A Paradigm Shift in the Saving Investment Pattern of Rural South India – With Specific Reference to Gobichettipalayam and Chennimalai, Erode District, Tamil Nadu, India

India is a developing country where the middle-class has relatively grown monetarily stronger and with increase in the spending power of the adults, even the young have become free-hand spenders and spendthrifts in some cases. This paper discusses on the age-wise spending, saving and investment pattern of the youth. The youth referred to here are of the age group 18-40 years of age. With the rocketing economy, the buying and saving trends are also changing. There was once a time when these rural areas had a lot of idle savings which proved to be a barrier for economic development of these areas. Now the youth have started playing a vital role in enhancing the consumption and investment expenditure of these rural areas and by breaking the vicious cycle of poverty. Despite being financially dependent on the parents till about 25-26 years, there is a radical difference observed in the spending – saving behaviour of the youth of our country. This study of saving and its investment pattern in rural areas of erode district will try to identify some of the important issues relating to the economic development of these rural areas of Gobichettipalayam and Chennimalai. This paper is an attempt to studying the spending, saving and investment habits of the youth in the rural areas of Erode district and how this has resulted in breaking the vicious cycle of poverty, Tamilnadu, more specifically (Gobichettipalayam and Chennimalai)