Nothing Drives The Indian Millennial like Wealth, finds BankBazaar Aspiration Index

As part of their 10^th Anniversary celebrations, BankBazaar, launched India’s first Aspiration Index of millennials Executed by KANTAR IMRB, the BankBazaar Aspiration Index attempts to understand the Indian millennial from a personal finance perspective. The first of its kind indicator, the Aspiration Index analyses the hopes and desires of a millennial based on six goals—Wealth, Fame, Image, Relationships, Personal Growth, and Health.

The study pegs the Aspiration Index of Indian millennials at a high of 87.43, reflecting the highly driven and confident outlook of the millennials. South India tops the Aspiration Index at 88.5, higher than the national average, with Chennai at 88.8 topping the index across India. North, East, and West India come up at 87.7, 86.6, and 86.0 respectively on the index. While Chennai’s top position was not a big surprise, in a revelation of sorts, the second spot in the index was claimed by Jaipur at 88.5. This reflects a sea change in how non-metro millennials aspire and chase their dreams.

With growing career choices, financial independence, and shift in societal norms, more and more women are daring to dream big. On the whole, women ranked higher on aspirations compared to men. This is also reflected in the rising number of female visitors accessing BankBazaar.

For Indian millennials, Wealth is the topmost priority followed by Health and Fame. Despite the regional variations, the core aspirations of the Indian millennials, both men and women, remained the same—a home of their own, sufficient bank balance and a chance to see the world. The desire to own their own home comes out on top with 47% of millennials calling it their top priority. The study revealed that more than 61% of the millennials are comfortable taking credit liabilities to fulfil their aspirations. This desire resonated across East, West, North, and South India.

Speaking on the occasion of the Index launch, Adhil Shetty, Co-founder and CEO, BankBazaar, said, “The last 10 years have been a whirlwind decade for India in every way. The technology, the generation, and the outlook have undergone significant changes since we started BankBazaar in 2008. So we thought our 10^th anniversary to be the perfect time to consolidate our understanding of the Indian personal finance market and see what the future is like. The study confirms several of our prior expectations as well as some surprises. We knew millennials prefer being in control of their financial health. However, we were pleasantly surprised when 91% of the millennials said that they handle their own finances. As these millennials grow older and wiser, we will continue to track and service the changing needs of this segment.”

The study also throws up quite a few interesting gaps between aspirations and readiness. The top priority for a typical millennial is wealth, especially owning a home. However, this particular goal has one of the highest aspiration-readiness gap of 12 points. Contrary to popular perception, the study showed that millennials are big on saving and investing. Investments are spread across the spectrum from FDs to mutual funds, and on an average, tend to be one-third of their wallet share. However, the choice of investment vehicles, predominantly FDs and insurance as opposed to mutual funds, could be responsible in part for the gap between aspiration and readiness.

Health is the next most important goal, with health-conscious millennials looking at physical and mental well-being as a key life-goal. Incidentally, this segment also has the highest aspiration-readiness gap of 12 points.