Money power for women: Empower the investor in you

A woman dons multiple roles. She is a student, a homemaker, a working woman or an entrepreneur.

Irrespective of her role play, she is not spared of her tryst in fiddling with finances – whether it’s the humble job of handling household expenses or investing to secure her child’s future or tax planning.

With some smart tips and organised financial planning, you can empower the investor within you.

Donning a student’s role

As a student, your pocket monies were solely dedicated to make theatre / café / shopping mall owners richer. It is, now, time for making yourself rich.

Some mantras for you:

• Invest in a disciplined manner.
• Dabbling in equities is a good option, given your young age and risk appetite, but don’t do so with a view of making quick bucks.
• Begin investing in mutual funds instead of direct equity; they are a safer way to put away your earnings.
• If you have the expertise, time to manage an equity stock portfolio and the stomach to see your money deep in the red, then you can open a demat and handle your investment portfolio.
• You can also build a part of your savings into liquid avenues to buy the costlier items you want to own.

Donning a homemaker’s role

Women are known for salting away a portion of the money given to them. They use this spare money for building assets such as jewellery or putting them into chit funds and reaping returns. They are organised and planned, and hence they often have the task of expending on daily necessities of the house.

Some mantras for you:

• Save a part of the amount given to you and budget your expenses within the rest of the amount.
• Ascertain a percentage (not less than 15 per cent) and invest it as per your risk appetite.
• Put part of your investments into equities – avail a systematic investment plan into diversified equity funds, this will create a sense of discipline and reap grand returns.
• Invest in gold. Often gold vendors conduct chit funds. At the end of the stipulated term, one can buy jewellery worth the maturity amount.
• Look at a systematic investment and build a corpus via gold mining funds for a long-term goal.
• Get a child plan which will ensure that your child’s education needs are taken care of.
• Invest in a retirement plan which will contribute to your post-retirement years

More and more women are walking up the corporate ladder. And, in the years to come, we will see more women scaling great heights. However, it is important for a woman entrepreneur to build up some capital for a rainy day.

Some mantras for you:

• Plan for your retirement since you will not get the retrial benefits that employment provides.
• Use the lumpsum amounts and convert part of it to provide you a regular income stream.
• Optimise on taxes. Use your exemptions, tax – free perquisites, deductions appropriately.
• Chalk out your financial goals, and align all your investments inline with your goals.
• Diversify across avenues. Have a little bit into equities as well depending on your age and risk / return profile.
• If you plan to build a house, avail a home loan, this can help reduce your tax liability. Also, go for those liabilities that you will be able to service even in a downturn.
• Avail a health cover – this will provide tax break under Section 80D (maximum Rs 15,000 per annum).
• Hedge your life risk – evaluate your ‘Human life value’ and avail a life cover (deductible under Section 80C which has an overall limit of Rs 1 lakh).