I started my blog-site Womoneya.com in December 2015 and the first article I wrote was on December 8, 2015, appealing to women to take charge of their finances.

https://womoneya.com/2015/12/08/take-charge-of-it/.

Over the years, I have done so many training programs and talks (offline and online) both to Financial Advisors and investors about investments and Finance. And every session I end with telling the audience that Finance and Investment needs to be discussed with the family. It cannot be a single family member’s journey, every decision impacts the whole family, so include them. Spouses, especially wives need to take interest in the financial decisions. I was once invited to speak to retired women scientists about Personal finance and investments and they all came to me after the session and said, wish they were told this earlier.

And now after 5 long years, slowly but surely I see a change. I have women calling me and asking me about the various investment opportunities that are available, about loan possibilities, insurance coverage, nominations, will etc. Also there were some recent articles that said that there has been an increase in women buying real estate. A young girl I know called me to say that she wants to save and invest for her wedding, as she didn’t want her parents to take the burden! This is so heart-warming. Now this is the change in women that gives me hope and pushes me to do more. Confident, knows her mind, and importantly implements it.

All this can happen only if the family is involved in the financial discussions. Parents feel that they shouldn’t discuss money matters with children as they won’t understand it. Some don’t discuss it maybe because they don’t want to expose their situation to the kids, thereby leading to parents stretching themselves to meet all the demands of the kids who are blissfully unaware of the money situation.

Infact I feel an open discussion at a young age between parents and children about finances is healthy. It’s a life skill that parents need to teach their kids and also helps in building a happy financial relationship amongst siblings and also with parents. More on this in another article perhaps.

Women are now slowly getting the confidence, finally willing to ask questions, taking the efforts to understand finances and investment. And more importantly taking investment decisions on their own. So here are some quick tips for all those women who still need some push to take investment decisions on their own.

  1. Understand your requirements, list down your goals, quantify them
  2. Understand the timelines required for achieving these goals
  3. Understand your risk profile, be truthful to yourself, each one of us is different
  4. Choose your investment products based on your goal, timeline and risk profile

Most importantly, don’t hesitate to clarify your doubts, no question is silly when it comes to your money and finances. Men don’t have it all figured, they also learn along the journey. Invest only after all your questions have been answered. Finally, have faith in the process, be consistent with your investment.