Women & Personal Finance in India
POSTED BY ON March 23, 2010 COMMENTS (103)
Today, we’ll talk about Women’s involvement in Personal finance, especially in the Indian context. How many of us remember when our ladies at home took any decisions regarding banking, Insurance or Investments?
Their role has been always limited to household work and as caretakers of our homes & hearths, for decades and centuries now. Even in today’s world, when women are at par or even above par with men in all areas, they fall behind in this one.
Decisions (as far as finances go) are primarily made by men, & not women in general. In this article, we’ll see why it’s important for women, to know about Personal finance .
Women not accepting their Responsibility in Personal Finance
One of the big problems, with women, is that they do not treat Personal Finance as something that’s important for them. For ages, they have not participated in Personal finance, regarding it as the man’s domain, just as they felt cooking was theirs.
Obviously, this isn’t true now, in this day & age. Cooking is as much a guy’s activity as Personal Finance ought to be a woman’s. Women, in general, don’t show real eagerness for these activities, for some reasons like
Women treating their earning as time pass activity : The biggest reason for this, is that, since the dawn of time, Man has been the main provider and the primary bread-winner of the Family .
He was responsible for earning and managing money and taking care of financial goals, Women, on the other hand, were mainly responsible for raising children and taking care of household activities and to a big extent, maintaining relationships outside the house and in the community.
Many women in spite of being qualified enough, and having skills to earn money, view their earning as secondary compared to men. They “feel” that they are not at the same level, even though its not true; most of this is psychological.
Everyone handling her money but her: From centuries women’s financial decisions were taken care of, by their fathers, then their husbands and then their sons. They never got involved & were never encouraged to do so, because they were not considered smart enough!
Men have always shown dominance over women in this space. One reason, which could be responsible for this, is that women, hardly ever ventured outside house for these activities and never got time enough from their household chores.
Current Situation Women Knowledge in Personal Finance [ Statistics ]
Why It can be trouble for Women to not Know Personal Finance
Sudden responsibility
A lot of women never learn about Banking , Insurance, Investments , how to grow money well and related topics throughout their lives .
They are smart, have a good job, high earning , but they never learn about Money and some day when sadly, things go wrong eg., they lose their husband because of accident or some other reason; apart from emotional pain, there comes bigger pains in life , i.e. taking care of your children and overall finances, that day she has no idea on how to invest money for making sure of child education , her retirement , her Insurance etc .
She suddenly finds herself in very tough situation and will have to rely on others, (relatives , friends etc.) This is not a good situation. Girls! Ladies! please learn about money, even if you don’t like it… Learn a bit, at least up to a level, where you can take charge of things and no one is able to take advantage of your situation .
More Divorce rates
Gone are the days in India when Women would keep compromising in a relationship! Women these days, are independent, and have a say in every decision. Because of this, they have more flexibility to move out of a marriage, if things don’t work out. Divorce rates are on rise in cities from last decade.
Women who get divorces, have to, at some point in life, look after themselves and take charge of their finances. So learning about money is important from start.
Women live longer so need a better Retirement Planning
Think Long Term! What does’t seem to be important today, might be very important tomorrow. Women worldwide, have a higher life expectancy than men, and hence have to live more than their male counterparts .
Women generally rely on their children, but they should be better planned and hence learn about things .
“On average, Women live 4-5 years longer than their husbands and over three-quarters of all women are widowed at an average age of 56. Women comprise a horrifying 87% of the impoverished elderly”.
Some Psychological Myths Women Face
- Somebody will manage my money for me : Yes, but only up to a certain age… If there is no well-wisher, don’t rely on relatives or friends! When it comes to money, no one is truly yours, and even if they are, you better learn things and manage things on your own. It’s not that tough!
- I don’t know enough to do this myself : This is patently false! If you can be an Engineer, Doctor, House Manager, then you can definitely understand and learn anything you set your mind to! There might be some topics which might scare you away, but there are always blogs like this and people like me to help you with doubts.
- I will make too many mistakes : So what? Everybody does! We make mistakes to learn in life. I would encourage you to make mistakes and learn from them, because, “Making mistakes is a privilege unsuccessful people don’t get in their life” . Computers can never become more intelligent then human beings , because computers never make mistakes, only humans do .
- I don’t have money to invest : There can be two things here… One is that you might not be saving enough. Do review your income and expenses, and find out where can you save without compromising your lifestyle. Try to live with 90% of your salary .The second point is that you have little money which is ok! Doing investments, does not mean you have to invest lots of money; every body starts small, & slowly we progress! So what, if it’s only Rs 500? Make a start, at least! Develop self-discipline and start learning things. Tomorrow, when you have more money, you will already be way ahead of the curve .
