Managing finance: Indians beat Americans

Majority of Indian consumers have better skills in managing their household financial budget and are confident of facing any financial impediments in future, as compared to citizens of nine other countries.

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Indians turn out to be the second out of 10 leading nations in the world to have a basic financial literacy level (55%) just behind the Japanese, reveals the ING Consumer Resourcefulness Survey.

"The survey shows that Indians are better at managing their finances than most of the other countries in the survey, including being better prepared for their various life stages, especially retirement," UcoVegter, chief marketing & strategy officer, ING Life India said.

The survey shows a staggering 84 per cent Indians prefer buying life insurance products compared to 54 per cent globally and a similar percentage of Indians believe in maintaining a household budget with focus on savings.

Indians are much risk averse in case of borrowing money. While average Indians manage their finances in a much organised manner, they borrow money in case of needs such as buying a home (50 per cent) and purchase of a car (43 per cent).

About 87 per cent of Indian households have an emergency fund compared to 33 per cent globally. Apparently, this helps Indians feel less despair than the global average when it comes to negative emotions around debt.

It finds a correlation between a person's financial literacy and his or her emotional well being. The more people are financially literate, the more they experience feelings of happiness.

Overall, the survey revealed that Asians are by far the most financially literate and are also eager to learn more.

They actively follow their budgets and develop habits of acquiring knowledge before taking financial decisions.

The survey was carried out amongst 5000 consumers across ten major nations, including India, USA, Mexico, The Netherlands, Romania, Poland, Belgium,Spain, Korea and Japan.