Anyone who grew up as a middle class child in the 90s in India would still fondly remember the good old days when money barely made it to dining table conversations. Cut to 20 years later, a substantial portion of polite conversations now revolve around investments and money-making strategies. A finfluencer, drawing up the comparison between his childhood and his adulthood, the changes that have happened since, noted that the Indian middle class has practically been eroded.
Akshat Shrivastava, startup founder and creator of financial education platform Wisdom Hatch, explained that people turn to things like FnO, Dream 11 and Astrology because they are financially stressed.
“There is a reason why people are aggressively turning towards: FnO, Dream 11 and Astrology. Not because they wish to make ‘quick money’, but because their finances have been stressed (AND they gotta take chances!) If after working 30 years in an okay job, you can’t own an okay home, you know that things are NOT okay,” he said.
Speaking of owning a home, Gurgaon-based real estate advisor Lovish Anand said that even though it’s a milestone, buying a home in Mumbai and Delhi could take you 30 years just to break even. He said in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Gurugram, Noida, and Pune, renting 3 BHK apartments is financially more sensible than buying. Property prices in these areas are high, while rental yields remain low, often below 2 per cent.
In contrast, Shrivastava said, his parents – in their mid-30s – were able to buy a patch of land and build their own house. All of this was based on their modest income, with his mother working as a cashier and his father working in middle management in insurance.
Shrivastava said his family took a domestic vacation every 2-3 years, stayed with relatives when they travelled to a new city, never ate at a 5-star restaurant, and never took an international trip. He and his brother got a decent education and never felt resource-starved.
“Our dinner conversations were never about money, finance, debt or spending. Our conversations were about: food, politics, school life, and general chit-chat about life,” he said, indicating what was clearly a story of every middle class household.
“If I reflect back: such a world doesn’t exist for most middle class anymore. People are deeply stressed about finances. In the last 10 years, the salary growth has been 0.4% CAGR. Not 4% (0.4%). This is for people earning between 5L to 1Cr. The middle class as we know it has eroded,” he said.
Akshat Shrivastava isn’t the only one to point at the dying breed of middle-class Indians. Many other experts have alerted to the downfall of what used to be India’s dominant class demographic. Mumbai-based data scientist Monish Gosar had earlier highlighted the Indian middle class “willing participation” in its own financial downfall for it turns credit into comfort and status into necessity. Gosar blamed impulsive decisions, lifestyle inflation, and an obsession with appearances.
Marcellus Investment Managers’ recent survey has found that dual-income families in metros earning Rs 50 lakh post-tax often save only Rs 5 lakh annually, despite holding assets worth Rs 3.5 crore due to inflated aspirations, poor liquidity, and lack of disciplined planning.