- I don’t have time to plan my money : This could be due to lack of interest. Review your monthly schedule and manage your time well. Even if you take out, couple of hours each month, to learn about money, its enough. Once you start learning things, you will enjoy it. If you make yourself believe that you don’t have time today, then you will never have it ever 😉
Women’s Personal Financial Dreams
For time immemorial, women have been dependent on their father or husband for money and to fulfill their dreams. If they want to go for some trip or buy some jewelry or anything else, for that matter, they have to ask (or demand) their husband for money.
Many times women have their own dreams, which they want to fulfill on their own, but they cannot . Women are good savers, but never good investors like men (even men are not for that matter.) Women diligently save money at home, but do not make best use of those savings.
That money is mostly lying idle, in the bank or at home. By learning about investments and how to invest well, women can grow their money and reach their goals. There is no need to always rely on men for everything.
I know many women readers on this blog who are excellent thinkers; they ask questions, get involved in discussions and given a chance, they’d give serious competition to their male counterparts in financial planning!
They have learned lot and can beat many women outside this space on Personal finance. Credit goes to their willingness to learn, and the time they take out in order to learn things . Here is a excellent Short Video from Manish Thakor , Personal Finance Expert for Women .
Even though its made for American Audience , everything applies to India Women .
Extra Benefits for Women
There are many Women only benefits like :
- Generally Lower Education loan by 0.5-1% for Women
- Lower Income tax for Women compared to Men
- Premium for Insurance Policies is lower compared to Men : Compare at Apnainsurance .com
- Lower Stamp Duty for Real Estate Registration in Some States
Role of Women in Personal Finance at Home
There are many men who do not involve ladies at home in the decisions regarding Insurance, investments , retirement planning, banking , budgeting etc , and it’s not a right. Women have better understanding most of the times, about the future goals of the family, especially child education related expenses.
We men, sometimes can not understand, long-term expenses like how our expenses will be at retirement and what kind of situation we would be living in. However smart we feel we are, there are many things that women outsmart us at. We should involve them in every decision we want to take in our life.
So next time when you think about insurance, talk to her about her needs after you are gone. Don’t shy away, feeling that this is taboo in this country. You have to plan things well and understand her needs.
Also while planning for retirement, take her advice and her views on what your standard of living would look like at retirement, what are your (and hers) post retirement plans are. She will give you many suggestions and it will help in planning.
Women are the queens of Budgeting and they are the real help in making the budget and what is needed and what is not . So you can’t do without her. They also save lot of money compared to men. When we men, go out to buy vegetables and if the Vendor tells us Rs 20/KG price, we buy it!
Whereas women, tend to bargain and bring the same stuff at a much lower cost. So whatever we bring for Rs 100 , the same thing Women bring at Rs 90 or Rs 85 .
Respect and Confidence
We men, have to make sure that we encourage our Wife / Mother / Sister / Daughter to learn about money. If they understand money well, your children will also learn about money from early life!
Just imagine how many mistakes you’ve made financially… Your children, will at least not make stupid mistakes, (hopefully) you have been doing all these years before learning better. An educated Woman means an educated Family. We have to make them confident that they can learn things very well, and involve them.
When you learn about something on this blog or anyplace else, try to teach them those lessons. Ask them questions, and see if they can answer them, and if they fail, then guide them gently.
I see a day, when one of the major reasons India will outpace other countries in, is financial literacy among women of this country. Also if women learn about money they can share the financial work of men and also do it themselves. We have to respect our ladies in this field .
There are many great women personalities, like Suze Orman and Monika Halan Personal Finance Space and each of our ladies can get there to that place, at least up to that level.
So if you are a Man and a true Jago Reader, make sure your Wife / Sister / Female friends / Girl Friend read this article and get motivated to learn about Personal finance. If you are a Woman, make sure more and more women friends of yours get to read this article .
Comments , Please suggest other tips to help Women increase their Financial Literacy levels , Any good links , websites for them ?
Hi Manish,
Thanks for the post. Most Indian women don’t actively participate in financial management because they don’t prioritize themselves. In most cases, women don’t invest in their financial literacy because they are so busy fulfilling the needs of others. I really hope that millennial women take control of their finances and invest in their financial literacy.
Regards,
ss
Thanks for sharing your views Seemantani !
Manish
Hi, Manish
This is great to part here, I really appreciate you for this post on Women Finance, Its great to read and analysis the personal finance needs of me as a women. Thanks
Glad to know that Madhuri Agarwal ..
Manish,
Hats off to you for bringing such a topic. I came to know about you first when I purchased your book from flipkart. Then there was no looking back – have been often reading your posts. Thanks to YOU only that I know more about how to save and invest money even more than my office male counterparts. 🙂 I feel proud.
Good to hear that Binny ! .. Its indeed a big compliment that I was able to help you on this !
