A survey conducted by Scripbox with women to understand their investment quotient reveals that 44% of respondents are willing to accept additional help in financial planning.
A top finding was that only 28% of the women respondents are confident in their approach to financial planning and meeting their life goals. About 15% preferred leaving financial planning matters in the hands of one of their family members.
Further, the survey shows that women are active savers but prefer to put their savings in fixed income products such as fixed deposits, recurring deposits, PPF or just letting it lie in their savings accounts. 35% of the women respondents said that they save between 10-30% of their monthly income after expenses. However, an impressive 10% save more than 50% while nearly 25% are able to save nearly 10% of their income.
Meanwhile for a large section of women, having easy access to their money was most important. Nearly 44% said that this aspect is critical to them when they save or invest their hard-earned money.
“Saving and investing are two sides of the same coin and are used interchangeably. However, there’s a big difference in what each delivers. Savings is money set aside for emergencies which offer minimal or no rate of return. Investments, on the other hand, are a systematic approach to wealth creation,” said Ashok Kumar E R, CEO at Scripbox.
15% of the women respondents said they picked mutual funds to invest when they have excess income. Talking to millennial women revealed that three-fourths of this category overwhelmingly favours saving. Setting aside money for vacations emerged as the goal for one in six millennials.
In contrast, half of non-millennials pursue investment goals such as building up a retirement corpus or setting aside funds for their children’s education. For most women creating an emergency fund was a priority, followed by setting aside money for their children’s education and building a retirement corpus. Nearly 25% of respondents admitted to not having a financial goal in mind.
These findings clearly underline that having a financial advisor would be highly beneficial, as he/she would help in setting a financial goal, setting up a diverse portfolio for several life goals and explore investment options beyond FD, PPF.
The Scripbox survey was carried out in the first two weeks of October 2019 and 400 women participated in the survey. Of these, 54% were millennials, 56% were non-millennials.
