Money Attitudes of Indian Adults: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Money attitudes or an individual's feelings towards money is an important factor in determining their financial behavior and financial wellbeing. A large section of the Indian population faces financial stress due to low incomes and a lack of financial education. It is important to understand prevalent money attitudes among Indians from different socio-economic, demographic, and cultural backgrounds. At present, there are no studies that measure money attitudes and characterize psychographic segments of the Indian population based on their financial traits.

Our objective was to develop a scale for money attitudes and financial behavioral traits prevalent among Indians. The tri-component model viz., the affective, behavioral, and cognitive components of attitude formation was used to generate the original scale that was developed in both English and Hindi. It was administered using an online survey as well as through the collection of data in the field. The final data included 625 respondents from 20 villages in North India and more than 20 cities across India.

Exploratory factor analysis of this data yielded 6 factors which were named as follows: (i) ‘Financial Prudence’, (ii) ‘Extravagance’ (iii) ‘Financial Knowledge’, (iv) ‘Financial Anxiety’, (v) ‘Importance attached to Money’ and (vi) ‘Financial Support Network’. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted and the statistical fit of the CFA model was good. Individuals having similar financial attitudes were segmented into six clusters. Based on the specific traits of members of each of these clusters, they were named: "Prudent Strivers", "Young and Carefree", "Financial Achievers", "Money Neutral", "Living for Today", and "Financially Inactive". The segments were described based on demographic characteristics.

The findings of this study are of potential interest to social policy makers, NGOs engaged in helping people achieve financial well-being as well as agents of financial institutions trying to market insurance and investment products to the Indian customer.

Keywords: Financial Attitudes, Factor Analysis, Cluster Analysis, Personal Finance, Financial Services

JEL Classification: D90, D91, C38, P46