There is also one more reason. From childhood, the present day women have been given money to spend, not to save. Lets face it, boys hadveto answer lots of question to get a 100/-, but girls could easily get 500/-. This creates a mentality of entitlement where they believe that the money they are earning is for spending as savings is the responsibility of someone else (poor husband :)). This is one of the major reasons why you will see that most women have huge credit card debt and almost no savings. I will probably get some brickbats but ask the credit utilization ratio of everyone and you will see that invariably womenfolk will have the highest utilization ratio.
Thats an interesting perspective Arghya ! .. thanks for sharing that ! ..
Wow! No brickbats :)..Actually, Manish, this thing is prevalent in the first generation working women of present days, whose mothers were homemakers. My mother was a working lady and she had to juggle her job while raising me. But she could not quit her job since she had five more younger sisters and a brother(all students), apart from parents to feed. Similarly, my father had a football team (5-6 brothers, sisters and parents) to look after. I have seen my parents making budgets at the start of the month on how much they have to send to their respective families, how much to save and how much to keep for the management of our three member family. Their used to be some bickering over sending money to in-laws but my mother knew it very well that she cannot just abandon her side of the family and so did my father.
My mother knew the value of money because she toiled for 9 hours a day and had hungry mouths to feed. She would sacrifice her plans of purchasing new things so that the exam fees or tuition fees for her siblings could be paid or money for the treatment of ailing parents could be provided. On the contrary, I had seen that the mothers of my school mates, who were homemakers, would not hesitate to ask for money from their husbands even if there was some emergency in the family, refusal bringing bitter resentments. These ladies did not work and so did not realize the hard work that went into getting the money. Of course, they worked hard at home (we could afford a cook!) but that is a different story altogether.
The daughters of these women, when they were growing, have seen only one thing – mom asking for money and dad either giving or denying. Another observation would have been mother hiding some money for her discretionary spending. So, the value of earned money is diluted, it is mostly seen as ask and give/denied kind of relation. The psychological impact of this kind of observation is a feeling that running family is man’s responsibility and whatever she gets is for her own expenditure.
The long and painful method of budgeting, making sacrifices to feed others is something the new generation of women have not seen as homemaker mothers did not contribute in their parents’ house. Give such a background, investment or financial planning always takes a backseat compared to instant gratification, a proxy of what they saw their mother not being able to do. The result is no savings, expecting men to pay for even their own share of bills and high credit utilization (men also have this problem as the pain of purchase is reduced in the concept of credit card, but they at least grew up with the notion that they are the providers, so need to make some savings!). I have observed this interesting thing among a lot of women. Any one, who had a working mother with responsibilities has a completely different look at money than someone whose mother is a homemaker.
That was really an amazing perspective . I agree with all of your points and its so good that it has to be shared with more and more people .. I am planning to share it in a post !
Thanks a ton for this !
Manish
Hi Manish
A very good article.
But my case is different.
I have more financial knowlegde and interest (abt investments and insurance) than my husband.
I have been reading your post for quiet somtime now.
I have now convinced my hubby to take a term insurance as well as personal accidental insurace …
Please continue the good work …. Kudos and God bless
Regards,
Minu
I would say you are taking the average up for women 🙂 .. kudos to you too !
Thanks Manish . 🙂
hi manish,
I was in talks with an agent to get Term insurance. And his initial reaction was “you need a term insurance??” I said YES (poker faced) then i was offered return of premium something.politely said no..and went ahead with term..thanks..to you manish.i do not fall for gimmicks.
A very thoughtful read Manish. Completely agree that more Indian women need to take up an active interest in money management and financial planning beyond the basic household budgeting both for the good of all as well as for improving their own financial security and safety.
AJ
Good .. Thanks for comment
yes .. if planned well , both men and women can have a wonderful balance in their money life and that in turn will somewhere contribute in their relationship too .. If both of them are clear of whats going on and why , it matters a lot . Otherwise there is always room for misunderstandings .. whats you take on this part ?
I agree on that . Money is one of the areas where there is lot of fights , having a clarity in that will really help
Manish
Well nice to see a post for women and I too have seen many women who are involved in managing the personal finance more efficiently.
Thanks Prashanth , so whats the learning for you out of this article ?
Manish
Thanks for letting us know that . Can you share a case ?
Hi Manish,
Thanks for this link.
You have hit the nail here. I have to re read it to get more inspiration.
(I am happy that I am not the only here who thinks handling money is not woman’s job)
I am keeping it in my drafts to reread it and I will share this with my female friends.
Nivedita
Thanks 🙂 . Please share it with more and more people
Manish
Nice post again regarding women and investments,
A few observations
1. Full time at home but splurging a lot of spouse’s income
2. Working but saying that my spouse earns well and he looks after the investments, so i only spend my Saary on myself (Total spending)
3. Working and giving full salary to spouse or parents to save and or invest ( They need not be doing what is correct.
4. Working or stay at home, but making sure that you understand the family financials and save / invest accordingly
Another point i wanted to make was that in case of women who are at home most instances i have seen, they are never given the information about financials, many don’t even know their spouse’s CTC. and the men in their lives always seem to say that i am there to provide for you, why don’t you just relax.
