Father's Day 2023 Study: How Fathers Prioritised Education, Marriage and Retirement

What Did FinEdge's Father's Day 2023 Study Reveal?

The study examined the financial goals recorded for fathers across different age groups, with respondents ranging from 23 to 68 years old. Rather than asking investors which financial product they preferred, the analysis looked at the life goals they identified as priorities.

The findings provide a useful picture of the financial decisions fathers were making within the FinEdge client population in June 2023.

The four principal findings

These results reflect different age-group and regional observations from the 2023 FinEdge dataset. They are not a nationally representative estimate of all Indian fathers.

Perhaps the most interesting question is what the findings tell us about the relationship between financial responsibilities and the time available to prepare for them.

Why Did Children's Education Become a Greater Priority After 30?

For fathers below the age of 30, the study recorded home ownership as a top-priority goal for 26% of respondents. Retirement was also the top priority for 26%, while nearly one in five identified wealth creation as their leading financial objective.

Only 6% of the under-30 fathers were recorded as actively prioritising planning for their children's futures at that stage.

This isn't necessarily surprising. Younger parents may still be establishing their careers, purchasing homes, managing EMIs or adapting to the financial responsibilities that come with starting a family.

As their children grow older, however, the need to prepare for higher education can become much more immediate.

In the 30–40 age group, 45% of fathers identified their children's higher education as their number-one financial priority. Among fathers aged 40–50, the proportion increased to 62%.

These percentages describe the priorities of different age groups in the 2023 study; they don't track the same individuals as they grew older. Even so, they reveal a striking concentration of education-related priorities among fathers approaching the stage when college expenses can become a significant household responsibility.

At FinEdge, we believe this is an important financial-planning challenge.

When children are young, parents often have the greatest amount of time available to accumulate the required education corpus. But the goal may not yet feel urgent because college is still many years away.

By the time education becomes a pressing priority, some of that valuable investing time may already have passed.

This doesn't mean a young father should ignore the need to buy a home, build financial security or provide for the family's immediate needs. Those are genuine responsibilities, and different families will naturally have different priorities.

What we believe is important is recognising that a distant goal can still deserve a place in the household's investment strategy.

You don't necessarily need to make children's education your biggest financial commitment when they're very young. But starting early can reduce the burden that the goal may place on your finances later.

Even a modest, sustainable investment commitment can create a useful starting point, particularly when it can be increased as income and financial capacity improve.

For families beginning this journey, our Child Education Planning guide explains how to estimate future requirements and connect them with an investment strategy.

FinEdge insight: The goal often becomes urgent after some of the best investing years have passed

The study found that children's higher education featured much more prominently among fathers aged 30–50 than among the youngest fathers.

The practical challenge is to recognise an important future expense before it becomes an immediate financial pressure.

Starting early creates more time to invest, adjust contributions and respond as a child's educational aspirations become clearer.

Children's Education or Marriage: What Did Fathers Prioritise?

Another notable finding was the relatively low priority assigned to children's marriage among fathers aged 30–50.

Only 1% of fathers aged 30–40 identified children's marriage as their top financial goal. Among fathers aged 40–50, the figure was 3%.

These proportions were much lower than the corresponding figures for higher education, which were 45% and 62% respectively.

Interestingly, children's marriage was the top priority for 21% of fathers over 50, a considerably higher proportion than in the younger age groups examined.

Education and marriage priorities within the same age groups

Source: FinEdge Father's Day Study, June 2023.

When the study was originally released, we interpreted this pattern as an encouraging sign of changing attitudes towards children's futures, including greater emphasis on daughters' education and opportunities rather than treating marriage as the default financial milestone.

That remains a meaningful perspective for FinEdge.

However, the underlying figures measure priorities for children's education and marriage generally. They don't provide a separate breakdown for daughters and sons, so the percentages shouldn't be presented as a direct measurement of fathers' investment preferences for daughters specifically.

