This 13-year-old will help you learn finance in a fun way!

An important part of adulting is finance. Sure you were taught a lot of theorems, trigonometry and geometry as part of school curriculum, but how many times do these subjects come in handy when you walk into a bank to make investments or file your income tax return? Many youngsters, even in their 20s, find it intimidating to understand how finance works. To make you better understand, 13-year-old Aditya Ramchandani has developed an app-based game called mRush. 

Ramchandani says that the app was born out of curiosity and love for numbers. As part of YEA (Young Entrepreneurs Academy) course, he needed to come up with a business idea. What got him thinking was when he saw his father meet bankers and carry out various banking transactions and invest in the stock market. There were so many words and concepts that he did not understand.

“When I requested my father to explain the terms to me, I realised that some concepts were hard to grasp and after some quick spot surveys with friends and research online, I realised the depth of the issue — financial literacy is not part of our mainstream education which leads to us not being confident when making financial decisions,” he says, adding, “Considering how much time people spend on their screens and mobile games the solution to the problem was to gamify a perceived boring topic into a fun game that helps them play, earn and learn all at the same time. And thus, mRush was born.”

At the core of a financially empowered person is knowledge. “mRush aims to bring this perceived boring topic to you in a fun avatar, whether you want to be a financially conscious individual or a caring parent who wants to give their children the right tools to succeed — mRush is the best place to begin your financial awareness journey,” he says. Getting a paycheck or earning money is the first step, but you should also know how to use the money wisely and make your money work for you. “Most youngsters and women stay away from making financial decisions because they lack knowledge,” he says. 

In times when youngsters are glued to their phones playing PUBG or Fortnite, mRush can arouse a different kind of curiosity. Ramchandani explains that both these games are played purely for fun and one does not learn anything, but in mRush, while playing fun games like the quiz, one also learns about different things such as banking, stock market and currencies depending on the category that one selects. “mRush is goal-driven. The player has to come back to maintain their status tier (level). It also increases your net-worth and helps you track your progress,” he says. 

Along with mRush, Ramchandani also enjoys playing Fortnite because he likes the game-play and thrill and the fact that he can play with his friends online anytime anywhere. “This is also my inspiration to introduce online gaming in mRush at some point in time. I’m actively working on it,” he adds. 

Talking about his vision for mRush, Ramchandani says, “I would like to enhance its reach and the future roadmap of the product is to introduce multiplayer mode and online gaming,” says the young entrepreneur. Since the game has been launched fairly recently, user feedback is important. He is also keeping track of the number of installs on Google Play and Apple App store. “I also want to start introducing actual product discounts that people can redeem at stores. Just like in  real life, I want user’s ‘mohur’ investments to give them a rewarding experience,” he concludes. 

How To Play 

• mRush replicates the Personal Finance Cycle: Earn, Invest, Spend, Grow.   
• It as a virtual in-game currency known as mohurs. Players can earn mohurs by playing games and referring to a friend. 
• Fun games like quizzes, mining game and a tile game (replicating the Game of 15) keep adding to your mohur balance in the mRush Bank saving account. Quizzes help reinforce financial concepts.
• The game encourages players to invest their mohurs and understand the power of compounding. Mohurs can be invested in fixed deposits, recurring deposits, stock market and gold investments. Stock market prices and gold rates are tied to real-world actual rates. So you can practise risk-free investing!  
• Your net-worth (sum of bank balance and investments) determines your status and tier. And gives you advantages. There are 5 tiers — Bronze (0 to 150K), Silver (150K to 300K), Gold
• (300K to 600K), Platinum (600K to 1M) and Millionaire (1M +). 
• You can set goals and achieve them, in a fun gamified manner.