In the midst of the pandemic in 2020 as chaos reigned supreme, Shabani Hasanwala (Chief Editor, Nirantar Trust) wanted to start off with a goal-based investment plan for her child’s higher studies. Interestingly, she did this as soon as she had applied for an adoption. Her child would not arrive until two years later!
Shabani’s little girl Inayat is turning one this month, and Shabani’s disciplined investments are making sure that Inayat’s future will be bright. More importantly, Shabani is watching her financial ratios closely and investing aggressively for her retirement. She is well on track to retiring with a sizable corpus in 22 years.
Such foresight and meticulous planning, showcasing single mothers as investment leaders is not an isolated case. As a society, India is going through a transformation in the way women look at investing. This perhaps is being led by instances of women taking on more responsibility because of the fact that they are single mothers.
The trend of single mothers decisively taking charge of their personal finances and making sure that their futures are not compromised is picking up pace dramatically, and will continue doing so.
While the traditional viewpoint is that men are better equipped to make investing decisions, our experience has been the opposite. This is not surprising – after all, one of the key driving forces towards successful investing is a sense of responsibility or purpose.
While men tend to be more prone to chasing returns aggressively, women tend to be more grounded and rational when it comes to their intent and purpose. Women tend to invest keeping their future goals in mind, and hence their investments tend to be a lot more aligned to factors like their investment time horizon and liquidity constraints.
Men, by nature, are more speculative whereas women tend to be more strategic with their investments and invest keeping the larger picture in mind. This probably is the reason why a majority of women turn out to be better investors than men.
Many women today are unable to drive investing decisions because traditionally it became a norm for fathers and husbands to manage investments. This was probably because the role of earning primarily rested with men. This is now changing rapidly. One of the things that is driving rapid growth in the country is the steady addition of women to the workforce. This sense of empowerment through career building has led to a steady increase and involvement of women as investment leaders.
After all, who is a leader? Someone with a clear vision and a path to realising it. Also, someone who knows the importance of being decisive, strategic, and taking measured risks – not someone who is ad hoc, short sighted and scattered. A leader is a person of action, with complete clarity on the end result they are trying to achieve. An investment leader is no different – she is one who helms the family’s financial plan, sets clear goals, and leads the way through disciplined efforts.
More and more, we are witnessing single women take up the role of investment leader. They are making efforts to break out of their traditional ‘risk averse’ mould, define milestones and targets for themselves and their families, and follow through with their investment plans to completion.
Dedicated to supporting and guiding women in their journey to become investment leaders, today most of the investment platforms focus on creating a transparent and dependable investment platform. These platforms are designed to assist women in planning their investments strategically, making informed decisions, and reaching their financial objectives. The team of investing experts also extends their role as financial educators, placing emphasis on education and trust rather than sales. Notably, with over 75% of the investing experts being women, there is an active promotion of gender diversity within the financial sector.
Today, women are far more independent than ever before, they are willing to break barriers, and living their life as a single mother is one of the choices they are making. With financial stability being one of the most important pillars for independence, it is but natural that the same is reflected in investing.
-The author is CEO, FinEdge. Views expressed are personal.
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