Financial Literacy is a significant problem that is common among the Indians and, more specifically, women. Women of India faces many challenges in terms of personal finance. Lack of financial education is the main culprit. Along with it, the gender pay gap, career breaks, and longer life expectancy is a significant challenge that women have to face as compared to men.
“A woman’s best protection is a little money of her own.” – Clare Booth Luce, American Author and US Ambassador.
Millennial and GenZs females are entering into the workforce in huge numbers, but are they taking their money decisions independently. Mostly not. Financial Illiteracy is the root cause of all the money problems. According to the Standard & Poor’s rating Services Global Financial Literacy Survey 2015, 80% of Indian women are financially illiterate. This shows that the lady of the house has never realized that she needs to save more than the males. Why?
Here are the three solid reasons why she needs to take a wake up call and save more for the future.
1. Women live longer than men
The average life expectancy of women is more than men. As per the Niti Aayog website, from 2010-2014, the life expectancy age of males and females are 66.4 and 69.6, respectively. The data indicate that women will require more money to sustain their lifestyle after retirement. Hence, she needs to save extra for more three years of expenses.
2. Women are paid less than their male Counterpart
The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report 2018 reveals that gender parity is so vast that it can’t be attained in 99.5 years. And India is placed in the worst position; it ranks 112 among the 153 countries. According to the Monster Salary Index Report 2019, females in India earn 19% less than their male counterparts. Hence, women need to put aside the more percentage of their salary portion as compared with men to accumulate the same corpus.
3. Career Breaks
It’s the lady of the house who takes career breaks for the pregnancy, child’s wellbeing, sick parents, or any other significant happenings.
Because of this, women lose the major chunk of money if they would have been working. Hence, to make up for the income and to maintain the same lifestyle, she has to allocate more savings for her future goals.
Conclusion:
It’s a wakeup call that women realize the importance of financial planning. Shying away is not a solution. Taking charge of the major financial decisions like investments, insurance, tax planning etc. is the only solution. Economic empowerment enables women to create a better world for themselves and their families.
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