As a middle-class run of the mill girl, I was never interested in the investments and returns. I knew my dad was handling the finances. I hardly had any interest. Not that I was profligate, but I never bothered to increase the value of money. Not until I joined a bank. In the first year of my job, I had to invest 1.5 lacs in tax saving instruments. That was the time I started looking into the nitty-gritty of investments. Deductions on Section 80C, 80CCC and 80CCD, previously all weird numbers, now made sense. Also, I could relate to Mutual Funds only by the motor-mouthed voice reading aloud the statutory warning on the Television advertisement.
On asking a friend about Equity Linked Saving Scheme, and revealing my naivety at such things, he suggested I read ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’, by Robert Kiyosaki. I recently read that book. I came to know about a different side of investing and how we can make money work for us. I do not want to sound pedantic, but managing your own financials means empowerment, the freedom that only you can gift yourself. Keeping money in a savings account or Fixed Deposit is the most basic form of investments. You can earn much higher returns if you take time to educate yourself in this field.
All this might not be true for many, but a large part of the female populace still depend on their male counterparts to manage the money. It depends on us how we shape ourselves, our future.
India had issued its annual Economic Survey with a pink cover, signalling action for women’s empowerment. But, this is yet to be achieved. India has actually slipped a few notches on several parameters on the annual World Economic Forum’s World Gender Gap Report 2018. On New Year’s day, millions of women stood in solidarity across the length of the southern state of Kerala in peaceful protest against the outbursts against women attempting to enter Sabarimala Temple. In a country, where some women are fighting for fundamental rights, even for being born, the alive, educated, employed ladies have a few things less to worry about. We, the better off section can hence take up the baton for becoming empowered in finance. Every small empowerment counts and adds to the bigger picture of gender parity.
To end in the tweet of R. Kiyosaki, You’ll never get there if you never start. Knowledge has value only if you apply it.