Spending & Saving Habits of Youth in the City of Aurangabad

Abstract

The spending and savings of youth in India has changed drastically in past few years as a result of westernization and higher spending power. The studies have shown that youth spends more money on shopping and especially on branded items. Many studies have been carried out on this topic at international, global and national level. Similar study has not been carried out in Marathwada region, Maharashtra. This paper is based on study of different spending patterns among three groups of the students i.e. junior college, graduation, and post graduation level students in Aurangabad city, Maharashtra. Primary data on spending in different categories of youth like shopping, movies, fast food, alcohol etc. was collected and analyzed using various statistical and research tools. ANOVA and T-TEST were used to analyze whether significant difference exists between spending patterns of different groups and the genders. It was found that students belonging to different education levels differ significantly in spending in many categories. It was also noted that both the male and female youth have different spending patterns with a slight similarity. Significant portion of their spending goes towards shopping, fast food, mobile phone expenditure, investment and transportation. The youth should cultivate habit of rational spending and should save and invest more in fixed deposits, mutual funds, gold etc. It is huge opportunity for online advertisers, shopping complexes, retail shops, hotels, fast food restaurants, mobile phone companies which should tap the youth spending for their benefit.