But the times are changing, literacy levels are increasing, the average eduactional levels of women is changing, exposure to the internet and educative blogs like urs is also increasing, Men are changing in their attitudes towards women, so things will change in the coming years …..
Kavita
nice observations, good to know ladies are getting more awareness and care about it . Good going . please send the article to all your friends
Manish
Manish,
A very true and honest article. I too was a complete duffer in investing till I actually started taking interest. Debt, Equities, Commodities were Greek and Latin to me. I would say that in the past one year my knowledge has grown from 5% to 30%. Things that I find helpful are:
1. Taking a keen interest in understanding financial concepts.
2. Talking to lots of people about how they manage their savings and investments. I think our generation is quite open to share.
3. Reading extremely simple books and newspapers. I now regularly read ET Investor’s Guide each Monday.
4. And last, but not the least: Asking really dumb questions:) Yes, people may ridicule you, but you will learn a lot just through asking questions.
Women should also maintain a neat record of their investments (Ms Excel). They should plan such that they get guaranteed returns every year. And the returns should be immediately invested in something.
Thanks,
Swapna
Swapna
yes , nice ideas from you .
If you want guaranateed returns then you have to settle down with debt , at a younger age , risk can be taken .
Manish
I think lot of girls are subscribing this mail list…
come on girls subscribe this, az sooooon az possible
Don’t miss any chance….Amazing list
here u’ll find lot of secret Suggestions which will make u an Xpert
women@jagoinvestor@com
This is really good blog buddy and your posts are awesome, thanks for sharing knowledge.
Regarding this post I would like to say that I am also an women and trade Intraday and I feel that women are in no way lag behind men.
Great
Nice to know that .. What all you trade and whats your experience ?
Manish
The Thing is Manish, Though the Women are good savers and investors by instinct..from the childhood, they are never brought with the idea of building money by themselves. So while Guys are given freedom or onus to learn and earn money, Girls tend to get restricted to study and work , lest thought about letting their earnings grow.
I have seen people commenting on only male should focus on how the household finance needs to be done, as it doesn’t sounds good for a lady to discuss and decide money matters regarding Home, Car, shares etc.
Sanghmitra
hmm.. i agree with you .. This is not they way it should happen , not just finance but every area, men and women should have equal chance 🙂
What are your interest areas ? Do you like equity ?
manish
r u frm VAYAM?
what is VAYAM ?
It is very important that every member of the family should be financially literate. Unfortunatly women don’t realize how important this is.
Ravi
You bring up an important point that Women sometimes do not understand the importance of learning things ,they dont think long term and dont consider the case or i must day , do not want to consider the case when things can go wrong and a situation can come when not knowing finance can be very troublesome 🙁 .
What do you think ? please mail this article to as many women you know 🙂
Manish
@ Sid
Really like the way Sid put it…. In those days (ur moms and my moms) KVP and NSC was enough. These days with the inflation you have seek other methods like MF, Equity etc.
@ Deepika
You or me or most of ladies on this blog are lucky that we get involved in the financially part of our families. That is why we read such blogs to gather more information. Manish is talking about the major chunk of women in India who are completely ignorant and even think they don’t need to necessarily get involved these tasks. Now do u think such women are uncommon even in cities like Mumbai, Delhi etc or do think those women (who wouldnt like to get involved) are not acadamically educated or dont go out work…
So lets all join him on his mission and forward this link to as many women as we know.
I am just so grateful to you for writing on this topic. I simply agree with most of the comments mentioned by your readers.
I had an upbringing of 70:30 rule. Where in 30%(minimum) of what ever you earn goes in to savings.(that is compulsory, if u know what you mean.)
Now add to it the enrichment done by Manish’s blog; The same 30 is divided into FDs,MFs,emergency fund and other instruments discussed on this blog.
Women are natural accumulators of wealth. They will do it by hook or crook 😉
But if proper planning and knowledge is imparted to them, they can do wonders to family wealth.
Mukul
yes .. if planned well , both men and women can have a wonderful balance in their money life and that in turn will somewhere contribute in their relationship too .. If both of them are clear of whats going on and why , it matters a lot . Otherwise there is always room for misunderstandings .. whats you take on this part ?
Manish
Manish: Is that like ideal ideal situation we are discussing.!! Just kiddin. Yes, just like in big organizations, when 2 partners are having same vision, their mission becomes easy. and organization grows big. same of personal life and money life. a balanced outlook and both being on same page really helps.
but like I said, both to AGREE. now that is a big thing to ask for!!!!
Mukul
Good analogy of companies 🙂 ..
Manish
Hi Manish
Another excellent article. Is such article available in Hindi as well? as many ladies in my family/contacts are not well versed with english and wished to share this with them.
