Shreya Pradhan is a senior manager with an IT firm and is engaged in all crucial decision making tasks assigned to her in the office, but she meekly puts away her financial planning decisions at her husband's discretion. Today, when women are breaking age-old barriers and empowering themselves to new challenges and responsibilities, then why not for finances? And, this becomes more important when the financial approach and goals of a woman are different from a man.

Women and the Financial barriers:

(1) Lack of confidence - Though women are gifted with better reasoning and foresightedness than the male counterparts, they are still afraid to venture into financial markets presuming that they might fail and will be ridiculed. In the process, they forget that this holds equally true with men too.

(2) Finance is full of jargon - Women feel that they fumble when it comes to financial jargon and so disengage themselves from conversations involving financial investments and planning. For instance, ‘Mutual fund NAV' and ‘Asset Allocation' are impossible to understand for them. It's a critical time for them to speak up and clarify their doubts with the help of a financial planner and start educating themselves with the basics of investing.

(3) A great shopper - Women are looked at as great spenders rather than investors. When on a shopping spree, women should remember that a smart investment of their funds scores high over an attractive deal.

(4) Men are there to fix the problem - Women are brought up with the idea of just running the household while acting as a secondary earner. Often, this makes a woman to rely on her father/husband to take care of her finances. It's time to look beyond this and move on as they can be better managers of their finances than the men.

Why Women need financial planning?

A drastic event can make things go haywire and not clinging to financial matters may make things worse. It's a high time for women to take control of their finances for the numerous reasons, few among which are enlisted below.

(1) Increasing divorce rates - India is witnessing a surge in divorce rates and therefore entrusting your spouse with financial matters can land you in a money crunch. It is prudent to keep a tab on your monthly investments and determine holdings in your name, so as to avoid financial complications later.

(2) Time off for raising children - Many expectant mothers wish to take a time off over and above their maternity leaves in order to raise their children, but can't do so due to financial commitments. Hence, a proper planning on creating a ‘time-off' corpus can help them to do this.

(3) Daughter as a son - Today, more of the daughters are evolving as sons to their families and thus contribute to the family finances. Women, by participating in financial decisions, can become trendsetters by continuing to be an asset to their own family even after marriage.

Today, women have more power and earning potential than ever before. When they are graduating with more college degrees than men and are climbing up the ranks in nearly every industry, then they surely have the ability to sharpen their skills in building wealth. At the same time, man has an equal responsibility to let his wife/daughter /sister/mother take part in financial decision making.

About the Author:
Reenika is a Certified Financial Planner and has more than 6 years of experience in the financial service industry. She can be reached at [email protected]

Courtesy:www.investmentyogi.com