Financial planning for women

The women today are taking center stage in several fields. So, undeniably she is worth to be called as the “Queen”, who leaves no stone unturned on the roads she travels. Today’s women own both power and passion. They balance the several fronts of social & emotional, finance & economical very smartly. ‘BUT’ all these big things leave us behind with a question: “How Much Percentage Fall Under This Category?” Obliviously, the answer is- Very Small. Though small but is very strong. This is evident from the examples of the leading ladies, who laid new milestones namely, Shikha Sharma, Indira Nooyi, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and more. Indeed a woman’s essence lies in her innate ability to care love and sacrifice. She plays an all-enveloping character of a mother, daughter, wife and a friend. However, when it comes to financial matters, she seeks support and turn to man in her life. The array of information available at the click of mouse fails to instill confidence in her. Stats show that most women over the age of 65 years outlive their husbands. Many will not have their husbands around to take care of their financial requirements. Therefore, to empower the women of today and enable her to make sound financial decisions all by her self; she should take following steps to move towards financial freedom:

 1) DetermineYour Objectives -
The first and the most important thing which is to be done is to direct yourself and create a timeline driven comprehensive wish list of all the
possessions. To start with, ask a simple question, “Why DoWant To Invest?” and pen down on a piece of paper the reasons for it. The reasons for two
different females may vary depending on their priorities. For instance:
For married women with kids, the reason for investing could be child’s education or child’s
marriage.
For women whose kids are already married, the desire to invest could stem from a dream
to set up a small boutique.
For women who are yet to be married, it could be for their marriage.
While penning down you realize that you come across variety of objectives and it is to be noticed that the list is longer than you
bargained for.
Whencompiling the list of objectives we come across with some interesting options:
¥ Saving for own marriage 5 years from today.
¥ Saving for child’s education 15 years from today.
¥ Saving for child’s marriage 20 years from today.
¥ Saving for a small business that you want to set up at a later date.
¥ Saving for a gift for your spouse or parents.
¥ Saving for retirement or an overseas trip ormay be a pilgrimage 30 years from today.
Once the objectives are clear in your mind, we move on to the second step of preparing the investment plan through an investment advisor. He will make an investment plan suiting your
investment objective and keeping in mind appetite for equity linked investments, investment time frame, tax-efficient returns and the like.Your role is to give inputs for the plan.

2) Identify The Investment Advisor –
Since the investment advisor will be playing a major role in helping you to achieve your investment objectives, therefore it is important to connect with a right advisor. It sometimes
happens that the advisors in lieu of boosting their commission end up having a ruinous impact on the investment plan. One needs to check the certification of the advisor in order to ensure
whether he is certified or not. The investment advisor should be objective and unbiased in his advice. Being objective means placing the client’s interest over your own. Even after making
investments in either of the avenues, your relationship with Investment advisor continues, in terms of account statement, premium cheques to be submitted to the life insurance company,
follow up on dividends on mutual funds and the like.
After identifying the investment advisor, now an investment plan is prepared.

3) Preparing An Investment Plan -
Now comes the implementation of the investment plan. Some pre requisites for implementation of the plan are the details regarding what you want to achieve, time frame over which you
want to achieve the investment objective, the amount of money you want to invest in equities (this is important because equities can give a push to your savings, but also carry a higher risk).
This may sound tedious to you but is necessary at the same time for the advisor to fulfill your investment objective. It’s just like telling your doctor everything so that he can prescribe the right
medicine.

Some Rules to remember

 v      Spend less than you earn

 v      Pay your self first

 v      Pay-off credit cards before other debts

 v      Always shop off-season

 v      Get pre-approved for a mortgage before you begin house hunting

4) Executing The Investing Plan -
After preparing the investment plan, your investment advisor will help to execute it. This involves, for instance, choosing the investment opportunities. Before choosing the avenues for
investment you should not forget emergencies. These can be temporary loss of job, accident or illness. Or be ready for pleasant surprises like weddings or birthdays. One needs to set aside
money equivalent to about 3-6 months expenses and invest timely. The different avenues are:
¥ Equity
¥ PPF
¥ Real Estate Gold, Bullion, Real Jewellery
¥ Art, Paintings and Antiques Mutual Fund
¥ Unit Linked Insurance Schemes Small Saving Schemes like NSC,KVP, and IPO
Deposits etc.
5) Review The Investment Plan -
Setting an investment plan and executing the same is one task and to ensure you stay the course is the other. This means regular review of the plan is necessary. There could be several
reasons behind reviewing the plan from time to time. One reason can be when stock market change course over a period of time, it disturbs your asset allocation. This may result in
redemption of some of your equity investments or purchase of more of them depending on how much risk you are willing to take. The other instance can be that you approach the milestone
(either your child’s education or marriage) and you need to move out of the equity investments since equities are risky in the shot term. The money should be invested in short-term debt,
which is relatively safe. This may sound complicated to you again but your investment advisor is the one who will keep an eye on such events and will make suitable adjustments to the plan.
On your part it helps to be informed since it’s your money on the line.
Different women have the different financial predicaments in which they are likely to find themselves. As it is known, there are a variety of issues, problems and solutions to consider. Once
these issues are kept in mind, it is easier to sail through. Money today is an important key to happiness hence women should plan their finances and investments well. Women can attain
success with education and planning.Adopting a systematic and individualized approach with the aid of financial planning professionals can help to address and solve these problems while
achieving woman’s investment, retirement and estate planning goals. So ladies, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.
“Start Saving in Summer of Your Life to Survive the Winter of Your Livelihood”.