Today Indian metros are seeing an increasing number of women opting to stay single. In their priorities and approach, they often differ from couples.
We spoke to a few advisors to understand how they have helped single women achieve financial goals.
Vinod Jain, Jain Investments, Mumbai
In 2004, I met a client at a tennis court. After he got to know I was a CA, he approached me to file his income tax returns. We met a couple of times post our encounter to work on his filings.
He gradually started taking financial advice from me. Unfortunately soon thereafter, I got to know he had passed away from a heart attack leaving behind his wife and daughter. Besides dealing with this loss, she also had to bear responsibility of being a provider for the family.
Since she had never invested before on her own and did not know much about investments, I took charge of the situation. We first discussed about her cash flow requirement and gradually moved to key financial goals.
She was left with Rs.60 lakh from savings and insurance claim of deceased husband. Given that her risk appetite was very low, I advised her to invest bulk of the amount in debt funds and rest in equity funds. However, over time, her understanding of financial markets increased and so did her confidence.
In fact, she asked me to increase her investment in equity to meet long-term goals like her daughter’s education and marriage.
It has been 17 years since she first invested in mutual funds and her corpus today is over Rs.2 crore after meeting all her short and long-term goals. She is now able to withdraw Rs. 60,000 on a monthly basis for her living expenses.
Sujata Kabraji, Mumbai
Many of the single women clients I meet have not had any experience in handling finance. Hence, my first priority is understand their fears and work on the areas they are unsure of, to boost their confidence. It's a layered process, that helps them understand that investing can be simple and can go beyond Fixed deposits and gold.
Eight years ago, I met a lovely, working single woman who inherited a sum of money - it was around Rs 25 lacs. We worked together to find ways to both reduce her spending AND to find ways to increase her income by linking her performance bonus to her contribution to her company's coffers. She had some dead assets which she sold and with a combination of hard work and mindful savings, she has met every goal till date. Each time, this has added to her confidence. All her future goals are also well on track.
From being ultra conservative investor,she has become a prudent one, so much more confident of achieving all that she sets out to do in life. All it took was a little bit of hand-holding to get her started!