Ladies in indian homes are excellent home makers and effective money savers but they lack knowledge of personal finance and are unaware about many things related to finance. This creates big problems when the person on whome they are dependent passes away.
Thanks a lot.
regards,
Ram
Ram
Thanks for comment , I am not sure if this kind of article is available in Hindi , The problem is not writing in HIndi , the problem is circulation ,I will write it in Hindi , if someone takes care of publishing it in newspaper .
What do you say ?
Manish
@Manish
Well the 70 women are not ignorant; it was just that old conventional ways still holds a huge saving potential in today’s complex liberal world. My granma used to tell me how she made money form PPF, post office deposits, r/c accounts and KVPs.
ma grandma’s views
PPF: every family person with 1 kid has 1 crore rs in hand…. it just that he don’t see it…. open 3 ppf account in his own , wife’s and kid’s……. pay 70K/year for 15 and get 22lac tax free after 25 yrs…… Rotate it for another 5 year ……..22lc becomes 33 lac…….. so 33lac/per person………..woppieeeeee
Post Office : deposit 2lack in monthly income scheme and open a recurring account of the monthly income in the same post office …. so ur same money is deposited in two schemes…… i understand that u r using the interest of fixed deposit but they give some 10K in the end of fixed deposit.
KVP: they make ur money double in some time … in 80s-90s it was 5 years …. so invest ….. 50k every year for 5 years in KVP …… from 6th year onwards ur very first KVP will mature and u will get 1 lac …… now invest 50K from here in kvp again and spend the rest in goa……:)….. Now you have an investment cycle….. in seventh year ur second year KVP will expire …. and so on ……
90s women : you cant change them …..we cant change them …. no one can change them ……. even god can’t change them…….. lets divert our energy somewhere else ……. they will only change when they want……..
@Swati …… i agree with the current disastrous pamper-the-kid types pocket money syndrome…… too bad…. but we cant change them….. all we can change is our own self….. my future kid’s pocket money will be
total : 1000/pm (below is the breakup)
cash: 200/pm —- bank deposit:300/pm —- MFs —- 500/pm == total 1000/pm
and if they fail to respect money … than …. Spanking….
@Hitesh…. i fully agree with your mom’s view … urs is same as mine …. my mom did the same …… the basic thing here is dependency…. once u know that u r of ur own …… u learn to live … learn to save ……. its natural …. Till the time women are under the shadow of their parents …. husband(s).. boyfriend(s) …. they will not venture into this unknown territory …. once they are of their own ….. they will become wise ……
– SId
Sid
hmm .. got you 🙂
However A different take on that is that now we have more opportunities , like earliar participation in equity was tough , but now same same money which went 70k per PFF account can be only 20k per account and rest 50k can move to equity in the starting years , anyways the investments are done for long term . that would give better returns .. Also 2.1 lacs in total investments , that too total in debt means the family has atleast 10-12 lacs of income , thats rare in india . but i get your overall point .
Manish
Quote,
“and if they fail to respect money … than …. Spanking….”
I Like 🙂 lol!
yeah mee too..love the spanking part…just so human…
I like that too . will join you guys 😉
manish
nice post.
its true that women should now get oriented towards this aspect. they too are earning members now and thus should understand money management well. platforms like yours shall make them understand the concepts well. i have already started teaching my wife regarding this after i came in touch with ur blog a month back. this latest article of urs is a mirror to the general condition. just imagine: the results of ur poll shows that 4% of the females have good financial knowledge; this is the result of the poll among the educated internet savvy class of people. what if we include a big group like that of urban population of india or so (since they are the ones earning enough for investment). the percentage must still fall down to some 2.5-3%. if we could teach and guide the females of our families regarding financial planning then i think the money growth may be in a better way.
u have done it again manish, keep it up.
dr kishan
Dr Kishan
Yup .. Totally agree . I think the rural women percentage would be close to 1-2% rather than 3-5-4% . What do you feel is the timeline when women will be at part with men ? I think its tough within next 50 yrs . What do you say ?
Manish
Well, it is a sorry state of affairs if, in this current time, people see a lot of truth in this article. Speaking for myself, I have been completely involved and actually manage all aspects of my family’s finances. This includes equity, by the way, and not gold ornaments. In fact, no investment takes place without my taking a look at it and discussing it in depth. And I am no financial expert as I’ve stated in my blog. I keep myself up-to-date and well informed. There are many interesting sites and links that one can make time for and read. I’ve listed the one’s I like on the sidebar of my blog.
Deepika
Great to know that .. May be you can help women readers out there to get more understanding of equities and investments , Why dont you do a guest post on this blog about equity investment for women ? What do you say ?
Manish
Hi Deepika,
Whats your blog site? can you mention the link
Manish,
In one of you posts you specified that you use yodlee.com. I am just exploring yodlee., but got a doubt. Is it safe to give our Internet Banking Login password to this (or these kind of) site???
