How finfluencers are contributing to Indiaâ€™s financial wellness

Authored by Sharan Hegde, Finance Creator, Finance With Sharan.

Financial Literacy is a huge pain point for consumers across the globe. A legion of individuals took up content creation full time after the pandemic. The explosion of financial and business creators stood out among the new generation of creators. Finance experts, traders and creators are tapping into this need by addressing how to diversify income streams, empower today’s youth with financial knowledge & technical expertise. It is no secret that the country's financial transformation is being majorly being led by new-age content creators. Social media is just making financial education more accessible and pertinent. You no longer need a degree in finance to reduce your taxes, make investments in stocks, or even engage in trading and here’s how finfluencers are making it easy for us.

Transition in the way of living
The famous line by Fight Club rightly puts it – “We buy things we don’t need with we don’t have to impress people we don’t like”. It took us a widespread disease, a nearly lost job for us to realise how critical it is to make the better financial decisions. The boundaries of age and gender have been broken and investing is no longer a thing of the nerd. Finfluencers have triggered a shift in the way people think about finance in India.

Era of content consumption
We have been grappling with the pandemic induced stay-at-home mandates for more than a year. Everyone has had to significantly adapt to the new normal. With the outside retrained from our lives, the amount of content being consumed has increased drastically. We eat, drink & breathe content – and Influencers have made a place for themselves and they are here to stay. Influencers ensure that they deliver the most complex and tedious subjects in a creative and engaging manner which keeps the audience hooked to their deliverables. People not only get a dose of entertainment but also gain knowledge.

Credibility is the key
Finance influencers are not selling; rather educating their audiences. They often do comprehensive research from credible sources before delivering information to the common public. They post their unbiased opinion and often state both pros and cons; which finally gives the decision making power to the consumer himself.

Accessibility and Free of cost
Most people would follow their parents' footsteps and pick up the traditional forms of investment. With the advent increase of finfluencers, there is another source of information readily available just at the ease of a touch. You no longer need to pay an authorized CA to manage your finances – one can just consume the unlimited amounts of content about anything and everything possible.

Breaking down the jargons
“Wall Street loves to use confusing terms to make you think only they can do what they do” from the movie The Big Short, is enough to prove how pertinent it is to cut down on jargons for a layman who has just started investing his funds. Common man no longer feels foolish on hearing terms like shorting, bonds, equity and so on.

Financial prowess might spur broader economic expansion and raise living standards. India may achieve great things if its workforce is well-educated in financial matters. An economically astute India would have significant global influence. As per a survey, approx. 36% individuals consume financial content on social media as their primary and only source of information, and this figure is only going to increase. It is safe to state that influencers definitely "influence" when it comes to making wise decisions. Finfluencers have had a significant impact on the financial landscape, and has enhanced financial industry for the better.