Women’s Day Edition: A Financial Journey as Unique as You Are !!

Every woman is unique—her dreams, aspirations, and life circumstances are as diverse as the paths she takes. Whether it’s building a career, raising a family, or preparing for a comfortable retirement, each woman’s financial journey is well and truly personal. Consequently, a ‘one size fits all’ approach to financial planning may not be the way to go.

Different strokes for different folks

A fund for every goal!

Saving for a rainy day

Women may consider investing a portion of their portfolio in Liquid and other short duration debt funds (Liquid Fund, Arbitrage Fund, Ultra Short Term Debt Fund, Low Duration Fund, Short Term Debt Fund etc.) to meet medical emergencies in their household or to assist their elderly parents, whenever required. Such investment may be pertinent in case of an employment gap for childbirth, child care etc.

Saving for Child’s education

The bond between a mother and a child is probably the most unique one in this world. Every mother wants to go out of her way to provide for her child’s future, including his/her higher education. It’s worth noting here that the best professional courses can cost as high as ~Rs 26.50 lakhs^. Saving and investing through Solution-oriented Mutual Fund schemes like a Children’s Fund could help you to create a corpus for your Child’s education. More importantly, having a goal associated to the investment means that this corpus does not get used for other financial needs.

Not putting all eggs in one basket

Traditionally, women never kept all the household money in one place so as to mitigate the risk of theft, loss etc. Likewise, women today can diversify their portfolio across different assets classes like Equity, Debt, Commodities etc. to mitigate the impact of market volatility. Out of 22 Financial years since FY2003, Equity has been the best performing asset class in 13 years whereas, debt and gold have been best performing asset classes in 2 and 7 years respectively*. Asset Allocation products like Multi Asset Funds or Asset Allocator Fund of Funds could provide one stop solutions for women investors if they wish to diversify their portfolio across asset classes like Equity, Debt and Gold.

^ Fees for a 2 year (2024-2026) Post Graduate Programme in Management at IIM Ahmedabad. Source: IIM Ahmedabad.

* Source:-MFI, www.niftyindices.com. Data from March 31, 2002 to March 31 2024. Equity -NIFTY50 TRI, DebtNifty Composite Debt Index and Gold price is from World Gold Council, Spot Rate INR/10 Grams.

Past performance may or may not be sustained in the future and is not a guarantee of any future returns.

SIP for trip?

The desire to travel the world is understandable. At the end of the day, there is no harm in enjoying the fruits of your hard work. Creating a travel fund can help you enjoy your vacations without compromising on your overall financial well-being. If the investment horizon is between 12 months to 3 years, SIP in funds like Corporate Bond Fund, Short-Term Debt Fund could be considered. If investing for more than 3 years, SIP in Equity Savings Funds, Multi-Asset Funds, Conservative Hybrid Funds could be a better option.

SIP - Systematic Investment Plan

Longer life spans = Longer post retirement period

As mentioned earlier, longer lifespan end up making retirement planning by far the most critical financial goal for any investor. Women having higher life expectancy than men make this even more important. Solution-oriented scheme like Retirement Fund can help women create retirement corpus in the long run. Having a dedicated corpus for sunset years and not having to depend on anyone to meet one’s needs post retirement, can be immensely reassuring.

Women have strived hard to break old stereotypes and live life on their own terms. This, to a large extent, can be achieved through financial freedom, which not only gives one the confidence to take key decisions but also provides a firm footing to stand up for oneself.

Disclaimer: Readers before acting on any information herein should make his/her/their own investigation and seek appropriate professional advice

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENTS ARE SUBJECT TO MARKET RISKS, READ ALL SCHEME RELATED DOCUMENTS CAREFULLY.