KARAN'S STORY
Meet Karan
"Because we don’t have our own house, we’re depending on others, and we have to do favors
for the landlord."
Karan is the 19 year old son of a sharecropping family in Sindh province. He is the youngest of three brothers, and has six sisters. Despite his age and position in the family, he is the household’s primary earner. Karan credits both his parents’ support and his own drive for his current success. When Karan was only 12 years old, his parents gave him permission to start working and apprenticing with a local mechanic. This set him apart from his peers. He spent the next six years learning the business instead of attending school. Early in his apprenticeship, he decided that he was capable of starting his own shop and began planning to do so. He aspired to escape the sharecropping trap that doomed his parents to poverty.
What are Karan’s long-term business aspirations and what financial strategies has he been employing to achieve these?
SEGMENT OVERVIEW
Careful Hustlers,
by the numbers
Like Karan, Careful Hustlers are mostly lower-middle income young to middle adult men who are heads of the household. Approximately 24.4 million people (19% of the Pakistan population) fall in this segment.
Careful Hustlers
Pakistan Average
GENDER (MALE)
75%
49%
AGE (25-44)
64%
60%
SOCIOECONOMIC (SES 1-3)
65%
60%
HIGH INCOME VOLATILITY
65%
46%
Careful Hustlers experience high income volatility, the highest amongst segments, and struggle more than any other segment to plan their expenses and pay bills. This suggests that their tools and strategies for shaping income and expenses are not sufficient. Moreover, their income and expense management struggles likely suppress their confidence and ability to save, and exacerbate their overall financial management challenges.
Financial Behavior & Attitudes
SAVINGS BEHAVIOR & ATTITUDES
Most Careful Hustlers rarely or never save, and only one-fifth are frequent savers. They are the second least frequent savers nationally. They are not deliberate, goal-oriented savers and feel as if they don’t earn enough to save.
SAVINGS ACCOUNTS
Those who save prefer to do so with family or in the home, which may help them stabilize income and keep in good standing with family members. Very few use informal or formal groups. Careful Hustlers are more likely than average Pakistanis to use mobile money for saving, but rarely do so in general.
BORROWING BEHAVIOR & ATTITUDES
They are the most frequent borrowers in Pakistan, yet most rarely or never borrow. A quarter are frequent borrowers, doing so quarterly or more and almost exclusively from family. However, they exhibit low dependability and nearly half are uncomfortable holding debt.
BORROWING ACCOUNTS
They rarely borrow from others using group channels or mobile money.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
Careful Hustlers
Pakistan Average
Explore our complete set of findings:
