kaun Banega Crorepati or KBC, as it’s commonly called – made its return with a promising 12th season. It was welcome news for Indians as 2020 had so far brought very little cheer to our lives.
A few days ago, Nazia Nasim became the first contestant of the season to become a crorepati on the show. Though she didn’t clinch the ultimate 7-crore prize, she did walk away in style with Rs. 1 crore. BankBazaar managed to have a quick chat with her about her great success as well as her perspective on personal finance! Below are excerpts from our interview with Nazia.
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BankBazaar: What were your priorities in terms of personal finances before the win? Were there any goals you were working towards like child’s education, home buying, or early retirement?
Nazia: The Indian Middle Class and their dream of buying a house. We work to have a place we can call home and most of our saving goes towards that. We too, in the early years of working and marriage, focused on saving enough to buy a house. Later, the priorities shifted to saving for retirement and also to make sure that our son’s future is secure.
BankBazaar: What does winning the prize mean to you? Does it change your and your family’s lives in some way?
Nazia: The prize money is indeed a great amount to help in many ways. But honestly, I did not anticipate winning that much and so it is still sinking in. Having said that, yes, it would change life in many ways — mostly in helping relieve the anxiety of saving for medical emergencies related as we have two sets of ageing parents.
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BankBazaar: How do you intend to use the money? Will it help accelerate any life goal that you had?
Nazia: We would like to save some part of the winnings for unforeseen medical emergencies and health needs of the family, especially our parents. The winnings give us enough corpus to focus securing our future. We also plan to use a part of this money to drive a few causes close to our heart especially in the field of education, sanitation and women empowerment but that would need to be planned strategically so that help reaches the right people.
BankBazaar: What’s the best advice you’ve got so far about spending the money? What’s the worst?
Nazia: Being born to middle-class working parents, the best money advice I’ve got is to spend within my boundaries and also to make sure that with every elevation in life, we keep sharing more with the ones who are not so fortunate. Another advice that changed our saving habits was to invest in mutual funds through SIPs. As for the worst advice, we once invested in an investment plan (don’t want to disclose the name) that promised great returns but ended up being a dampener. It was presented as something that would give great returns but we actually only got what we invested and that too with great difficulty.
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About spending the winnings’ amount the best advice so far is to take your time and spend it wisely. Take expert advice and have a long-term view of the market behaviour especially in the post-COVID world. The worst one being buy a house!”
What’s the best advice you’ve got about spending money? Let us know in the comments section below. If, by chance, you’re looking for a Credit Card or loan or any other financial product, please do click the link below and explore BankBazaar.