Mumbai-based Miral Gosalia, 29, who works as a programme manager at Cuddles Foundation, 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 has pushed the number of single women in a paternalistic country like India.
Mint recently reported that according to census data, between 2001 and 2011, there was a 39% increase in the number of single women, and the 74.1 million single women in India—never married, divorced, separated, or widowed—comprise nearly 12% of the female population in our country.
The goals of these single women don’t fit in the usual financial planning structure. In the traditional financial planning structure, you can easily identify goals based on life stages. For instance, generally you have goals such as own wedding, kids’education, buying a house and a car and retirement planning. Since the life stages are now getting delayed, the structure of financial goals have also changed especially for single, unmarried, financially independent women. Their goals and needs are very different than what it was for women 10 years ago and so are their financial plans.