Praveen
Yes i use it .. I am fine with providing the passwords as its a 10 yr old company and standard in the industry . Thats the risk you might want to take .
Note : Please email me questions which are not relevent to the article . This is not related to this article . lets refrain from using comments sections for any type of question which are not related to article topic .
manish
Thanks for you reply manish.
How about the Intuit money manager Manish? Any good?
Jason
I have no idea .. havent looked at it 🙂
Manish
Holy Cow! Just read your note! Sorry! Will not post off-topic q’s again!
Hi Manish,
Actually these are the true facts you mentioned here. Though womens are a good savers but not a good investors because of their mindset that the available investment options can be handled by men in a better way, So they always try to rely on the most safer way like banks. I think this is only being the lack of knowledge about the market. Options like MF’s (ELSS, Debt oriented)are available in order to avoid direct risk exposure. This blog will be really helpful and there are good sites available where you can actually plan your money like moneycontrol.com
But thanks to you Manish making womens and their partners aware about this facts.Keep going.
Rupali
I agree .. but you ladies have to take initiative and learn things , nothing is tough , Sites like this and others will help you and you ask me whatever your doubts are . Why dont you ladies make a group itself where you learn things on your own and discuss things . What do you think about this idea . I have create an ilist called women@jagoinvestor.com , you ladies can subscribe to it and then I can give some tutorials there or update your ladies about some important stuff ?
How does that sound ?
Manish
By the way someone spoke about this topic of how to make the kdis financially literate !
It is a difficult task. On the other hand you cannot even refuse giving luxuries to your kdis these days bcoz other kids have them n if ur kid dont have it then they feel very inferior. The oldern days ‘piggy bank’ cannot work very well these days simply bcoz i remember my mother used to tell me ‘fill the piggy bank’ n when it is full i will get u ____ (that i hve been waiting for long which could be a nice toy). These days children gets all the best toys n cannot wait for a year to give your kid that super toy.
Al;so i am not in favour of giving mobile to small kid.
Any input on how to make ur kid financial literate in these days ? ? ? ?
Anu
As I said , everything should be in limit . Same thing applies to Giving things to kid and meeting their demands , just saying “he is our only child , who else we will do for” is not correct . Teaching right things takes some pain and that can be taking tough decisions some times
I think if all the people here put one point on what can be done to teach kids about money management and value for money . it can become a good post .
let me mail this thing to some people .
Manish
Manish, regarding your question about lower income families, not only in north india but generally in india especially in remote villages, yes i feel they have a long way to go. I know families in maharashtra where the men do their ‘duties’ of working the whole day then comes home late in the evening drinks ‘daru’ like fish n starts fights. On the other hand the women goes out n works in the farm gets whatever she can n she saves some money. This lady told me that whatever i get i tried to hide from him n save so in case of emergancy v have something, she is ignorent but is building up her ’emergancy fund’… These women given a chance can manage and invest finance very well… So over all in these villages it is so difficult.
When i said women feels she should only take care of kids is bcoz i know some women who gets decent salary but refuses to manage money saying that it is husband’s job my job is to take care of kids n family…
Hey on the other hand, i do know women who rules over her husband n takes all the money from him saying that she will manage….. thats sad too.
Anu
By the way , ladies at lower income class really have this good habit of saving whatever small they have , but the sad point is that they have to do it because of the fear of the husband . thats bad .
Thanks for your views .
Manish
Hi,
I may be an exception here, but in my case, after the demise of my father, my mom singlehandedly managed everything related to finance.
And thanks to her today me and my sis are comfortably placed in the world, but this would not have been possible had my dad not forcefully explained every financial decision he took.
So in a sense, women have a very important responsibility in managing all financial matters, but the men in the house should also actively encourage women participation in atleast understanding the concepts of what why and when of investing.
Regards,
Hitesh
Hitesh
Yup .. your Mother is a good example of what we talked about . She was able to take proper decision because she learned about it earliar and when required she utilized that knowledge . I am sure those teachings must be passed on to you and your sister too . This is a good learning for all the ladies .
Manish
What you have said is absolutely true Manish.
I totally agree with your words that “Women save a lot of money but rarely invest and If they understand money well, your children will also learn about money from early life! ”
My mom is a good example for the above. She managed the monthly expenses in such a disciplined manner that she helped my father save more than 60% of money to buy a home. She used to withdraw all the money reqd for monthly expenses at once ( there were no ATMs at that time) and by hook or crook managed with that money without withdrawing a single peny extra.She taught me and my brother savings at a very early by giving us 50 rupees every month in a piggy bank.
But as you rightly said, she has no knowledge in investing.I feel that a woman is truly empowered when she can manage her finances as well .And I need to thank you at this moment because it is your blog that has helped me learn personal finance basics and I am now thinking of taking inititive to save my friends from cunning agents.
