How to become rich: Amazing, but this is what made people really wealthy

Online payment solutions provider, PayU has announced the findings of its first global survey – Global Financial Prosperity Barometer (GFPB), to understand perceptions of prosperity, in high-growth markets. We bring the relevant portions that are applicable to Indians. The study into the relationship between financial services and prosperity across high-growth markets around the world has revealed that people’s definition of prosperity is more linked to financial security and peace of mind than to current income and wealth.

Here are the top details to know from this survey:-

- Over 85% of digital Indians believe that financial services help people plan for their future prosperity

- Notably, close to 80% of them have found financial services helpful to become more prosperous

-85% of Indians felt government’s larger role will be beneficial for accessibility to financial services

-Majority (80%) of digital Indians are confident that they know how to make good financial decisions.

-Although there have been numerous conversations of economy slowing down, the PayU Global Financial Prosperity Barometer reflects that over 77.25% are comfortable with the current financial state of their households and majority of them expect it to improve over the period of next 12 months (83.50%)

- For Indians, prosperity means much more than financial stability. Close to 40% of digital Indians believe that being happy, having a loving family and good health of family also equates to being prosperous.

-Over 80% of Indian respondents felt their ease to borrow money is linked to living a more prosperous life

- 40% of Indians surveyed prefer traditional bank to borrow money, with an increase in demand of borrowing money from digital money providers. Most Indians still believe that the biggest social and emotional benefit of saving and growing one’s money is to be able to plan for the family’s future

-Ease of Access - When it comes to ease of access to financial services a majority of respondents reported ease of access to saving and investing money. Of all the services, over 80% have an easy access to depositing money, 79% of respondents said they had easy access to send and receive money, 74% said they found it easy to insure property against accidents and 73% said they found it easy to access somewhere to save and grow money for the future

-Digitally inclined India - While traditional banks continue to lead as a platform for people, online platforms are becoming more & more popular. 58% of the people surveyed used a website to transfer money, 51% used an online site to deposit money and 49% used online websites to borrow save and grow money

- There is a growing use of smartphones to access financial services - Over 55% of digital Indians interact with their financial service provider through smartphone apps to send or receive money from elsewhere  

Commenting on the findings, Laurent le Moal, CEO of PayU, “Understanding how access to financial services impacts prosperity takes us to the heart of human behaviour and brings us one step closer to building a world without financial borders where everyone can prosper. Global fintech leaders and governments have a huge responsibility to build the right services to ensure each individual can access and utilise financial services to improve their own feelings of prosperity. Technology is at the very core of this mission and must be used at every stage of the journey to best deliver financial services to citizens globally.”

Anirban Mukherjee, CEO of PayU India, said, “It is insightful and interesting to discover the strength of the relationship between access to financial services and perceptions of prosperity. For India, a few things stood out, firstly that the notion of prosperity goes beyond purchasing power and is linked to the ability to create wealth and safety nets for oneself and one’s family and secondly the degree of dependence and adoption of internet technologies to access financial services. I think it shows the customer appetite for financial services and is a great opportunity for fintech players.”