Family Top Priority For Indians In Life Goals; Life Insurance Beats FD, Mutual Funds As Investment Option, Says Report

Providing financial security for the family emerges as the top life goal for Indians post-pandemic with 71% Indians prioritising it over other goals.

Bajaj Allianz Life India’s Life Goals Preparedness Survey 2023 found that retirement planning, leading a balanced lifestyle, and providing for children’s education continue to feature among the top life goals.

The survey was done in association with Kantar, found that new focus areas like career growth, travelling abroad and ensuring adequate care for ageing parents are also emerging as important life goals for Indians.

The average number of goals increased from 5 in 2019 to 11 in 2023.

Life Goals Preparedness Index, which is a function of confidence, knowledge and action taken towards financial planning for one’s life goals, stood at 47 as Indians aspire for more life goals post the pandemic.

Also Read: Cheap Doesn’t Mean Better! Don’t Commit These 5 Mistakes While Buying Insurance Policy

Where Indians prefer to invest to enable their life goals

• Life Insurance is the most preferred investment option for 65% of the life goals.
• For retirement life goals, the preference for life insurance increase even further
• 82% Indians prefer investing in life insurance for financial freedom at old age
• 77% Indians prefer life insurance for a secure and carefree retirement
• 73% Indians prefer life insurance for financial security of family, the most important life goal post pandemic

When it comes to financial planning of life goals, Indians feel that they have not done sufficient financial planning for 60% of their own life goals.

• 61% people feel that it is difficult to fulfil the dream of building their own house
• 67% feel financial freedom for old age is tough to accomplish
• 58% expressed that achieving financial security for their family is difficult.

Top life goals across categories

• 71% of the respondents have financial security for their family as the most important life goal
• Post-covid, 84% Indians have the desire for living a balanced life as compared to 51% in 2019
• 1 in 2 Indians say living a balanced life is their priority life goal
• 2 in 3 Indians have health and fitness goals up from 35% in 2019
• Being physically and mentally fit is amongst the top 5 life goals for respondents
• Health goals see a sharp increase in non-metro regions with a 33% points jump
• 2X increase in Indians pursuing travel goals over 2019, particularly in metros and among younger consumers
• 8 in 10 Indians across salaried or business segment have career related life goals, a 1.5X jump over 2019
• Pursuing higher education is a life goal for 1 in 4 Indians
• Ensuring adequate care for aged parents is a priority life goal for 40% of the respondents
• Philanthropy sustained as a new-age Life Goal, including avenues like providing employment opportunities, supporting others dreams or imparting knowledge through teaching
• 1.6X Increase in Indians looking to contribute towards creating a social impact

“It’s interesting to observe that India’s goals are a mix of accomplishing important goals like financially securing their family and leading a balanced life, along with having an aspiration to do more in one life. Post pandemic, the country has emerged stronger and our fundamentals to progress as a nation have outshone many, which I believe has fueled the aspirations of the nation,” said Tarun Chugh, MD and CEO, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance.

Also Read: Struggling To Manage Expenses? Here’s How To Create A Practical Monthly Home Budget

The survey was conducted with 1936 people across 13 cities including metros, tier 1 and emerging tier 2 cities, including New Delhi, Ludhiana, Bareilly, Kolkata, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Mumbai, Surat, Amravati, Chennai, Bangalore, Madurai and Guntur. The data was collected in October 2022.

Read all the Latest Business News here