Swathi
Nice .. We all used to save money in piggybanks when we were small .. these days we are not giving same kind of education to our children in big citites .. Do you feel its right or wrong ?
What are modern ways of teaching saving habits to children ?
manish
Old generation scenario:
bread-winner : only dad
family members to support : wife, 2 or 3 kids,old aged parents
lots of responsibilities and no money left to afford luxuries for kids
New generation scenario:
bread-winner:wife,husband
family members to support : max 1 kid , some cases old aged parents
I will give you example of my colleague. Both the husband and wife are working and together earn more than 1 lakh/month. They have a 5 yr old kid (only child). The kid uses a mobile phone worth 15k.They hardly get time to spend with their child ,so on weekends and holidays whenever they go out, they pamper their kid a lot and buy whatever he asks for.When somebody says that they are spoiling the child by giving whatever he asks for, they simply say ” He is our only kid.Whatver we earn is for him, so whats wrong in keeping him happy?”
What I mean to say is parents are not willing to teach the habit of savings to children. I am sure in a few years kids will forget what a piggy bank is, they will only know credit cards.
Swathi
I accept what you say to great extent , children should not be given so much expensive things and their demands should not be met always . I think a monthly pocket money and some demands on especial occasions is maximum one should provide .
Manish
Hi,
I m fully agree with you Manish, more over let parents tell their kids that they have to save some amt of money out of their pocket money and open a bank a/c so kids also get some as their money increase in bank (as Interest ) and not in piggy bag even if in small amt something is better than nothing. If they got this idea that they can make money out of their savings they start to save and then invest more …..
Sumedha
yes , if i give my kid Rs 500 through a bank account and he can use it as he wants ,then he can see it in limited amount and he will make sure he understand whats the best use of it
Manish
my two cents :
70s women : intelligent, suave, and respect money
e.g. to support: there was this 70s woman who was a simple graduate, she got married to an engineer. Her husband used to give her all the salary every month. She was not a financial wizard so dont know anything about stocks and all that crap. But women has this fixation for gold so she started buying physical gold of 5k every month. her husband said invest some in share and all but she refused. She bought gold every month is for 17 years without fail. can u imagine the physical gold she is having now and the worth of it . i will say the guy was very lucky. Todays financial wizard will call this a SIP in physical gold…………or some other crap
CUT TO
90s Women : liberal, independent, spend on impulse and little or no respect for money.
e.g. to support : there is this reality group of infosys called “insignia”. Here like minded IT or non IT folks who want to purchase a flat join and buy in groups. i am also a member of that group so keep getting their regular updates in my mailbox. Once insignia launched their phase 2 registration and provided the full as well as registration rates for different types of houses (2, 3, row house ) to the group. I saw mails from women saying that they have credited the registration money(30k, 50k) in insignia account towards the (2,3) BHK flats and they sent the mail to the entire group with their complete bank details?????????????
i was like how can someone book a house without seeing the locations etc…… n how can u send the mail with bank details to the whole group?????
last month, during the regular year end investment drama, i saw many girls in my company moving will bills and doing lots of paper work and cribbing all the time. One girl even told me that she wanted her boyfriend to be in finance 🙁 ……
disclaimer : i don’t want to open a gender debate, these are my views and we have a freedom of speech. i just shared what i have seen around me, so no offence.
-sid
Sid
Interesting stories .. I would say what you say is true to some extent , but lets take them as special cases . I can give you cases where women these days are very smart in finance , we have good and bad in everything . Regarding your examples
Example 1 : 70’s women
Regarding that women who saved gold , I am not sure what she thought at that time , but the intent may be to save for daughter marriage and that time there were no much options anyways , Women like to accumulate gold 🙂 . So I would say that it can be a case of “Invested very well because of ignorance” rather than “invested with planning and with some research about future of gold” . But this proces that any kind of regular investing atleast pays off 🙂
Example 2 : 90’s women
Thats what we want to change .. These are problems which arise because of no proper finance basic understanding , these ladies do not understand banking well , real estate well and other thing , same for men too .. Why dont you mail this article to these ladies 🙂 , they will learn some stuff because of you 🙂 .
What do you say ? Do you agree ?
manish
Manish,
This is one of your best post…Kudos man…
Subramoney and Jagoinvestor has made me aware of my financial side in true sen
Regards
Abinash
Abinash
Subramoney is superb .. I love reading Subra .
Thanks for appreciation , but you need to send it to all your friends this article , especially all female friends
Manish
Come on women are better savers and and its not a fact that they work for money.
That’s exactly the point Manish makes, Suhasini.
Women are inherently better savers & definitely much better at lonf term goal envisioning, but it doesn’t mean, they actually do it. The circumstances & environment of home and society at large, mean that most women are ignorant or don’t really have the will to do it.
Awareness is key! Kudos to Manish for doing so!
