Financial Independence for Women: top investment tips for the other half to make them independent moneywise
In this special edition of Money Guru, Zee Business’ Swati Raina speaks to Prableen Bajpai, Founder Finfix Research and Shweta Rajani of Anand Rathi Wealth Management to know investment preferences of women and where they must invest to optimise gains
Financial Independence for Women: Financial independence is very important for all and more so for the remaining half of the population which is the women. In this special edition of Money Guru, Zee Business’ Swati Raina speaks to Prableen Bajpai, Founder Finfix Research and Shweta Rajani of Anand Rathi Wealth Management to know investment preferences of women and where they must invest to optimise gains. The show has been designed to prepare women for taking informed personal finance as India celebrates its 75 years of Independence.
Financial Planning for women
Where do women generally prefer investing?
TRENDING NOW
Financial independence for half of India’s population
Women in financial sector
Improvement in gender gap on a global level
Pay gap in India in financial sector at 18 per cent
In certain areas, gender pay gap as high as 26-28 per cent
At global level, women as unpaid labor more prominent
Financial independence of women
Challenges
- lower participation in financial decisions
- behind the curve in financial literacy
- lower participation in workforce
- Gender pay gap a big issue
- career break due to personal reasons
Finfix Survey - Investment Preference of women
Fixed income like FD, PPF among major instruments for investment
59.4 per cent share in fixed income instruments
Prefer buying physical gold
At lead 48 per cent women depend upon men for their financial decisions
11 per cent women take help from financial advisors
Goals largely related to retirement, children education
Women now more keen on being self employed
36.5 per cent women do not have their own savings
Why Investment important for women?
- career break
- Small work span
- gender pay gap
- long life expectancy
Investment habits of women
- Expences around their children
- low risk appetite
- very calculated while doing investments
- don’t take investment decisions on impulse
- Not greedy about returns
- prefer investments in physical gold
- take keen interest in buying gold jewellery
Can earn handsome income from investment in other gold instruments
Sovereign Gold Bond is a good option to invest in gold. It is safe and offers 2.5 per cent interest on investment
Gold Mutual Fund and Gold ETF are other good options but fraught with risk.
Women must take care of their health
Term plan necessary for single mothers
Health insurance also necessary for unmarried women
Married women must take health plan and critical illness plans as well.
Include maternity benefit plan in health plans
Money tips for Women
- Set financial goals
- Set income to investment ratio
- First investment and then expenditure from income
- Make monthly budget
- Invest in right asset class
- Target long term - 80:20 equity-to-debt ratio
- Medium Term - 70:30 equity-to-debt ratio
- Take adequate health and life insurance
- make emergency fund
- review your portfolio
- be financially aware
Formula for Financial Independence
Save something from each month’s salary
Save at least 20 per cent income
Invest the saving amount at the right place
The income will not increase just by keeping it into bank account
Invest your money where the income can beat inflation
Optimise benefits by investing for long term
Investments in equity will give higher returns over a long term period.
Sooner you invest, higher is the benefits of power of compounding
Gradually increase the amount of investment
Never stop investing at any cost.
Where to invest?
Invest in equity via mutual funds
You can begin by investing in good large cap funds
New investor can invest in index fund
Diversify your investments
Invest for small duration in debt funds
Make gold a part of your portfolio
Investment in gold must not go beyond 10 per cent of your total investment capacity
Avoid these dependencies
Try to remain free of debts
Do not use your credit card too often
Avoid having too many credit cards
Taking personal loan should be at the bottom of your priority
Higher rate of interest on personal loan than secured loan
Avoid investing if returns are low
Don’t run for options which promise immediate returns
Invest as per your goals
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