What the findings do demonstrate is that, within these age groups, education was far more frequently identified as the leading financial goal than marriage.

We believe this distinction matters because education can be one of the most significant investments a family makes in a child's future independence and opportunities.

Whether a child ultimately chooses a professional qualification, higher education abroad or another pathway, the ability to pursue that choice depends partly on the financial preparation undertaken years earlier.

For parents, the objective need not be deciding every detail of a child's future in advance. It can be creating the financial capacity to support meaningful choices when the time comes.

At FinEdge, we believe the best way to prepare for a child's future is to create financial options, rather than assume that one traditional milestone should determine the entire investment strategy.

Why Were Younger Fathers Also Thinking About Retirement?

The study produced another interesting result.

Among fathers younger than 30, 26% identified retirement planning as their top financial priority, compared with 22% in the 30–40 age group.

Although the difference isn't particularly large, it challenges the assumption that retirement becomes relevant only after people reach their forties.

For younger investors, retirement planning can reflect a desire for greater financial independence, the possibility of retiring earlier or an understanding that long-term wealth accumulation benefits from time.

However, the study records the priorities investors selected; it doesn't establish their individual motivations or whether their retirement investments were adequate.

At FinEdge, we believe retirement deserves attention from the beginning of an individual's investing journey because it is one of the largest and longest financial responsibilities most people will face.

The challenge is that retirement can feel distant precisely when you have the most time available to prepare for it.

As responsibilities increase, other financial goals may become more immediate. Home loan repayments, children's education, family commitments and lifestyle expenses can all compete for the same investible surplus.

This is why we encourage investors to avoid treating each financial goal as a completely separate decision made only when it becomes urgent.

An investment strategy should consider how the goals fit together, which ones require earlier action and how the household's available resources can be allocated sustainably.

Our Retirement Planning guide explores how to begin structuring this long-term requirement.

26%

of fathers under 30 put retirement first

22%

of fathers aged 30–40 put retirement first

Source: FinEdge Father's Day Study, June 2023.

Did Fathers' Financial Priorities Differ Across Regions?

The study also examined whether the importance assigned to children's education differed meaningfully across geographic regions.

In the north and east grouping, 60% of fathers identified children's education as a top-priority financial goal, compared with 57% in the west and south grouping.

The three-percentage-point difference is relatively modest, suggesting that education was an important financial priority across the regional groups examined.

Retirement planning showed a small regional difference as well. In the south zone, 24% of respondents selected retirement as their top priority, compared with an average of 21% across the other three zones.

These observations are interesting, but they shouldn't be used to categorise the financial behaviour of entire regions.

A three-percentage-point difference in a client dataset doesn't, by itself, establish that one region is more financially responsible, better informed or more committed to education than another.

For FinEdge, the more useful takeaway is that important financial goals are not confined to any particular geography. Families across India face the challenge of preparing for education, retirement and financial security, although their individual circumstances and available resources may differ considerably.

That reinforces our belief that investment decisions should be personalised around the household's actual requirements, not general assumptions based on its location or demographic category.

60% vs 57%

child education as a top priority: north/east vs west/south

24% vs 21%

retirement as top priority: south vs average of the other three zones

Source: FinEdge Father's Day Study, June 2023.

The Bigger Challenge: Children's Education and Retirement Can Arrive Together

When we consider the findings together, one important financial-planning challenge becomes clear.

Many parents may find themselves dealing with substantial education expenses during the same years when retirement saving needs to become more serious.

Consider a father in his mid-forties whose child will begin college in five years.

The family may need to accumulate or make available a significant education corpus over a relatively short period. At the same time, retirement may be only fifteen or twenty years away, creating another substantial financial requirement.

These two goals compete for money, but they also have very different time horizons.

The education goal is approaching quickly, which limits the investment risk the family can reasonably take with money needed soon. Retirement remains farther away and may require an investment strategy capable of supporting longer-term growth.

If the family hasn't prepared for either goal adequately, the temptation may be to concentrate heavily on whichever responsibility feels most urgent.

That can create a difficult situation in which retirement contributions are repeatedly postponed to meet education expenses, leaving less time to build financial independence.

At FinEdge, we believe this is precisely why financial goals need to be considered together.

The challenge isn't choosing between your child's education and your own retirement. It's understanding how both can be funded within the financial capacity and time available to your family.

This may involve starting education investments earlier, increasing contributions as income grows, reviewing existing savings or adjusting the investment strategy when the goal becomes more immediate.

It may also involve recognising that not every goal can be funded at its ideal level from the beginning. In such cases, a sustainable contribution towards several important priorities may be more effective than repeatedly abandoning one goal to pursue another.

For a deeper examination of these trade-offs, see how to prioritise competing financial goals.

FinEdge insight: Preparing for your child's future should not compromise your own

Children's education and retirement are both important, but they cannot be funded using the same money twice.

A sound investment strategy should help parents prepare for education expenses while continuing to build the financial independence they'll require later in life.

Providing for your own retirement can also reduce the possibility that your children will need to carry that financial responsibility in the future.

What Can Fathers Learn From the Study?

The 2023 findings offer a valuable reminder that financial priorities can look very different at different life stages.

For younger fathers, housing, establishing financial security, wealth creation and retirement may all deserve attention. As children grow older, the financial requirement for their education can become increasingly important.

For parents approaching their fifties, education expenses may be arriving at the same time that retirement preparation requires sustained investment.

Rather than prescribing the same savings percentage or investment allocation to every family, FinEdge believes the more effective approach is to understand the household's individual circumstances.

If you're a young parent, that may mean beginning with manageable contributions towards your child's education while maintaining emergency savings, appropriate insurance protection and other essential commitments.

If you're further along in your career, the priority may be to review whether your existing investments are sufficient for the education expenses approaching and whether your retirement investments remain on track.

And if your children are already financially independent, your investment focus may shift towards retirement, financial independence or other personal goals.

These decisions should evolve with your life rather than follow a rigid formula.

At FinEdge, our belief is that the quality of financial decisions improves when people understand not only what they're investing for, but also how their different goals interact.

The study provides an interesting view of what fathers considered important in 2023. The more lasting lesson is that financial goals need to be recognised early enough for investors to take meaningful action.

How FinEdge Helps Families Connect Their Financial Goals

At FinEdge, we believe that financial goals should form the starting point of the investment conversation.

Your dedicated Investment Manager works with you to understand what your family wants to achieve, the financial resources already available and the commitments that need to be considered together.

For a household preparing for children's education and retirement, that means examining the future requirements of both goals, the time remaining, the investments already accumulated and the amount that can be invested sustainably.

Through FinEdge's proprietary Dreams Into Action (DiA) platform, these goals, calculations, scenarios and investment choices can be brought into one connected environment for collaborative decision-making.

The idea is to help investors see how today's financial choices affect the future they're working towards, and how the investment strategy may need to evolve as circumstances change.

We believe this creates a stronger foundation for investing than simply selecting products or responding to whichever financial goal happens to feel most urgent.

When goals are clear, investment decisions have a purpose. And when those decisions are supported by a structured process and regular review, investors are better equipped to adapt as life changes.

Are Your Family's Financial Goals Working Together?

The 2023 Father's Day study reminds us that financial priorities don't remain constant throughout life. What matters most at 30 may look very different at 45 or 55, particularly as children's education and retirement responsibilities become more immediate.

If you're already investing for these goals, it may be worth examining whether your current contributions and investments are adequate, whether the time remaining has been considered and whether one important financial goal is unintentionally being compromised by another.

At FinEdge, we believe the objective isn't simply to accumulate investments. It's to build a clear, sustainable path towards the financial goals that matter to you and your family.