Five out of 10 Indians are actively looking for financial advisors who can help them grow wealth, shows a survey recently released by Scripbox.com, an online MF distribution firm.
The Financial Freedom Survey 2020 shows that 50% respondents intend to get external help with financial planning. Of these, 37% would prioritise growing their wealth by using a digital wealth management platform.
The survey says that 23% respondents say they will build a financial corpus for an emergency, and 18% intend to save for retirement. “Children's education and buying a house were prioritised by just 10% of the respondents,” the survey said.
While one in every two Indians understand the concept of financial freedom, a majority (70%) are unsure of how to achieve it. Adding to it, women (75%) are less confident than men (67%) in being able to achieve financial freedom.
With the pandemic having brought personal financial matters under the lens, more respondents realise the limitations of their current investment strategies.
Survey respondents also acknowledged their most common financial mistake. The top five include investing without having a defined long term goal (39%), poor savings (18%), not enough investments that offer liquidity (15%), mixing life insurance and investments (15%) and investing in exotic financial products with poor returns (10%).
Further, the survey reveals that 50% of all respondents plan to reduce discretionary spending and save more for an emergency. In fact, 28% respondents said they will cut back on non-essentials, 22% wish to build a financial corpus to dip into during an emergency and 10% want to reduce their EMI burden.
Scripbox conducted this survey in July 2020 to measure the change in an individual’s financial outlook and their preparedness toward it amid covid-19. The survey polled more than 1400 adult respondents. 17% of total respondents were women and 83% respondents were men.
