30% investors prefer emergency fund as top 2 financial goals this year: Survey

The Annual World Savings Day Survey aims to highlight the investing and saving patterns of people in 2022.

About 57% respondents consider themselves to be savers and an encouraging 43% believe that they have transitioned to being more active investors.

Scripbox polled over 620 adults in an all-India survey. 

Around 60% of the respondents believe that the shift in the investing mindset has been significantly driven by the prevailing macroeconomic trends, like inflation, the potential recession on the horizon, as well as the uncertainty brought on by the pandemic.

This evolution in saving and investing approaches has been a continuous process over the past two years. Nearly 27% of the survey respondents claim that they have reduced their spends in the last year. 50% are saving between 10 and 30 percent of their income. In terms of investments, 23% of respondents have started actively investing in the last year and 20% of existing investors have made further increments.

Retirement planning and children’s education, at 27% each, followed the aim to build an emergency fund. While children’s education as a goal held more prominence last year compared to retirement planning, the latter has received more attention as per this year’s survey.

The survey also highlighted the difference in the way men and women choose financial goals. Saving for children’s education has emerged as one of the top two priorities for 36% women, continuing the trend from 2021. Though men continue to invest more than women, the survey findings show that the amount invested by women has doubled in the last 4 years. Interestingly, men are starting to focus more on retirement planning (42%) over children’s education (28%) this year compared to an equal focus last year.

This year, mutual funds have emerged as the top financial investment instrument in the country. This preference for investing in mutual funds over putting away excess money in savings accounts or fixed deposits, has been observed for the first time, since the initiation of this survey.

The study illustrates that investing is a more rewarding action than saving, not just financially, but also in terms of overall self-worth. There is overwhelming consensus on the benefits of taking control of one’s finances. Investing more has acted as a catalyst in building confidence about the future and brought about an improvement in general well-being, say survey respondents. Consequently, it’s no surprise that when asked about their advice to their younger self, most respondents said it would be to start investing early.

“Saving and investing, while often used interchangeably, are very different. While saving is an important first step, the power of wealth is best felt when it is compounded by investing. Simply put, money saved but not invested would be unable to beat inflation let alone help meet long term goals. Every year on World Savings Day, we have stressed the importance of investing, so that people can make their money work as hard as they do. It is incredibly encouraging to see a positive shift in the attitude towards investing over the last few years, both as a result of growing awareness and maturity, as well as the impact of unprecedented macro events”, said Atul Shinghal, Founder and CEO, Scripbox.