Here come the super savers

Once you've covered all your essential living expenses, what do you like to spend your money on? If you're like most Indians in the ACNielsen Consumer Confidence Survey, you probably dump it straight into your savings account.

Or try your luck at the bourses. Or paint your walls, change the curtains and splurge on home improvements. That's not quite how the rest of the world reacts when confronted with a little spare cash.

Universally, everybody's first choice is the savings account. But for the rest, here's how it works. People in Europe and the US spend their extra money on out of home entertainment, new clothes and holidays; and then they pay off those tedious credit card bills that piled up while they were out having fun.

Rest and relaxation is top priority in Asia Pacific, where 36 per cent would prefer to blow up money on a great vacation. The top spender here is Thailand: 56 per cent Thais said they would use any spare cash to head off for a holiday. The figure for India: 37 per cent. This is probably a result of higher disposable income combined with the easy availability of dirt-cheap airline tickets.

Saving is all right, but not too many people seem interested in retirement funds. The average for the region is 12 per cent, and is the last item on the list of spendables. That's true for India as well, where 18 per cent may put money into a retirement fund, but it's still the lowest priority.

New technology, too, is no longer as high a priority as it used to be: 28 per cent of Apac respondents spend extra cash on new technology, compared with 32 per cent in India.

One possible explanation: typically respondents in this survey are early adopters of new technology; they probably already have most new gadgets.