How India spends, travels, invests, in five charts

When asked whether they were spending “within their means", just 34% of the respondents to the survey said they were spending comfortably, down from 38% in the last survey held in 2019. The share of those who admitted to spending “way too much", “a little bit too much", or “barely" staying within their means increased from 36% to 39% (see chart 1). The rest felt content with their spending, and said it was aligned with their financial standing.

The trend of spending beyond one’s means was acute in lower-income groups. Only 31% of people earning under ₹20,000 a month said they were spending comfortably, compared with nearly 60% of those earning over ₹1 lakh a month.

Also, nearly 48% of the respondents said they had recently bought an item they couldn’t quite afford, up from 40% in 2019. This was particularly true for low-income men. The share of men who had recently bought an unaffordable item rose from 42% to 51% (see chart 2).

However, even as the pandemic lifestyle has led to more impulsive and luxury buys, not all items are in equal demand. In the survey held in late 2021, more than 22% of the respondents had plans to buy a car in 12 months thence. But a year on, just 16% said they had done so (the two surveys may not have had the same respondents). The purchase plans for property, laptops and two-wheelers also did not hold up, while those for televisions, fridges, washing machines and gadgets went beyond.

The biannual survey is conducted online by Mint in association with YouGov India and Delhi-based think tank Centre for Policy Research (CPR). The latest round, held in December 2022, had 9,698 respondents across 207 cities and towns. Over 42% were post-millennials (born after 1996), and 40% were millennials (born between 1981 and 1996).

How India travels

Indians are spending hugely more on travel. But travelling had a remarkable income-based inequity, the survey showed.

From weddings to business meetings, Indians travelled for various reasons in 2022. Visiting family and relatives was the biggest purpose of outstation travel, with 40% saying they had done so. Leisure trips were the second-most popular (27%), followed by wedding trips (26%), religious trips (24%), and work trips (22%) (see chart 3).

One in five (21%) did not go on any outstation trip, but this share dropped dramatically to less than 4% for high-earners. As much as 57% of respondents in this high-income group went on leisure trips, thrice as likely as those who earned less than ₹20,000 a month. Women were more likely to travel to visit relatives, while men travelled more on business.

Most Indians (52%) go for low-budget travel (costing less than ₹25,000 per person per year), and only 13% go beyond the ₹50,000-mark. But this trend flips for those earning in six figures: half of them spend more than ₹50,000 per person per year on travel.

How India invests

Higher interest rates typically encourage working professionals to invest more in the hope of multiplying wealth. But even though interest rates rose to their highest pandemic-era levels in 2022, investment confidence appeared to decline due to a volatile market environment.

To be sure, about 46% respondents said they had started investing more in 2022, more than those (33%) who said they had cut down. But this gap was much closer than observed in the 2021 survey (50% vs 29%), which took place after a wave of market optimism. A growing chunk is investing solely in financial assets. Around 22% were doing so, compared with 18% in 2021. The share of those who invest in both physical and financial assets remained the same at 35% (see chart 4).

About 52% respondents were saving in bank or post office accounts, not much changed since 2021. Nearly 36% were saving as cash at home, up from 30%, most likely to avoid the volatile investment environment. Many were also considering inflation hedges such as gold or gold-related investments (24%) or real estate (20%).

The underlying reasons for investment showed a shift. The share of those who save for retirement came down from 31% to 27%. About 36% were saving for education. Saving for health shocks and travel became more common in 2022—both 30% each, up from 27% and 24%, respectively (see chart 5).

This is the sixth and concluding part of a series about the survey’s findings. The previous parts covered the economy and jobs, evolving views on remote work, changing political preferences, the politics-cinema link, and India’s search for a viable Opposition party. Note that these surveys are skewed towards urban well-to-do netizens, with 82% respondents falling under the NCCS-A socio-economic category of consumers. Full methodology and raw data available on our Github page.