Today is 8th March, International Women’s Day. A day to honour and celebrate women’s contributions across various spheres of life. One area where I have seen definitive progress is women’s involvement in Financial Planning & Financial Independence of the family.
Traditionally in India, the responsibility of earning and managing finances in the family used to rest solely on male members but now that has changed for good. Today, women of all ages are taking an active interest in the family’s financial matters to manage them better.
My Experience
I have young women prospects fresh out of college who want to learn about their path to financial independence. They are social media savvy with strong analytical skills and know exactly how to use that information to their advantage. They do not mind paying a fee for professional advice to give their financial journey a head start. They are ambitious and want to become financially independent at an early age and take up a work of their choice. For them, Life is less about working to make a livelihood and more about experiencing life through their work.
While, some young couple clients may have advisory engagements registered under the name of their male partner, they make sure that any advisory meetings are only scheduled when both the partners are available. Together, they want to plan their family in such a way that it is financially manageable.
In families with young children, women are adeptly allocating money among conflicting priorities such as spending money for lifestyle versus spending it on children’s education and coaching. Risk management is a priority for them as the loss of an earning member can severely impact family members.
In families with grown-up kids, the women are more focused on the children’s higher education and marriage and readiness for their financial independence and retirement. They want to focus on estate planning so that the assets are smoothly transferred to future generations post their life.
During the Covid pandemic, a few young women lost their husbands. While the situation was difficult, they took complete control of the finances of the family and came out stronger.
Summary
Women are actively taking interest in family finances which was initially considered the exclusive domain of male members of the family. They have understood its significance and are diligently working together with their partners to secure the finances of their family for a better future.
In my group of Fee-Only Advisors, the number of female advisors has doubled in the last five years.
Needless to say, the participation of women in family finance has come of age.
Wishing you a Very Happy International Women’s Day!
Disclaimer
The writer is a SEBI Registered Adviser and Founder of FinMyn (https://finmyn.com). He provides Fee-Only Financial Planning and Investment Advisory services.
He has advised many clients in India, the US, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe and Australia.
To know more about him, click on https://finmyn.com/about/.