INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
However today, women are standing tall and playing a major role in various arenas like politics, defence, sports, IT, finance, business and
Given this changed world, financial equality and independence is imperative for women and more so for the ones who are seeking to have a
life of prosperity, build wealth and meet their short-term and retirement goals.
Thus, being cognizant of the importance of investing and
possessing the right investing skills is key, be it for a homemaker, or a professional or an entrepreneur.
However in reality, the narrative
here is very different when it comes to women investing, as the stereotype belief still runs that men do the investing and women usually do
Besides women are perceived not just unwilling to invest, but are also less aggressive than their male counterparts.
When it comes to
investment or personal finance planning spectrum, most women still rely on their husbands/father to go about their investments or financial
possess by nature, that differentiates them from male investors in their approach of investing
sums up their investment approach.
They would generally prefer to participate in safer and less volatile investments with consistent track
records.
Besides women have more long-term investment perspective than men and hence trade less frequently
financial equality and independence
It can be mastered with a little bit of patience, effort and an open mind
Women should not shy away from holding and operating bank accounts, trading accounts, demat accounts and holding assets in their own name
In fact investing is one of the best ways for women to ensure that they have the potential to accumulate the same amount of wealth as
men.Investing is unarguably one of the best tools for a woman to accomplish her financial goals which may vary from sending your kids to
school/college, a holiday, save up an emergency fund, saving for a large expenditure such as buying a house or for a wedding, saving for
retirement or just grow your overall wealth .As we know, to draw an everyday parallel, most of the women would go to great lengths to plan a
balanced diet for their family and ensure the physical wellbeing of their families
wellbeing.Savings and investment are indeed two parts of the same coin
As a thumb rule, a typical household should try and save about 25-30 per cent of income
But it does not end there, savings stashed away under mattresses will earn nothing, and their value will erode over, as inflation reduces
purchasing power.
Similarly, savings invested in physical assets like gold will appreciate over time, but will provide no returns in the
the event of death of the women irrespective of whether she is a home maker or a professional
It is also important for women to invest in protection products to meet unforeseen contingencies
This would primarily entail purchase of health insurance to cover potential illness and hospitalization costs
Purpose: The second tenet of investing stands for investing with a purpose or goals based investing
A woman needs to understand the power of compounding, the earlier she invests, the more wealth she can accumulate to achieve her
A long term goal is best met with investment in equities while a short term goal may be met through investment in debt funds
One can also allocate a small portion of their portfolio to physical assets such as gold which may be held through gold bonds which also pay
which are usually in a constant state of flux.
(Jyoti Vaswani is Chief Investment Officer of Future Generali India Life Insurance