Jason
thanks for the followup . What do you feel about women psychology in personal finance, are they more risk averse than men by default ?
Manish
Women have the ability to bifurcate money really well!
Money saved / kept aside for a long term goal will definitely not be messed with.
But look at the risks a woman will take on her pin/kitty party money 😛
Jason
Women should allocate money for their Pin/Kitty party also . Personal finance does not mean compromising with what you want . It only means planning for everything and being prepared :0
manish
Now, that’s exactly what I was saying!
Women have a really good (natural) sense of allocation.
They do not take risks with money they set for their long term goals.
And they take audacious risks, with money they think they can afford to lose 🙂
Jason
While One has to be cautious with long term goals, one can take products which look risky , I say they look risky because the preception is that they are risky , but they are not in long term , for example equity .
So even women should invest in equity for long term .
Manish
Amen!
Woman are very much into jewelery so if partner create awareness about the how to invest money into gold, it will help to improve some percentage at least. There should be website where we can invest money ( not real ) as a game like kids making food in their kitchen set and get return out of it.
Sumedha
there are many websites like that were you can play those kind of money games
Manish
If you know plz et me know it so I can play that too
Thanks
Sumedha
One i can suggest to you right now is http://moneybhai.moneycontrol.com/
Manish
Suhasini
I agree with you , was it a reply back for some comment I made on blog ?
Manish
hey Manish that was actually my view that women not always work for money but self respect and to prove themselves.
Suhasini
Ok .. got it .. I agree
please this post with as many women you know .
Manish
The best article on this site. We are a savers country, thanks to women and we can only become a good investing country when women start taking active participation in investing. Women save brilliantly but invest poorly, I hope this changes very soon. BTW beware of any gender war that may follow this article 😀
Kshitij
thanks for your comment . There has been studies to show that women are better investors in stock market and their risk adjusted returns have been better than men . What do you feel about this point ?
manish
Oh, I’ll buy it any day. An average male like me thinks that he is the champ in stocks, he knows everything and puts his money in mindless transactions and men tend to be more eager so if a share doesn’t yield returns soon they sell it losing not only the money difference b/w the bought and sold price but also the transaction charges. But women tend to be more patient and ripe good results.
Plus I think the bigger reason is the mindset and attitude. Very few venture into stock markets but those who do, they have genuine interest so that’s a big plus point since if you do what interests you you’ll very much be successful. Also since women are thought to be not good in stocks they generally downplay themselves thinking they know very little.
So if a woman enters the stock market she must be confident that she has a good knowledge about stocks. And if you combine my this point with earlier one, you’ll come to the conclusion that if a woman thinks she’s good in stocks, she’ll fall in the excellent category as compared to men. What I want to convey here is that may be 12% of women have good knowledge of stocks(your chart shows that) but that knowledge is better than of those 50% men who think they have good knowledge about stocks. I hope you got my point that perceived meaning of good in stocks has different values for men and women.
As always, I don’t have any data to back my comments but only a line of reasoning. What say you about it?
‘Extra Benifits for Women’ This is something i never knew. I dont think ‘registration’ rule applies in Mumbai and not sure about the lesser insurence premium too. Interesting !
Anu
Yes , Registration rule can be there in some states only , not in all citites .
Manish
Hi Manish,
I like the histogram you have shown, drawn out of a poll. Will be good to share with friends!!
Can you please also tell the number of votes you got in that poll?
Regards,
Sachin
Sachin
there is a poll link given below , The total votes are close to 200 .
Please put your views on this article and whole idea , Share this link with all the friends of yours , male and female both .
http://polldaddy.com/polls/results.php?id=2821195
I know quite a few women who are good at financials and also women who sucks at it. The main reason why women cannot concentrate on financial planning is bcoz of the general mentality that their job is to take care of the family n kids. Also i know many men who dont want their women to get involved in finances bcoz they think they are better at it and she will be a disaster. But these men dont mind her going out to work and getting decesnt amount of money home.
I totally agree with Manish, when we say women are good savers but bad investors.
Hi Anu
Actually women are better investors than men and this research has been done by Vangurad Mutual Fund, US. The summary of the research are:
1. Men tend to trade more often and hence loose the long term investmnet advantage.
2. Women are more risk averse. So proabably a portfolio made by a couple would be more balanced 🙂
You can read the complete article in NYTimes here – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/business/14mark.html?ref=business
Anu
Taking care of family and kids is a women job because they are really good at it . they manage home in a better way (imagine you leave home with guy for 1 month .. God help you ) and obviously Caring for children is something women are naturally good at , but women dont have to feel that thats the only thing in life for them .. i know some men are there who feel like that .. but thats something needs to be changed.
Anu , what you feel about lower income level families in India , especially in North India plans like UP and Bihar .. Do you feel freedom in financial planning is long way to go , first women there have to get basic rights for themselves .
Manish
Manish