Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath On Why He Doesn’t Want Kids: 'Not Going To Ruin 18-20 Years Babysitting'

For most people having a child after getting married and achieving financial security seems like the right move. However, Nikhil Kamath, the co-founder of Zerodha does not think so. The 37-year-old entrepreneur recently shared his views on parenthood in his podcast “WTF”. Kamath explained that he does not subscribe to the ideology of having kids to carry on one’s legacy. He also added that he does not want to “ruin 18-20 years of my life babysitting” in hopes that the child will take care of him in old age. He said that if luck is not on his side the child can very well abandon him after growing up.

Disagreeing with the idea of having kids to keep one’s lineage going, he argued, “I think we all feel that we are more important than we are. You are born and you die like every other animal on the planet and then you are gone and nobody remembers anybody. What’s the point of being remembered after death? I feel like you should come, you should live well, you should be nice to the people you meet in your life.”

The entrepreneur also opened up his views on philanthropy. Last year, he became the youngest Indian signatory to The Giving Pledge, a campaign that encourages wealthy people to give the majority (at least more than 50 per cent) of their wealth to philanthropy. The initiative was started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010.

Nikhil Kamath said that he does not want to be obsessed with accumulating wealth and instead wants to contribute to charitable causes. He reasoned that people should be okay with the “concept of mortality” which will change their outlook towards wealth hoarding. He said, “I am 37 and if the average lifespan of an Indian is 72 years old, I have 35 years left. There is no value in leaving money in the banks, so I would rather give it to things I believe in.”

Kamath started the podcast in March 2023, and in less than a year it emerged among the top podcasts on Spotify. Additionally, it ranked in the sixth spot on the Apple iPhone’s Podcasts application for 2023. In the podcast, Kamath talks candidly with industry experts on a wide range of topics such as start-ups, business investments, climate change and more.