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Women & Personal Finance | Part 1

Writer's picture: Sandeep RaoSandeep Rao




In this 2 part series on Women and Personal Finance we will loo at two aspects


1- Why women in India take a back seat when it comes to Personal Finance?

2- What is it that we can do about it?


 

Let’s look at some numbers to start with


As much as 65% women between the age group of 26 and 35 said that they didn’t know where to start or whom to turn to for financial planning advice. - Scripbox


90% of the women in India do not optimize their tax-saving benefits through investments. Most women put off their investments decisions, or seek the help of their male counterparts. - ClearTax


Now, these numbers are from the elite subsection of the educated and working Indian women. The the stats with respect to Financial Literacy among the urban poor women and the rural populations is abysmal to even talk about.


We at Beyond PoSH discussed this with a multitude of experts, from economists, sociologists to culture experts, the idea was the uncover and unravel the real causes of the current state.

Prima facie it seems what we see today, in terms of outcomes of low financial literacy has roots in largely patriarchal society we are a part of. If you see women historically had little to do with household wealth or even income. It was the men who inherited and made all the decisions about money. It was only as recently as 2005 that women were granted equal rights over inheritance of property.


We also need to understand the social context where the old patriarchal view worked, people lived in joint families, social security in that sense was a collective responsibility. But with time changing and families becoming smaller and women becoming more independent the old approach of delegating the need to manage finances to the men of the household is not something would be idea.


There are two factors that stand out specifically here, one women on an average have much longer lifespans than men, two with the increasing divorce rates the need to have a better control on ones finances becomes more important than ever.


Thankfully we live in an era where knowledge is quite accessible, and there is help. In the next part we will look at what is it that women can do to cut through the information clutter to find actionable ideas to move the needle in the personal finance space.

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