Monetarily in-cent-sitive

HYDERABAD: Pari Sengar has been financially independent for 5 years, but is yet to make an independent decision about the money she makes, choosing instead to depend on her father for her investment planning. Her participation towards her financial planning is limited to transferring the money she saves, to her father’s account. She trusts her father implicitly with her money.“He managed our family with the small amount he earned, saving and investing all the while. He knows what he is doing,” she says.
Sengar is among the “believer” women who continue to depend on the men in their family to make investment decisions about their money. They still limit themselves to managing the day-to-day household expenditure and paying the bills, choosing to leave the major financial decisions to the men in the family. Some do so despite earning more than their spouses, preferring to stick to the tried-and-true, rather than take that next step forward to being in charge of their own money. “Women get too busy to balance their lives when working. The responsibilities of home, family and children dominate, and they tend to leave the financial side of things to the husband,” said Dr Nageshwar Rao, psychiatrist at Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Hyderabad.
Although more women are independent today, they do not control their own money. “No matter how independent women become, they always identify themselves first as ‘daughters’, then ‘wives’ and then ‘mothers;’ leaving their individual identity for last, ” said Aditi Priya, a counselor. This also emerges in the way, they use their money towards the immediate needs of the family first. “Women generally put what they want last,” says Priya.
For some women, the idea of the socalled weaker sex is reinforced by the men in the family, who insist they should handle all financial planning. “Women are generally bad with numbers and unaware of investment options. I prefer that my wife deals with the monthly budget and I deal with our investments,” said Sanjay Veeravali, an IT professional, whose wife works with him in the same firm. This does not bode well for some women who want to learn to do things themselves.
“I tried making an investment but incurred losses. After this, my father took over and insisted I leave it to him,” said Deepti Mandava, an IT professional who says she would like to learn to make investments herself, but just does not have the confidence or know-how to do so.
However, one thing psychologists note, is that women are generally cautious, and tend to avoid risk while making their investments. This is because women feel their money belongs to the family as a whole and not just to them, says Priya. “They do not want to play with the ‘family money’,” she adds. This certainly was handy for Sreenidhi Raju, whose husband had an accident two years ago and lost his right arm. Sreenidhi’s savings at the time were a godsend to the family, especially when the firm her husband worked in, asked him to leave his job. You never know what may happen in life, so it’s better to be prepared. If I would have invested my money, I could have made a mistake as I am not well aware of the investment plans. Since my husband invested my savings well, it could be used for the family,” said Shreenidhi.
While allowing and preferring to let the men do their investment planning, some women are choosing to be more aware. “Though my husband takes all the decisions for my savings, I still want to know where my savings are being invested.” said Archana Maitri, an interior designer. She feels this allows her to understand the process better.