Staying financially fit and secure: Money mantras for single women
MUMBAI: Miral Gosalia, 29, who works as a programme manager at Cuddles Foundation in Mumbai, is one of the many single women in the country who are financially independent and manage their own money and life. Education, awareness and the desire to be independent have led to a rise in the number of single women in India. Their goals and needs are very different from what it was for women 10 years ago.
FEWER GOALS
Most of the financial planners say that unmarried independent women find it difficult to zero-in on a goal. “Surprisingly, the ones whom I met had not thought about any goal as such. They have good cash flows that take care of their immediate needs,” said Ashwini Bidwalkar, a Mumbaibased financial planner. She recommends that they should have definitive goals.
Tanya Sachan, 25, who works as health, safety and environment manager at Travel Food Services Pvt Ltd, said, “I want to buy a house. My parents will do the down payment for it while I will pay the EMIs (equated monthly instalment) from my salary. I also want to travel. So I will save for my travel expenses too.” She has started setting aside ₹5,000-10,000 for her year-end trip to one of the Southeast Asian nations.
Gosalia, on the other hand, is investing for her higher education expenses and her holiday plans.
“I want to self-fund my higher education, have enough money for my vacation with friends and save enough so that I can take a break whenever I want,” she said.
“Having life objectives is important. Bifurcate these life objectives into two buckets— one where finances are involved and other where finances are not involved. Have everything on paper,” said Vivek Damani, a Mumbaibased financial planner. WORK FOR YOUR GOAL Financial planners suggest building safety nets to protect yourself from unforeseen situations. For instance, a medical emergency can turn out to be a major expense. So you need to have a medical cover. You also need to have sufficient amount for your expenses in case of a job loss or any other reasons due to which you would not have an income coming in.
“Since single women don’t have financial support from a husband or parents, she needs to have an emergency fund that is enough to take her through at least 9 to 12 months of expenses,” said Bidwalkar.
Once these two things are taken care of, you can then start building your investments. “Investment for longterm goals like old-age security should have higher equity allocation; medium-term goals like buying a house should ideally have about equal equity and debt allocation; and short-term goals like travel plans should have lower or no equity allocation,” said Damani.
THINGS TO REMEMBER
It is okay to not have a goal. But that does not mean that you do not save at all. If you are not sure about how to plan your finances, you can take help from financial planners. Start investing early, spend less, save more and you will be more financially secure.