A greater number of women are saving and investing in mutual funds as well as new-age digital assets such as cryptocurrency as compared to men. They are also more focused towards saving for their retirement, according to a recent survey
More women are actively saving than men, and more women have mutual fund investments than men. Not only that, more women are focussed on their retirement investments, too as compared to men, according to a recent Savings Quotient survey by Bankbazaar.
The survey covered 1,675 respondents in the age group of 22-45 years from six metros and more than 18 tier-2 cities. The ratio of men to women was 57:43 in the survey. The majority of the participants (78 per cent) were from the metros and the rest from the non-metros.
Most of those surveyed were salaried professionals with a minimum salary of Rs 30,000 and above. They were also all digitally aware.
According to the survey, about 75 per cent had a bank account, 57 per cent were investing through mutual funds or systematic investment plans (SIPs). About 54 per cent had a fixed deposit or a recurring deposit, while 46 per cent had insurance cover.
About 45 per cent of the respondents invested in the stock market, 33 per cent in gold and other commodities and 32 per cent in new-age digital assets, such as cryptocurrency.
About 31 per cent had invested for their future through Employees’ Provident Fund or Public Provident Fund , and a much lesser percentage (14 per cent) had invested in government securities , the survey revealed.
Women Take The Lead
When it came to savings and investments, women had taken the lead over men, the survey revealed.
About 60 per cent women had mutual fund investments compared to 55 per cent men. For fixed deposits too, the numbers went in favour of women (54 per cent) compared to 53 per cent for men.
In matters of crypto and new-age savings tools such as P2P, women led men – 34 per cent against 30 per cent for crypto and 16 per cent against 7 per cent for the latter.
Only in matters of direct stock, men led the women (48 per cent against 41 per cent). In terms of savings account too, men lead women (79 per cent against 70 per cent).
Savings Pattern
Post covid, savings pattern has seen a shift with the focus shifting towards emergencies (69 per cent), followed by children’s well-being (59 per cent), income and wealth (47 per cent), and retirement (42 per cent), the survey revealed.
Zone-wise, the south cared the least about retirement (35 per cent), while west cared the most (59 per cent).
Gender-wise, women were more aggressive when it came to retirement, with 60 per cent women saving towards retirement compared to 52 per cent men, the study said.
Retirement Focus
Nevertheless, more Indians were now focussed on retirement than before, the survey revealed.
About 60 per cent respondents said they had a retirement corpus. This was also skewed in favour of women. About 68 per cent women said they were working towards a corpus compared to 54 per cent men.
Typically, most gave a serious thought to retirement savings in their late 20s or early 30s. Here too, women in the 22-27 years ago group were most grounded about their retirement plans. About 55 per cent women in that age group were looking at a corpus of Rs. 1 crore or more.
That said, the bulk of the respondents (56 per cent) had a target corpus of less than Rs. 1 crore, with 35 per cent in the Rs. 25-75 lakh bracket.
About 48 per cent women had a target corpus of Rs. 1 crore or more compared to 40 per cent men. However, only 15 per cent women had an average target corpus size of Rs. 2 crore or more compared to 18 per cent men.