123Pune.com

Pune, April 21: WHILE the city may be slowly moving away from its tag of a pensioner’s paradise, in a recent survey on the earning, spending and saving habits of Indians, at least 89 per cent Puneites said that they save money for financial security during old age. The all-India survey conducted by Max New York Life along with NCAER (National Council of Applied Economic Research) however points out that not many necessarily invest the saved money in high rate investments.

While 69 per cent deposit their savings in a bank, 20 per cent prefer keeping them at home. Not many invest in mutual funds, stock market, bonds or any high yielding savings tools.

As regards life insurance — one of the stable financial forces behind middle class Indians till pre-liberalisation — although 99 per cent of those surveyed are aware of it, only 53 per cent have a life insurance policy.

Also 82 per cent households in the city feel they cannot survive for more than a year on their current savings in case of loss of major source of household income. Meanwhile 9 per cent households said they will not be able to survive for more than six months and 66 per cent households said will be able to survive up to one year on their current savings.

“It shows how vulnerable Pune is when it comes to financial security,” said Rajender Sud, Senior Vice President - Head of Agency (North & East), Max New York Life.

So what does that mean for citizens of Pune, listed by Forbes as the third fastest growing city in the world? The report mentions that “It is possible for Pune households to earn more as economic growth accelerates, but their earnings might still not be sufficient to cover their increased needs and they remain at financial risk.”

However, 71 per cent households said they were confident of finding an equivalent in less than six months and only 6 per cent households said they were not sure of where they would find an equivalent of their major source of household income.

The survey covered 63,016 households, out of a preliminary listed sample of 440,000 households, spread over 1976 villages (250 districts) and 2,255 urban wards (342 towns) covering 64 NSS region in 24 states/UTs .

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=232771